Unique Materials Used in Teye Guitars
Tone and Beauty
Every single detail on my guitars other than the engraving, color, and choice of knobs is there for reasons of sound. Rest assured that Teye guitars are the very best I can create, with tone and playability to knock you out, and a look to overwhelm your senses. The A-Series uses no off the shelf parts bar the tuners, and the S-Series uses highest quality components that I have personally selected and tested. Here is a selection of highlights from my guitar designs.
Cosmetic Details
Teye Guitars display the visual elements of the cultures where I feel at home. Turquoise accents bring forth the old wisdom of the Native American Southwest. Spanish New World flavor is evident in the border adornment, like the leatherwork in Cordoba, and that of the vaqueros, and the suits of the mariachis. The body outline echoes Moorish architecture I experienced in Andalucia. Colors are inspired by Gypsy campfires, rich autumnal hues of my country-of-birth the Netherlands, and the blackness of rock ‘n’ roll is evident on the La Mora.
No Pore Filler
Pore filler is plastic, and dampens vibrations. Great instruments have been made using pore filler, but that is no reason to stop experimenting. My friend, sculptor Russ Thayer showed me a technique that harkens back centuries, in which the Mahogany pores aren’t filled but rather bridged. The extra time and effort is well worth it. The A-Seires feature a combination of French Polish and varnish (”barniz” or “bernstein”). I caress it on by hand to achieve a beautiful deep satin shine. Not too much, not too little, and quite different from the usual high gloss electric guitar finish.
Aluminum Front
The specific aluminum alloy used to make the front plate of the guitar was chosen from among other alloys as the one that clearly sounded the best. While the use of aluminum contributes to the sound, the intricate designs used on the aluminum makes a stunning statement. Teye engraves all the A-Series guitars completely by hand, and custom work is available.
Acoustic Tuning
The body has been domed and acoustically tuned to eliminate dead notes and wolf tones. I tune the body to a certain interval, so that not certain notes will find preference while others are ignored. There is a certain ring that comes from a well domed, well tuned piece of Mahogany. You can play congas on a nice piece of wood! (That is how the Cuban cajón was born!)
A-Series Hardware
For the A-Series guitars, I make my own bridge and tail piece using a design that gives more focus and sustain. The bridge and tailpiece system works in concert with the rest of the guitar structure to enhance the tone.
A-Series Unitary Pickup Ring
The A-Series guitars use a specially-designed unitary pickup ring to house all 3 pickups within a signle structure. Like virtually all of the A-Series components, this pickup ring was designed by me specifically for these guitars, is machined in-house, and hand engraved for maximum beauty.
Custom Wound Pickups
I want lots of low-end from my bridge pickup, and lots of clarity from the neck one, so that when I switch, I do not need to rush over to my amp to quickly correct the sound. To achieve these tones, all Teye guitars use 3 special high-clarity Jason Lollar humbucking pickups. Jason’s pickups are so perfect for this guitar design that the night I installed the finalized prototypes, at 2 in the morning, I just couldn’t get myself to switch down the amp. The A-Series and S-Series feature the exact same pickups.
Teye Electronics
My electronics, which are identical in the A-Series and S-Series, are extremely versatile yet simple to operate. I ignored everything that could be ignored about existing guitar wisdom, except the idea of feeding great pickups straight into your amp. With all knobs on “10″, filtering is not engaged. When the filters do engage, however, I achieve a palette of sonics that is unheard of, and many tones can only be had with this instrument, while others carefully emulate the soul and touch of those Holy Classics. Teye Guitars use no pre-amps or active electronics.
