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Teuffel Tesla
Do you remember your first electric guitar? In the early days of electric guitar building, you had to struggle not only with the guitar itself, but also with the unwanted background noises that guitars produced in those days, for example, pickup feedback resulting from pickups not yet being wax-potted, or loud humming coming from a loose solder joint. Sometimes the guitar signal would be interrupted when you randomly touched a knob.
Nowadays all these effects have disappeared as a result of technical improvements, although they have become part of music history as archetypes of guitar sounds. They are comparable to sounds such as the scratching of records and skipping of CD’s, which have also become musical archetypes and are often cited in today’s music.
With the tesla Teufffel has designed a guitar that, along with modern guitars sounds, also has these primitive sounds at its disposal. Contact points and push-buttons are situated all over the body, which, when pressed, activate the respective sounds.
After Teuffel presented this guitar for the first time at the 2000 NAMM show, his first customers included Henry Kaiser and David Torn, arguably the most experimental guitarists of our time.
In the meantime Teuffel has developed the Tesla further and there are now two new versions: a version with three pickups, as well as a MIDI version. He has also built a few custom versions, such as an 8-string Tesla with a 30 inch scale.
TESLA CLASSIC
The tesla classic is the most common model. It has two pickups and three noise buttons. All tesla models have the new 2-way truss rod.
TESLA STUDIO
Instead of the noise buttons the studio model has three pickups. The bridge and neck pickup are the same as on the classic model. In addition the tesla studio has a middle pickup. A Schaller Megaswich controls the sounds. The switching positions are: bridge, bridge + middle, bridge + neck, middle + neck, neck.
TESLA TREM
The new tesla trem is out now. The guitar comes with an XS trem which is a floating headless vibrato. The trem can be locked with a little lever. You can use regular strings for it; double ballend strings are not necessary.
TESLA MIDI
Like the birdfish, the concept of the tesla midi is the complete separation of both signals: midi to converter and magnetic pickups to amplifier. Therefore the pure birdfish tone is not affected by the midi converter. Only via the 13 pin jack the acoustic sound of the piezo bridge can be transduced. The magnetic pickups and the magnetic control circuit is connected to the 1/4" jack only. This is very important for high-gain sounds.
7 STRING
The classic and studio are also available in a seven string version. The basic construction is the same as the six string model. The concept of the short neck is unbeatable, especially when it's about the low B-string. Clear powerful bass.
NECK
The tesla has a through-neck made of old bird's eye maple. In the zone where it crosses the body, the neck has two alder cap strips. Both body sides are made of American alder. The hardware is bolted on with hand polished stainless steel hex screws which lead into metal thread inserts. These bushings are exactly cut and glued into the guitar body.
At the 7th fret the neck passes into the body. This makes the neck quite "short" and stiff. Low frequency resonances are supported by this construction. In the seven string version the sound of the low B string is unbeatably clear and powerful.
The transition of the neck into the body is in the shape of a groove which allows comfortable access to the higher frets.
PICKUPS
The neck pickup is a split coil on all tesla models. It consists of two offset bobbins. One bobbin picks up the bass strings while the other picks up the treble strings. Since both bobbins are wound in reverse there is no hum. The sound of the pickup is very guttural, but much richer than a strat single coil tone.
The same pickup is placed in the middle position on the studio and midi model. The bridge pickup is constructed in a classic way. Its sound is a lot hotter than the tone of a PAF.
The magnets Teuffel uses are AlNiCo5 and AlNiCo8 types which were custom made according to his specifications. All components are made in his workshop and, of course, the bobbins are wound there, as well. Finally the pickups are sealed against microphonic feeback in a high vacuum chamber. The sealing substance which Teyffel uses for this has much less influence on the sound than wax would.
All of the electric compartments are shielded to keep out magnetic and electric field interference. The shielding Teuffel uses is the same one that is used for premium CRT displays. After all, even the smallest static would be visible on the screen. The DC shielding resistance is less than 6 Ohms spread over the whole compartment.
CASE
The case shell is made from a lightweight but heavy-duty plastic sandwich material. This makes the case very light, yet robust. The shell's edges are welded and reinforced with anodized aluminum edges. All of the fittings are chrome plated. Top and bottom shells are joined with three hinges.
DISPLAY OPTION
The display is made from anodized aluminium and matt polished stainless steel. A heavy steelplate under the bottom plate prevents the stand from toppling over. Felt pads protect the floor. The display comes disassembled.
 SPECS:
The tesla comes with the flight case, a pair of Schaller Security Locks and an extended tool set.
guitar dimensions:
- length: 770 mm (30.31 inches)
- width: 360 mm (14.17 inches)
- thickness: 55 mm (2.16 inches)
case dimensions (inlcluding handles and wheels):
- length: 850 mm (33.46 inches)
- width: 415 mm (16.34 inches)
- thickness: 140 mm (5.51 inches)
scale lenght:
- 650 mm (25.6 inches)
body:
- sides from American Alder (Red Alder)
- throughneck construction
neck:
- throughneck from Bird's Eye Maple
- asymmetrically V-shaped
neck thickness:
- 20.0 mm (0.79 inches) at the 1st fret
- 22.8 mm (0.90 inches) at 16th fret
neck width:
- 43.4 mm (1.71 inches) at the nut
- 56.0 mm (2.20 inches) at the 22nd fret
fretboard radius:
- 320 mm (12.6 inches)
fretwire:
- Jim Dunlop #6105
- 22 frets
pickups:
- 1 humbucker hot PAF type AlNiCo8
- 1 or 2 splitcoils vintage
guitar weight:
- 2,95 kg (6.5 lbs)
string setup:
- 10"-46" Pyramid Nickel Plated
price (The prices for the U.S.A. and Canada are including transport expenses, customs and duties. In other words: free to your house front door):
- Tesla Classic 6-string: $7,700
- Tesla Classic 7-string: $8050
- Tesla Studio 6-string: $8050
- Tesla Studio 7-string: $8350
- Tesla Midi: $9500
- Tesla Trem (6-string only) - $9700
- Display: $950
The Teuffel Tesla comes in various colors
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