Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Bringing your older offset back to life.
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will
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Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by will » Sun Dec 12, 2021 8:40 am

I figured I'd start a thread for a few odd offsets I've been fixing up - to share how I've been fixing the guitars, and keep myself motivated.

1. Walnut Weirdo
First up, an odd homemade offset with a walnut body and neck. I picked this one up on eBay for $75 when I was looking for some Carvin parts, and this one looked like it bought a fingerboard/bridge/tailpiece from the Carvin catalog. After it arrived in the mail and I removed the Carvin goodies, I didn't want to let all that walnut go to waste, so my plan is to add a new fingerboard, a bit of walnut to the end of the neck, and some lap steel pickups. It looks like it was played, but never really finished - it never received strap buttons, and there are still notes penciled on the body from whoever built it. It has quite a few odd details - like a dovetail joint on the neck that runs perpendicular to the regular direction, and no truss rod at all.

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2. Stiles Offset
Whenever a "Stiles" guitar popped up for sale, I would admire their quirkiness but never actually bought one - I like the look of the guitars, the interesting pickups, and sometimes homemade hardware, but I was turned off by the multi-piece fretboards that were usually falling apart, and that they never seemed to have a truss rod. I spotted this one on eBay too, and though it is an offset model I'd never seen before, the Stiles pickups and holes from a Bigsby gave it away as not being a "Vintage Electric Guitar Project Relic Japan ?" as the listing said. Plus - it had a truss rod. When it arrived, I found that the neck would need a lot of work. ...it has a truss rod, but I don't think it was ever actually functional. The channel for the rod is perfectly straight, and the rod wasn't anchored at either end, so if someone would try to adjust it, it would just spin.

I tried to repair the finish (it was flaking off in large sharp shards) - I'd been saving some "finish amalgamator" for when a guitar like this showed up. Unfortunately, although it did work pretty well to melt the finish back together, the metallic paint got ugly - it didn't like getting melted at all.

I'll be giving this one a green sunburst that better shows off the mahogany and flamed maple used to make this guitar.

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3. Teisco T-60 "Mello-Tone"
I've been a Teisco fan since I found a TG-64 at a flea market for $60 in the 90's, and I've had my eyes peeled looking for a T-60. ...but I think the last one I saw for sale was maybe 15-20 years ago. The T-60 was made in small numbers and not imported as aggressively as their later guitars, so I was psyched when this "Mello-Tone" branded one turned up on eBay, even though the condition appeared to be of a guitar that was stored in a damp dungeon.

...maybe this thread should have been named "I bought the 3 guitars with the worst necks on eBay?"

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When it finally turned up in the mail, I was actually pleasantly surprised - only one of the fallen-off pieces of the headstock had worm damage. (I was worried that it would be devoured like Pat's Telecaster !) Oddly, the pickguard is a heavy piece of chromed steel instead of aluminum. Somewhere over the years the Tele-like original bridge had been replaced by a Vox trem. ...inset into the body, with the hold-down rollers acting as the bridge. Oof. I'm going to make a new bridge that is a bit oversized, to cover up the damage.

Continuing the theme, there are some non-adjustable truss rods in there:
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Early Teisco solidbodies have a very labor-intensive way to save some money on rosewood - they are a very thin veneer over the usual mahogany-like wood used in the rest of the neck. This one also had a strip of rosewood on each side, since it didn't have plastic edge binding. I'll be replacing the fingerboard with something a bit more durable.
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Oof.
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Soldered a separated pin back onto the badge
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Two of the three pickups were dead, but I picked up a pickup winder (finally) to get them working again. Luckily, only one screw broke off during disassembly, and I was able to get it out without making things worse.
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will
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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by will » Sun Dec 12, 2021 8:50 am

...trying to do some internet sleuthing to make sure that the Stiles actually had a Bigsby:
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Also, trying to make a design for the headstock decal (though I'm not sure if it ever actually had one.
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ludobag1
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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by ludobag1 » Sun Dec 12, 2021 9:16 am

really love the stiles

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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by jthomas » Sun Dec 12, 2021 9:25 am

I love these rescue threads. Keep it comin'.

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MattK
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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by MattK » Sun Dec 12, 2021 4:08 pm

Wow this is next-level! That Teisco neck is like piecing together one of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

I have a Teisco NB-4 on which someone put screws through the fingerboard, so I will be trying to replicate the neck veneering ...

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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by mgeek » Sun Dec 12, 2021 5:01 pm

Shame that Stiles finish couldn't be saved...looks brilliant!
Last edited by mgeek on Mon Dec 13, 2021 2:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by mackerelmint » Sun Dec 12, 2021 6:25 pm

Oh, awesome! :w00t:

This should be a real fun thread to follow.
This is an excellent rectangle

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will
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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by will » Mon Dec 13, 2021 8:23 am

MatthewK wrote:
Sun Dec 12, 2021 4:08 pm
Wow this is next-level! That Teisco neck is like piecing together one of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

I have a Teisco NB-4 on which someone put screws through the fingerboard, so I will be trying to replicate the neck veneering ...

Image
Ah! that looks like the same sort of fingerboard veneer - hopefully you can add in some veneer patches that run from fret to fret?

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will
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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by will » Mon Dec 13, 2021 8:25 am

mgeek wrote:
Sun Dec 12, 2021 5:01 pm
Shame that Stiles finish couldn't be saved...looks brilliant!
Solid colors or clear finishes can be blended more easily, but unfortunately, metallics can be really flaky (ha! literally!) - melting them can cause the metal flakes to be exposed, so there were a bunch of grungy grey/silver lines in the finish after using the amalgamator - plus with all of the work needed on the neck, a refinish was in order.

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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by will » Tue Dec 14, 2021 6:47 am

The T-60's pickup covers needed some work - they were dirty and the surface is oxidized. ...also one of them has some missing chunks. I'm trying to patch it up with some plastic primer and black PVC cement as filler. we'll see how it turns out.

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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by countertext » Tue Dec 14, 2021 9:06 pm

I’m really rootin’ for the Walnut Weirdo. That thing could turn out to have a lot of mojo.

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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by will » Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:57 pm

countertext wrote:
Tue Dec 14, 2021 9:06 pm
I’m really rootin’ for the Walnut Weirdo. That thing could turn out to have a lot of mojo.
yeah - too much walnut to just throw it in the trash bin!


I pulled out the rusted non-adjustable truss rods from the T-60 today - without the swelling, rusted steel, the parts fit together much more nicely.

I wonder if there is a way to remove rust stains from wood? I need to do some research there.

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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by Jaguar018 » Wed Dec 15, 2021 10:08 am

This is all so cool. :w00t:

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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by DrQuasar » Wed Dec 15, 2021 12:12 pm

Mamie Minch on guitar restoration: oxidation chemistry

I remembered this video re: rust removal. I don't know if oxalic acid would work but maybe oxidation is oxidation?

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Re: Triple Awful Offset Restoration - Teisco, Stiles, Homemade Weirdo

Post by jthomas » Wed Dec 15, 2021 12:21 pm

The wood in the neck and headstock of the (I think) T60 looks so fragile... papery almost. Do you think that it will hold standard string tension?

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