# New to me - 60's electric gold foil pickups - maker Tiesco? 1 pick-up needed



## roddyjb (Nov 7, 2007)

Just picked up this retro beauty - it should be on a stage playing the blues!
The headstock says... steel reinforced neck - the back plate... Made in Japan
Check those gold foil pickups!
Anyone have a tremolo/vibrato/whammy bar for it?


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## rollingdam (May 11, 2006)

The brand name Pyramid springs to mind-I remember being 13 or 14 years old and looking at it in a shop window in the 60's.


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## The Lullaby (Dec 8, 2010)

She's a Teisco, might have been sold as a Silvertone or a Regent


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

The Lullaby said:


> She's a Teisco, might have been sold as a Silvertone or a Regent



woot! i spotted one for once! 

might be an ok guitar for slide, but otherwise that bridge is pretty impossible to intonate


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## OldGuitarPlayer (Feb 25, 2013)

I love it!!! I am so jealous. It is probably made by Tiesco like already posted however tune that baby down to open D or G and get at it with the slide! 

Listen to Hound Dog Taylor. He used an old Japanese 1960's Kawai electric for years.

[video=youtube;SHJW1PO-UEY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHJW1PO-UEY[/video]


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

The gold foils are one of the less-commonly seen pickup form-factors. Most of us are used to single coils, where the pole-pieces run from top to bottom, or to humbuckers, where slugs or screws or blades run through _each_ of two coils and are coupled underneath to a bar magnet to form a sort of big U-channel magnetic field that goes from top of one coil, down, across and back up to the top in the other coil. P-90s have slugs running through the coil, but have bars extending neckward and bridgeward from that center point

Gold foils (and some other pickups like the old Epiphone New Yorker style) are distantly related to Lace and Jaguar pickups. Like P90s, they have ONE coil, but with a top-to-bottom-oriented ceramic magnet sitting inside it. The magnet/coil sits on a steel plate, which is folded over at one edge so that it is raised up. In some instances, like the one I have sitting on my bench, or the one pictured here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOtjJRXbv_c the pickup creates the_ illusion _that it is humbucker, by having a row of adjustable screws that seem far-enough away from the middle that there's just _gotta_ be another coil under there, right? But no, it is ONLY a row of screws into the folded metal edge. That folded edge with the screws functions very much like the "comb" on Jaguar pickups, moving the end-point of the magnetic sensing area from the bottom outward and back up near the top. Unlike the Jaguar or P90, the gold-foil brings the other pole topwards on only one side, and leaves it flat on the other side of the coil.

The end result of that is a little more lower mids to the sound. The new Lollar gold-foil replicas sound pretty damn fine in that video.

One of the neat things about goil-foils is that they are such low-profile pickups, they can often be installed on guitars without having to route anything. There will often be enough clearance between the strings and surface of the body. You still have to figure out how to get the wires inside, but no big hole is needed for the pickup itself.


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## noman (Jul 24, 2006)

Sure looks like a Teisco...........


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## roddyjb (Nov 7, 2007)

I have tried to find the same one on-line under teisco, Sivertone etc, but have not been able to find the same layout no matter what name I look under.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

There were a whole bunch of company names these instruments were made under. What about Norma?

On the other hand, a lot of the whammies were useless and interfered with intonation, so I imagine a lot of folks removed the arm because they weren't using it. And then when they went to sell it, the arm didn't follow.

I have a mid-1960's Epi Coronet that my cousin gave me. It came with a Gibson Vibrola, but no arm. Years later, I'm in Nashville, at Gruhn's and there is a whole cluster of Coronets, Olympics, Crestwoods, Wilshires, most with the same Vibrola, but none with the arm. So I ask the sales guy on the floor "Do you keep the arms in back so nobody swipes them?" He replies "Nah, they all came into the store like that."

I posted a thread abut a Japanese guitar I bought back in November. http://www.guitarscanada.com/showthread.php?52932-Nogd Came the same way: arm-less. If this boy wants to whammy, he's gonna have to machine something.


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## roddyjb (Nov 7, 2007)

Could be I guess, but not that I can find?


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## Frank Fargon (Apr 11, 2013)

looks like a Teisco to me..Silvertone..Yay!!


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## roddyjb (Nov 7, 2007)

I CAN'T FIND ANY IMAGES OF A SILVERTONE THE SAME IF THAT IS WHAT IT IS.
I WOULD LIKE TO FIND THE SAME GUITAR SO i KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR TO REPLACE THE TREMOLO/WHAAMMY BAR
ROD


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Not sure but I think this type of arm could be what you're looking for. It's on a 
[h=3]1966 Teisco Demian Baritone VN-4[/h]


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

My first electric was a Kent Videocaster that is strikingly similar to the Demian, although it is not a baritone. Same 4 pickups, same sort of electronics with the thumbwheels, but with slide rather than rocker switches.


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## roddyjb (Nov 7, 2007)

That looks like the same type of bridge so that should be the right type of arm, now to find one.
I still want to work out the make though, have looked at many images/name and still not coming up with it.


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## roddyjb (Nov 7, 2007)

My son now wants to play it. I need to replace one of the pick-ups - I'd like to find the same. Any ideas? Thanks...


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## elindso (Aug 29, 2006)

Kent was another. Harmony used those pickups also. They sound great.


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## roddyjb (Nov 7, 2007)

Starting to look again for one of these pick-ups, my 15 year old is interested in playing it...


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Could also be a Guyatone or a Kent, I found 2 but you won't like the prices...
Teisco Tremolo : For Sale Online


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Have you tried threading any screws into the tremolo to determne the thread size? Most likely will be 5 or 6 mm but it may not be. You may just get away with a normal trem arm if the thread works. This list should keep you busy

VINTAGE 1965 TEISCO GUITAR TREMOLO TAILPIECE BRIDGE COMPLETE w ARM & COVER MIJ | eBay

Vintage Tremolo Arm for Japan Guitar 1960s | eBay

VINTAGE 1964 BRUNO MAXITONE GUITAR TREMOLO ARM LONG JAPAN MIJ RARE 1965 1966 | eBay

VINTAGE TEISCO GUITAR TREMOLO ARM - METAL TIP WHAMMY - JAPAN MIJ - RARE | eBay

VINTAGE 1960'S TEISCO GUITAR LONG PRESS FIT TREMOLO ARM MIJ - JAPAN - RARE | eBay


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

Isn't it likely that both pickups are identical? Put the good one at the neck, disregard the rest of the circuit and start jammin'.

I have three on a pick-guard, all identical. I'd rather have three guitars with one pickup. I use the neck only, but always seem to waste time trying the other two, as well. Lol.

My pickups are not waxed so they are very microphonic, but that only adds to the overall liveliness and clarity IMO.

Have fun!


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## roddyjb (Nov 7, 2007)

Wow! That much for just an arm?  How much will the leg be? 
Dictionary:
Leg = matching Gold Foil Pick-up


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

I bent a 5/16ths steel rod and welded on a bolt. Worked fine on an expensive guitar until I found the original. 

If you find a bolt that works, as @knight_yyz suggested, go to your welding buddy. 

Or carry it around to check threads in other arms. If the threads nestle together perfectly -- bingo.


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

mhammer said:


> One of the neat things about goil-foils is that they are such low-profile pickups, they can often be installed on guitars without having to route anything. There will often be enough clearance between the strings and surface of the body. You still have to figure out how to get the wires inside, but no big hole is needed for the pickup itself.


Do you think one of these might work on a dobro? Or sound good?


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

Doug Gifford said:


> Do you think one of these might work on a dobro? Or sound good?


Yes that should sound good.

Nathan


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

roddyjb said:


> Starting to look again for one of these pick-ups, my 15 year old is interested in playing it...


Have you looked into getting it rewound?
Mcnelley pickups or mjs pickups could rewind that for you.
It’s probably way cheaper than buying one from eBay - generally they were pretty simple pickups.

Nathan


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

nnieman said:


> Yes that should sound good.
> 
> Nathan


I'd need to change to electric strings…


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

GOLD FOIL PICKUP FOR TEISCO HARMONY KAY SILVERTONE DEARMOND BRIDGE POSITION | eBay

GOLD FOIL PICKUP FOR TEISCO HARMONY KAY SILVERTONE DEARMOND NECK POSITION | eBay


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Lots of things get called "gold foil". Be careful about the particulars.


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

Doug Gifford said:


> I'd need to change to electric strings…


Yes that’s true.

The gold fools tend to be microphonic.
That could cause some feedback issues... but unless you are playing st high volumes it’s prob fine.

Nathan


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

nnieman said:


> Yes that’s true.
> 
> The gold fools tend to be microphonic.
> That could cause some feedback issues... but unless you are playing st high volumes it’s prob fine.
> ...


That's okay, I have a tele for those situations.


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## Buzz (May 15, 2008)

I have a Pyramid guitar with the same pickups, they have foam on the bottom, no pickup routing in the guitar body, nice!


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

Found this on YouTube:


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