In 1964 there was a huge interest in the electric guitar mostly due to The British Invasion of the popular music acts. The median US income that year was $6,000 with many adults earning much less. With that in mind understand that leisure spending was tough on a budget for most families.
To accommodate budding rockstars many parents turned to the cheaper offerings from catalog stores such as Sear, Montgomery Ward, or J.C. Penny. There were plenty of guitars offered by all of these companies.
These guitar, basses, and other instruments were imported from Japan by broker/distribution companies such as Jack Westheimer, and his Chicago company W.M.I.,or Bugeleisen and Jacobson of New York. In the U.K. Rose Morris Music did the same. Lots of these instruments were then wholesaled to one of the aforementioned retailers.
One of the Japanese manufacturers was a company which eventually became known as Teisco. This acronym loosely translates to Tokyo Electric Instrument and Sound Company. It sounded different in Japanese, but according to the company founder he simply liked the name Teisco.
The original company shipped countless low cost, low quality guitars and bass guitars worldwide, especially to the United States where most instruments were rebranded with a different ‘badge’ that the retailer chose such as Silvertone, Kent, Duke, Cameo, Encore, Hy Lo, Kimberly, Kingston, Norma, Sonatone, Zim-Gar, Kay, and Audition.
In 1967 the Kawai Musical Instrument Company purchased Teisco and its assets. Kawai discontinued the Teisco name for guitars using it only on electronic keyboards. The brand name chosen for guitars would now be known as Teisco Del Rey (Teisco the king).
At the time many Japanese manufacturers believed that Spanish sounding names seemed to promote an image of quality in their guitars.
Most of these imported budget instruments, though playable, were still of poor quality. However, Teisco did hit upon one gem. But it was expensive.
Introduced around late 1966, the Spectrum 5 was a seriously ambitious guitar that carried a whopping retail price of $375 in the 1967. That price kept this guitar out of reach of most players. Especially when a band new Fender Stratocaster retailed for $289.
The Spectrum 5 was one of the first designs built by Kawai after they bought Teisco and moved production to their plant in Hamamatsu, Japan.
The catalogs spoke of a durable finish using seven coats of lacquer and a strong, thin neck made of laminated ebony, the same wood also featured on the fretboard.
This guitar included intricate electronics for its stereo sound. There were three split pickups (six really) allowing a player to use two amplifiers. Each guitar had two jacks. The bass strings would go to one amp, while the treble strings go to another.
Aside from the single tone and volume controls, these guitars had five push switches for different sound combinations. The switches were spring loaded, so the player could only choose one at a time. Hence the name Spectrum 5.
The guitars tremolo bridge was also a brand-new endeavor, and the model’s tremolo cover is as rare and sought-after as the guitar itself. This instrument included a “Fender” inspired adjustable bridge/saddle.
This guitars solid mahogany body was thin and featured a unique shape with a sculpted German carved top. The ebony neck with odd inlays, that appear to be parachutes and was heavily lacquered. Perhaps the company was going for a Rickenbacker vibe. The literature at the time stated they used seven coats of lacquer on the guitars 22 fret neck (which included the zero fret). The binding on the neck is herringbone style with four thin parallel lines in black and white.
The unusual headstock had a 4 by 2 arrangements for the tuning keys. It is said that the slim neck. Kawai/Teisco used five pieces of ebony wood for the neck on some of these guitars, the same wood they used for the fretboard. Many of the necks were Maple with a Rosewood fretboard. It is said that these guitars had wonderful necks, and an unusually bright sound. They were well balanced guitars.
These guitars are scarce due to the original price. Kawai made perfect reissues in the early ’90s, but they’re as hard to find as the originals. They are selling in the $3,000 price range for an original 1966 model.
The good people at Silvertone World recently posted an advertisement for Teisco Guitars from a Teisco catalog on their Facebook page. The ad shows the Spectrum 5 being offered at only $159.95 with a plush case selling for $41.95. Now there was an affordable deal!
Eastwood replica guitars offered a Spectrum 5 model in the past with a different tremolo system, a border surrounding the body, and a six-on-a-side headstock.
I worked for a large financial company for 12 years. One of my bosses, Joe, was a straight button-down sort of guy. He came to work with freshly pressed shirts, a tie, khakis, and Johnson & Murphy dress shoes. He had been at the company for 20 plus years. But on the weekends Joe was a “Deadhead”.
He would take a plane to wherever the Grateful Dead or the “Dead” were playing and party returning to his job on Monday morning.
So I have to think about Joe as I remember Bob Weir, who recently succumbed to his cancer diagnosis. As a child young Robert had a troubled life. His parents gave him up for adoption.
He was raised by his adoptive parents in the stable town of Atherton, California, and took their surname "Weir" in place of his birthname "Parber".
Bob experienced difficulties in school probably due to undiagnosed dyslexia, and he was expelled from nearly every school he attended, In the early 1950’s dyslexia was unknown and not understood.
In 1963 on New Years Eve Weir and friends were wandering the streets of Palo Alto and heard banjo music coming from a local music store. Inside was a young guy named Jerry Garcia. Jerry was teaching music there. Garcia, totally oblivious to the fact it was New Years Eve, and the fact his students weren't coming in that day.
Jerry and Weir hit it off, spending the rest of the night playing music. That is where they got the idea to form a band. After going through a few name changes and recruiting members, they eventually became The Grateful Dead.
Weir played rhythm guitar and sang a large portion of the lead vocals throughout all of the Dead's 30-year career. In the late 1970s, Weir began to experiment with slide guitar techniques and perform certain songs during Dead shows using the slide.
Weir was in integral part of the band since it's inception, though he was briefly dismissed when bass player, Phil Lesh felt that he and keyboard player Pigpen (Ron) McKernan were not playing up to standard. However that did not last long.
Shortly before Garcia's death in 1995, Weir had formed another band that he called RatDog Revue, later shortened to RatDog. In this band Weir performed covers of songs by various artists, including The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, and Willie Dixon while also performing many Grateful Dead songs. The Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 following Garcia's demise.
Ratdog performed many of their own originals, most of which were released on the album Evening Moods.
Weir also played guitar and sang in the various reformations of the Grateful Dead's members, including 1998, 2000, and 2002 stints as the Other Ones and in 2003, 2004 and 2009 as The Dead.
In 2008 he performed in the two Deadheads for Obama concerts. In 2009 Bob Weir and Phil Lesh formed a new band called "Furthur". This band was named in honor of Ken Kesey's famous psychedelically painted bus.
In 2011, Weir founded the Tamalpais Research Institute, also known as TRI Studios. TRI is a high-tech recording studio and virtual music venue, used to stream live concerts over the internet in high definition.
In June 2016 Weir received the first ever Les Paul Spirit Award, from the Les Paul Foundation. In 2018, Weir formed a band called Wolf Bros. Billed as Bob Weir and the Wolf Bros, the group initially was a trio, with Weir on guitar and vocals, Don Was on upright bass, and Jay Lane on drums.
The Wolf Brothers continued for several years. In September of 2023 they performed at Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival. In 2024 appearances included a show with the String Cheese Incident, billed as "The Bob Weir Incident", and a New Year's Eve run in Fort Lauderdale.
Unfortunately by the summer of 2025, Weir was diagnosed with cancer. Despite beating the cancer, he died from underlying lung issues on January 10, 2026, at the age of 78.
Throughout Bob Weir's career he favored many different guitars. I am told that in the early days of the Grateful Dead, Weir played a 1953 Black Gretsch Duo Jet. This guitar was similar to the one that George Harrison played early on with The Beatles. I can find no images of Weir playing this guitar.
In 1974, Weir began working with Jeff Hasselberger at Ibanez to develop a custom instrument. Hasselberger is one of the men that helped Ibanez become the powerhouse it is today.
Weir began using a Modulus Blackknife at that point, and continued to play the Blackknife,in Dead concerts. Modulus Guitars is known as one of the first companies building guitar necks, and guitars our of carbon fiber.
From 2017 onwards, Weir collaborated with D'Angelico Guitars based in Manhattan, New York, to produce several signature model instruments. The Premier, a semi-hollow guitar, was released in 2017.
When the retirement home will not allow your Marshall JTM45 in your room
By William S. Rivolta "You are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly play rock and roll,
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
Well that’s how it all started and why I got stuck here in the Saint Keith Golden Years Home.
"Sonny Boy" did not want his old man to live at his house any longer. His banshee wife Doris did not help things. He said I play guitar too loud and wake up the kids. Doris said, I don't want that old man in my house. He is weird. Well I might be 83, but I still have my chops, and some degree of self worth. Plus it was my house at one time before they moved in.
So I am now sharing a double room with Fast Eddie Kaye. Eddie was once the bass player in The Flying Spaghetti Monster Blues Jam Band. Sadly in his later years he became delusional and swore that little men were living in a hollow tree in his yard, where they baked cookies, and wore strange clothing
Eventually Eddie lost his hearing (along with his marbles). His live-in girl, Shandra, left him years ago for a smarmy patchouli oil salesman. But Eddie can't remember any of this, as he is off with the faeries. Eddie does not mind loud music.
He doesn't care if I had my old Marshall JTM45 with the four twelve-speaker cabinet cranked it up to 10, but Saint Keith’s staff said "no, there is not enough room in your half of the room. And your playing bothers everyone in this place."
It is quite frustrating to say the least.
I have my ’57 Les Paul Gold top, but the “Home” won’t let me have a decent amp in my half of the room to plug it into. They say it is because I play too loud, and the amp takes up too much room, so it is a fire hazard. Can you believe that? Rock Music = Loud!
But now they have all become grannies wearing polyester pants, flowery blouses, and canvas shoes with Velcro clasps. What happened? I guess Time! And time ain't on our side Mick!
I suppose I am no prize either. I can't walk anymore, and I have hair growing in strange places. But I still play guitar, and can rock with the best of them, as long as some young fellow wheels my chair out on to the stage and plugs my guitar into my amp. Where have all the groupies gone? They got old. So did I.
How To Transport Your Gear If You Use A Walker Or a Wheelchair.
by Antonio "Big Tony" Capicola
For those of us that have to use a wheelchair or a walker, transporting your gear can present a real challenge.
If the gig pays a lot and you have a contract, in the rider, have the venue hire and pay a 'back line' company at their expense. These are companies that rent equipment, deliver it, and set it up.
They also tear it down, and return it. If it breaks down they fix it. No worries my friend.
They do the work, you play the music, capeesh? You just bring your guitar or bass, and cables in a durable gig bag and let the venue foot the bill.
For smaller clubs or venues, pack your guitar and a small pedal board, with only two or three effects. If possible fit them in your guitar gig bag. Connect them to a Direct Box. Have the sound guy connect it to the mixing console. Un gioco da ragazzi, huh! You can hear yourself in the stage monitor.
Joe Pass, Martin Taylor, Tim Stewart, Tom Scholtz, and others, all quit using amplifiers years ago. Scialla!!
When you have more invested in your guitar collection than your 401(k).
401(k)? All my working life I was self employed and never thought much about retiring and tax deferrals. Why invest in stocks and bonds when you can invest in a tangible Rickenbacker 12 string or a Fender Jazz Bass?
Start Jam Sessions in the Common Room at your Retirement Facility.
You made it to 2026, but you are stuck in the home with a bunch of folks, who like you, would rather be at the homes they owned before their kids took possession, sold them, and put their parent's sorry keisters in the old folks home. At our age life is rough, so make the most of it.
I betcha' there are other guys, and gals like you, who used to play live music rocking the crowd, and here they are living in the same facility as you. Now you may have lost your ability to stand up and shake that booty, and make those "rock" poses, but you can still sit there and play your guitar, maybe even sing.
My advice: Make friends, discover talent, commandeer the 'common room', and start holding a jam sessions. Life is short, so make the best of your situation and have some fun. Draw a crowd.
You used to be able to walk. Heck, you walked everywhere. Sometimes it was for work, and sometimes it was for fun. You participated in Volksmarches, and hiked through the woods. You may have just walked to the bar and back. You may have even been into running for fun.
And you walked out on stage and played your guitar for the crowd. You knew all of those awesome, crunchy power chords to Smoke On The Water, Honky Tonk Woman, Highway To Hell, and you even owned an original green Tube Screamer pedal. You were the epitome of cool, and had all the right moves.
Life was good, but then you got old, wobbly, and you now need a cane or a walker to haul your sorry butt around. I imagine you no longer even like to go outside.
Perhaps you have 'balance' issues and find it hard to even stand. You sure don't want to fall. Cement is very hard. At our age Hips seem to break quite easily.
Well cheer up Sparky! You now need a wheelchair. Certainly pushing the wheels around manually helps to maintain your upper body strength, but that can be difficult if you have an urgent need to get somewhere in a hurry (like to the toilet).
You probably have Medicare, and if you are in a retirement facility, and have little or no income, you may even have Medicaid.
If your doctor deems it "Medically Necessary" you could qualify for a powered wheelchair that you operate with a joystick. With Medicare you are responsible for 20% of the cost, and with Medicaid it might even be free.
The benefit of a power chair is that you can strap your guitar or bass gig bag on the chair's back handles. And you can also get your sorry keister outside on nice days and enjoy the weather. Happy travels! Take care of yourself!
Check out the videos below to see how other people cope. Enjoy your Golden Years my friends.
