Tuesday, 2 April 2013

1960s Teisco electric banjitar which allegedly sounds better than a Strat

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's an oddity from 1960s Japan that I find curiously appealing for some reason that I cannot fathom. It's a Teisco electric banjitar. That's right, a solidbody electric 6-string banjo. With a whammy bar!

Actually, my guess is that the only thing "banjo" about it is the shape. Surely, without a resonating head on the body it couldn't possibly sound like a banjo, even if the body is chambered and the instrument has really bad sustain. To confuse matters even more, the seller claims that it "...has a better Stratocaster sound than either one of my two Strats."

Currently listed on eBay with the quite astonishing price of $1,799. Yeah, I appreciate it might be a rare model in excellent condition but I can't see it selling at that price somehow.

G L Wilson

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6 comments:

  1. Marshall_Will2:33 pm

    has a better Stratocaster sound than either one of my two Strats."

    Why, does he own two Stratobanjos? Without having heard it I'd say it's primary value lies in its comedic value ala Smothers Brothers or similar corn pone act. Visual prop/conversation piece.

    As always, hats off to the Japanese for excellent workmanship, the inlays look fantastic!

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  2. Marshall_Will6:57 pm

    OT but kind of interesting:

    http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/msg/3662187153.html

    1960's sears/macaferi wing ding guitar and amp

    All the plastical you can handle..! Also a new episode of "Pawn Stars" had a seller trying to pawn off an [admittedly] older and really cool Masco amp as being Hank Williams Sr's. Starting asking price ( $450K USD ) Their local expert appraiser made the same initial observation any of us would have, Wasn't Hank Sr. known primarily as an -acoustic- guitar player..? Without concrete doc's, they offered him $200 bucks.

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  3. Rotter12:46 am

    There's usually a couple of reasons a guitar (or banjo) this old is in excellent condition: It plays like crap and sounds like 2 alley cats going at it!

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  4. Anonymous3:08 pm

    Pretty much any off-brand guitar on eBay is either "the best I've ever played" or "better than *insert popular American guitar here*". Plus I just don't trust people who put multicoloured strings on their guitars...

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  5. g downs7:52 pm

    I ran across one of these in a pawn shop 15-20 years ago. I thought it was a really cool little guitar. I wanted it, but didn't have the $ (probably in the $60-100 range). Pawn shops used to be really good for finding bizarre guitars like this. Not anymore. Sad.

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  6. Antony10:32 pm

    He doesn't say what make of Strats he's comparing it to haha probably an encore!.

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