Another Fake Fender Strat | NOT a Squier This Time

This week someone sent me pics of another guitar they suspected was fake. Yep, it turns out that it was, but this time it was not a Squier stratocaster turned into a Fender. I believe it was a vintage Teisco or similar guitar. They had a lot of pictures, so we are able to get a good look at all the details in this video.

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[Forest_Fifer]

A blind man running for his life could tell that isn't a Fender.

[wingdwolf]

The indentation on the headstock looks to line up with a truss rod cover

[TheLenaweeTrekker]

A video on the old Teisco Guitars would be interesting. I had a Teisco Tulip guitar when I was a kid, the $39 Wonderland special. It was impossible to keep it in tune. The fret ends would slice my fingers. The neck was warped. The truss rod was useless, and the pickup was so microphonic you could easily use it as a microphone. I loved that guitar..., only because it was my first electric guitar.

[Abbieabma]

Ok, if you dont even know those are schaller tuners, you kinda lose credibility regarding spotting fake guitars. Just my opinion

[chadwickhurlburt]

I suspect the body is a genuine 70's strat body. Based on that alone, I'd take a chance and offer $150 for this guitar.

[dp]

Dude those are Schaller tuners, if you can't even Identify Schaller tuners then maybe your not the guy to do authentications, also the those are bridge saddles not tuners and the have height adjustment screws not thingys.

[ericb]

Once again, you kind of missed the biggest glaring thing that shows this to be a fake. As you noted, it has 2 serial numbers (huge red flag #1) but both serials, if real, would come back to a 70’s Fender. All Fender Strats in the 70’s had the large CBS headstock, with the large CBS logo. Most would also have the bullet truss rod and 3 bolt neck. This having some kind of a bullet truss rod (obviously not Fender style to boot) and being a smaller headstock logo (80’s transitional) would automatically tell you it’s a fake. Fender didn’t start making small headstock Strats again until the 80’s, and they had stopped using the bullet truss rod by that point. So any “Fender” Strat with a bullet truss rod and small headstock logo=fake. Same goes for any Strat with a 70’s serial and a small headstock logo=fake. 100% of the time. The real Strats you were comparing it to (E series=Eighties) were all from 1980’s, after they had brought back the small headstocks.

[dp]

It's not a Tiesco they have Mahogany necks, this may be a 70's Body with a replacement neck among other things, if the body itself is a 70's body it's worth it you would have to disassemble it to confirm.

[Arkyb]

The indentation in the headstock could be from a truss rod cover.

[Russell_Optics]

Agreed ! 1st glance tells you it is not a real Fender. The tuners are actually pretty good being Shallers, but the string "tree"/bar, the crazy looking skunk stripe, and several other factors instantly say fake.

[tallthinkev]

If that is a Teisco neck, It's a style I haven't seen before, all the ones I've seen have had the bar bolted on. Might be a neck off an Eko?

[akc]

WOW!! Can't spot GENUINE Schaller Looks to me like probably a genuine Fender 3 bolt body but with (from my 40+ years of knowledge) possibly an 80's Hondo or similar neck on it. And given the screw and hex adjustable poles on the bucker, could be an early DiMarzio or japanese copy there of. I would happily give in the region of £500 for But would need a closer inspection of the body....

[jackass]

Those are older schaller tuners, made in Germany! Looks like the neck had a floyd nut at one time. Definitely NOT fender! Decals like that are printed on inkjet printers, ebay, etsy's, etc...

[xxxxneoxxxx]

Kennis, it's so cool to have you back again. Cool and very informative videos as usual. I was curious, what about the other channel, though?

[shaunzimmerman]

most teisco guitars had that string tree that goes through the back, and also a lot of them had zero frets as well not all though

Clearly not a Fender neck. The bridge pickup has been left at an angle to reuse the mounting screw from the original angled pickup.

What price was being asked?

[justinrayguitars]

Looks like they used a Univox Ripper for some of the parts. Which would be ashame since they were better guitars than Fenders.

Didn't you look at the headstock shape?

[mikeeben]

Mid 70s s/n on neck. “E” prefix on headstock s/n indicates 80s. Also, Stratocaster script on the large style headstocks were curved. Neck heel is wrong. And never mind that abortion on the back of the neck. It took less than 10 seconds to determine this was fake.

[arlobrubaker]

There are Teisco guitars, but there are also Teisco guitars with different brandings. I have a Teisco from 1965 and it's logo came off, but no indent. The logo was glued on. I feel like what you're seeing is a sort of "built in the same factory but branded differently" variant. Probably the same Japanese company, but sold by another company with whatever their logo was.