I literally rescued this Teico guitar from a barn. Teico stands for Tokyo Electric Instrument COmpany, which was a Japanese company that built guitars in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Unlike most guitar manufacturers, Teico made guitars with spare parts that they could get at good prices, so there are no model lines, and most guitars are completely unique (depending on the mix of parts they had on hand at the time). There are no serial number markings on this one, and no database to check if there were, but based on my investigation, this one was probably made in the mid 1960’s, since I have seen similarly shaped models for sale dated from about that time.
Teico instruments were cheap to begin with, and have very little collectable value. So I didn’t have to worry about modifying or destroying a collectable piece of history. I decided to fix this one up and get it working again, no small task since the paint was damaged in countless places, and the neck was snapped almost in two!
The guitar as I originally picked it up, covered in dirt, oxidation, and dings. 
The neck was cracked near the head. The crack went almost all the way through the neck, but was stopped by the fretboard and the truss rod. 
Using an iron, a paint scraper, and a hammer to remove the fretboard. 
Neck and fretboard finally separated. 
Original pickups before cleaning 
Original pickups after cleaning 
Beginning to sand and touch up paint dings and scratches 
Post re-gluing, I worked on patching up the paint on the neck. 
The paint was in the worst shape at the head, touch-ups and sanding in progress. 
You can see age cracks in the paint. 
First coat of clear! 
More touchups on the neck 
Re-gluing the neck and fretboard 
First coat of paint on the neck! 
Paint is done! 
Neck after paint 
Back of the head after painting 
Sanding, more sanding, and even more sanding… 
Guitar in the shower before a rinse 
Now you can read off it 
Another polish glamor shot 
Neck polish glamor shot 
Formerly broken neck 
Back of the head glamor shot 
The front of the head 
The other side other side of the neck 
Pickup case 
The new pickups 
Side by side comparison 
Fret dressing 
Neck bolted to body 
Head with hardware installed 
Pick guard wiring 
The wiring 
Wiring closeup 
Wiring closeup 
