60's TEISCO  SS-4L Solid Body Model, Sunburst, 4 Gold Foil pickups, new Vibrola, Made in Japan, hard case with hingebroken code VA106

Rare 1964 Teisco SS-4L. The SS4L was Teisco's top guitar model from 1960-64 and saw a few different versions. The second version changed from 4 single coil pickups to gold foils, made infamous by Ry Cooder. Extremely versatile 25" scale solidbody with a huge tonal range across the 4 high output single coil pickups each with its own switch along with volume, tone & bass cut. Made in Japan. This guitar features 4 pickups: each has its own on/off rocker switch which can be used in any combination. Universal volume and tone controls. Plus, there's a rhythm/solo switch for even more tonal variations!Neck is straight and guitar feels and plays great! There are a few scuffed up areas that can be shown in the pictures. There are also some various nicks, dings, scratches, paint chips etc. commensurate with age, used but not abused. Electronics and all switches are tested and working 100% as expected.

This is the first guitar Eddie Van Halen bought. He figured the more pickups the better!

Teisco was one of the biggest Japanese factories making guitars in the "boom time" in Japan, but was one of the older, and original of the big names having been started slightly later than Guyatone (Tokyo Sound Co) but both factories were located in the same neighbourhood of Tokyo.  Building electric guitars from the early 50's, their early solid bodies were, crude in design and build and were loosely based on Gibson designs, but by the end of the 50's they were making medium quality solid bodies that were starting to be exported, mainly to the US. At this stage both Guyatone and Teisco bodies were made in the same factory but by the early 60's they moved production to the Fugijen factory for higher volume production. There were issues with some quality control and several key players in the market set up the Teisco Gen Gakki factory to make all timber products for Teisco (which would get ... confusing later) and by the early 60's solid body production was in full swing. These early solid bodies were of better quality and started to follow more "Fender" shapes with guitars like the T-60 (well before Peavey) that was famous for being used to great effect by Glen Campbell. The SD followed with a slightly more conventional "offset" shape which led into the WG series. 

In 1964 Teisco were producing lots of guitars in lots of shapes and the WG series started selling, and exporting really well. They were available in 2, 3 and 4 pickup versions. Very early versions still had the "hooked fender" style headstock which then moved quickly to this squared off 6 a side headstock with later ones having the classic 4/2 Teisco headstock that we know and love. These very early versions also had the currect Teisco single coil pickups which were plastic covers with rounded ends. Early versions also had a plain aluminium scratchplate, which changed to the classic stripped metal plates in around '65 with the 4/2 headstock. The WG was the model shape number, the 4 was the number of pickups and the L designates the vibrato, which in this case is the earlier "platform" style vibrato used across the line for the 4 pickup versions.

They generally need a fairly good set up and shimming the neck always helps. The (very) small frets and large round necks sometimes turn people off immediately but if you persist, they actually become very comfortable, very quickly. The vibratos work well and the bridge on these "upper" models is actually very effective. But the thing about these is ..... those pickups. These Teisco pickups are amazing and the options with switching on these gives you SO many amazing tones. ON/OFF switches for each pickup with a "tone choke" mini switch along with master volume and tone controls can make this sound like a thin Tele to a huge Les Paul. The option of all 4 pickups on is actually amazing for jazz style clean playing and many great guitarists have utilised these pickups (and guitars) to great effect.