1960s Silvertone-branded Teisco ET-460 Electric Guitar

I was totally smitten with a metallic blue ET-230 last year, but as you'd expect for "twice the guitar" (230+230 = 460, yeah?), this Japanese-made, Silvertone-branded, Teisco ET-460 is over-the-top and outrageous. It has four of the Jaguar-ish-sounding pickups that I liked on the ET-230 and a sunburst finish that shows off the mahogany (or mahogany-like-wood) body nicely.

The pickups each have individual on/off switches and there's a master solo/rhythm switch, too. If you look at the pickup arrangement, they're split into 2x2 sections. If you engage the two "neck" pickups they'll operate as a parallel-wired humbucker together and the same goes for the two "bridge" pickups.

Compared to the average Teisco product, these "sharkfin" style guitars are a major upgrade. I think they're more closely-comparable in quality and tone to some pretty decent US-made guitars of the time and the Bigsby-action whammy stays in tune and feels great. The Gibson-style scale length (compared to the 23" or 24" scales which are common on Teiscos) combined with better tuners (Yamaha used the same ones on their nicer guitars) and a solid, modern neck design just makes the whole guitar feel more pro. Plus it looks like a Corvette fell in love with a guitar and had offspring.

Work included: a fret level/dress, slight re-angling of the bridge base to allow for room to compensate the saddles properly, cleaning, and a good setup. It plays spot-on with hair-over 1/16" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret. The neck is straight and has a working rod, though the rod is near its limit of adjustment and the treble side of the neck has ~1/64" of relief overall (which is bog-standard on something like an average Fender, too, but I like to be thorough). Strings are fresh 46w-10 gauges.

Scale length: 24 3/4"
Nut width: 1 5/8"

String spacing at nut: 1 11/32"
String spacing at saddle: 2 1/16"

Body length: 18 3/4"
Lower bout width: 12 1/4"
Upper bout width: 11 3/4"

Side depth: 1 3/8"

Body wood: mahogany(?)
Neck wood: 3-piece maple
Fretboard: rosewood

Neck shape: 12" radius board with slim-to-medium D-shaped profile

Bridge: adjustable saddles

Nut: zero fret with plastic spacer nut

Weight: 7 lb 10oz

Condition notes: it's clean overall but does have a few nicks/finish chip-offs here and there. It's 100% original, however, right down to every tiny screw.

It comes with: a gigbag.

Like many Japanese guitars, the tone pot works in reverse of how we think of them over here. All the way "up" is muddy-mud-mud.