Teisco is a Japanese company that began manufacturing guitars in 1948 but eventually developed financial difficulties and was purchased by Kawai in 1967. Kawai, the piano company turned guitar maker, made Teisco Guitars starting in 1968... which included this oddly shaped model called the "May Queen".
During this 1968 period many Japanese companies were getting more adventurous, confident and began to come up with very original guitar designs. All these Japanese-style guitars reflected creative thinking and weren't just copies of other USA & European models. This was the "First Golden-Age of Japanese Guitar Building".
This "May Queen" is a black single cutaway oval shaped semi hollow body with stylized "F" hole, 2 very "HOT" single coils with a Bigsby-like vibrato. The pick-guard is engraved with a Kimberly "May Queen" logo and includes a bolt-on neck with dot inlaid Rosewood fingerboard. It's a rare and unusual looking guitar that plays and sounds somewhere between a Vintage Vox 12-string & a very high-end 60's surf guitar.
Many people back in '68 thought the "May Queen" looked like a reject from the Rickenbacker factory that had been left in the sun to long and had melted. But remember, that Beauty "IS" in the eye of the beholder and to me and many other collectors the "May Queen" is very beautiful... and beautiful things always inspire guitar players.
