Lefty 1960s Teisco Kawai Fujigen professional rebuild rat rod Lollar P-90 gold foil

Here is a rare chance for you leftys who have been left-out of the 60s vintage Japanese guitars because there aren’t many lefty from that era to be had.

This is a righty-to-lefty conversion of an unknown brand from 1960s Japan- it is very similar to a Teisco EP-8T, but it there are several slight differences in the build when you put them side by side. This body on this one is ever so slightly larger, the F holes are shaped differently and a little higher up on the body and the neck is a little different… including the gumby head that is unlike any shape I’ve ever seen (not the same as an Airline or National). I’d guess it was made by Fujigen, but maybe it actually was made by Teisco or Kawai, I really don’t know.

Regardless of the brand, it is another rescue with great bones, all new electronics and complete professional setup ready to play. The paint is split and checked, and there are dings and dents all over it from a long life of use, but structurally it is in very good condition.

The mahogany neck is straight and true with the original trussrod working perfectly. Not sure what the fretboard wood is, but the original frets were a mess- I pulled them, trued up the fretboard to a perfect 12” radius, gave it new Jescar 47104 frets and some new tuners. It’s a medium-large C, not big enough to be chunky but a very comfortable player (24-1/2” scale).

It has a Lollar p-90 bridge pickup and my Type13SC “gold foil” neck pickup in a dog-ear wrapper, they make a nice pair with variation on tones from ripsnort to clean to grungy- reverse wind reverse magnets (RWRM) for full humbucking when played together. Add the new Bournes / CTS / Switchcraft components and it is running quiet and better than ever.

One of the big issues with these guitars in their original state is the bridge. Through the years they would have different types of bridges from a floating archtop style, to a fixed bar or odd straight roller-wheel bridge (neither of which could be intonated properly), and a few varieties that were a takeoff of the TOM style. But those TOM-type bridges never had a proper mounting method and were prone to wiggle and wobble causing tuning nightmares, usually made worse because the bridges were often in the wrong place anyway (as it was on this one… by about ½”). I solved all that by bolstering the internal bridge block, then installing modern inserts / studs and a solid modern TOM bridge… and put it in the correct position. This guitar now will intonate properly and stay in tune.

This guitar plays and sounds great- it’s a hoot!

Set up with .010 - .046 strings

Gig bag included

Medium-large C

24-1/2” scale

Jescar 47104 frets

Lollar p-90 bridge pup

Malinoski Type13SC neck pup

Bournes / CTS / Switchcraft components