GPOTD 8.12.20

Help!I'maRock!

Help!I'maRock!

Mediocringly Derivative
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1960s Teisco TRG-1 Electric Guitar w/ Gold Foil & Built-in-Amp RESTORED


I bought this late 60’s TRG-1 a few months ago and it was in really rough shape. The neck was not only twisted but the fretboard itself did not have even thickness the whole way through. The frets were loose, the electronics weren’t working and the nut was a complete mess.

Here’s the specs as they stand now, with 10 gauge Ernie Ball strings:
ACTION: 5/64” - 4/64”
RELIEF: 0.008”
NUT: 0.020”

Here’s what I did
-Planed/refretted for a 16” radius
-New bone nut
-Cleaned electronics

The truss rod works, but the neck was so messed up it needed an overhaul. I pulled the old frets and started planing the board and quickly burned through the very thin veneer at the uneven ends of the neck but was able to keep all of the inlays SEE PHOTOS. This is a strictly cosmetic thing at the end of the day, and burning through part of the fretboard veneer was the only way I was going to get the neck to play straight. After the fretboard was planed and smoothed at a 16” radius I applied gunstock oil, then refretted it with StewMac 156 wire.
I made a new bone nut and did my best to clean up the 1st fret bass-side binding area SEE PHOTOS. The binding was separated and the finish was flaking pretty badly and instead of just sanding down the finish to the bare wood, I sealed the flaking parts and lightly hit the back of the whole neck with 0000 steel wool. It feels sooo smooth.
The original tuners work but I had to replace the bushings. The truss rod works (as I obviously needed it to in order to do the planing/Refret).
I took about 2 hours and deep cleaned the body, neck and pick guard...look at that mirror shine :)
After a thorough cleaning I got the electronics to work. There’s a single gold foil pickup that functions normally with the volume/tone knobs when the selector switch is in the UP position. The built-in amp is turned on when the selector switch is in the DOWN position and the volume/tone knobs work normally as well… If you have the guitar plugged in while the selector switch is in the DOWN position, then the sound of the built-in amp is transferred to whatever larger amplifier you are using. The amp has the normal noise and hiss you’d expect from a 2.5” import speaker made in the 60s, and that is transferred to the external amp if it’s plugged in. Admittedly, I’m not an amp tech so I was content enough to leave the amp circuits as “functioning normally”, but I’m sure if you know you’re way around basic amp schematics you could clean up the signal a little more. The volume/tone knobs turn silently.

Anyway, this thing is fun, if the built-in speaker is too noisy for recording purposes or something, it still has the classic Gold Foil pickup sound direct-in.

https://reverb.com/item/34356429-19...tric-guitar-w-gold-foil-built-in-amp-restored
 
Would have been better off without the "fixes," since it's only value was as a decoration on a Teisco collector's wall.

Definitely one of the less-appealing body shapes from Teisco, though.
 
My old guitar teacher had one of these. I can't remember if the amp even worked but the guitar/pickup had a great lo-fi quality for blues/garage rock.
 
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