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Teuffel

Teuffel Tesla Classic Left-Handed in Lunatic Green

Teuffel Tesla Classic Left-Handed in Lunatic Green

£4,250.00
£4,250.00
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What a treat it is to have this incredibly rare Teuffel Tesla Classic model available. Even more so that it is a left-handed model.

Germany's Ulrich Teuffel is a genius of modern electric guitar lutherie, defying convention and pioneering new designs in his guitars. He is known for the proprietary nature of his guitars, making most of the components himself, and being incredibly meticulous in his approach.

With the Tesla model, Ulrich wanted to build a modern electric guitar with modern pickups, but to add in options to achieve the primitive sounds that were characteristics of the limited designs of vintage electric guitars, such as 60-cycle hub and feedback at high gain.

The tesla has a through-neck made of Birdeye 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.

The transition of the neck into the body is in the shape of a groove which allows comfortable access to the higher frets. The neck has a two-way truss rod with the fingerboard sealed on the top to keep the wood from getting dirty. The back of the neck is sealed while keeping the pores open. This gives the neck a natural feel.

For its headless design, at the top end of the neck is a steel locking nut which locks each string separately, with the locking screws made of extra durable stainless steel.

The pickups and wiring in the guitar are just as outlandish as the guitar's appearance. While the guitar features two fairly conventional-looking pickups, there is plenty more going on under the hood.

The neck pickup is a split coil and 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 bridge pickup is constructed in a classic way. Its sound is a lot hotter than the tone of a PAF.

The magnets I use are AlNiCo5 and AlNiCo8 types which were custom made according to Ulrich's specifications, with the pickups then wound in the Teuffel workshop and sealed against microphonic feedback in a high vacuum chamber. The sealing substance Ulrich 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 used is the same one that is used for premium CRT displays.

The guitar has master volume and tone controls, and a push-pull toggle button for selecting the pickups, but also has three buttons adjacent to the high E string. The left button causes a 60 cycle hum like a traditional unshielded single-coil pickup, the middle button is a killswitch to interrupt the guitar's signal and the right button activates a small microphone beneath the neck pickup which allows for controllable feedback.

This guitar comes to us in very good condition with minor signs of wear and discolouration to the finish. It includes a fitted, padded material case for ultra portability.
  • Brand: Teuffel
  • Model: Tesla Classic
  • Finish: Lunatic Green
  • Condition: Very good with minor signs of wear and discolouration to the finish
  • Body sides: American Red Alder
  • Nut width: 43.4 mm (1.71")
  • Neck: Birdseye maple - neck-through-body design
  • Scale length: 648 mm (25.5")
  • Fretboard radius: 350 mm (13.7") at the nut, 450 mm (17.7") at the 22nd fret
  • Bridge: Proprietary tuner bridge with headless steel locking nut
  • Pickups: Neck split-coil pickup with AlNiCo5 magnets, Bridge PAF-style humbucker with AlNiCo8 magnets
  • Controls: Master volume, master tone, push-pull pickup selector; Button 1: causes a 60 cycle hum like a traditional unshielded single-coil pickup, Button 2: Killswitch, Button 3: activates a small microphone beneath the neck pickup which allows for controllable feedback
  • Guitar Dimensions: Length - 770 mm (30.31"), width - 360 mm (14.17"), depth - 55 mm (2.16"), weighs 2.95 kg (6.5lb)
  • Strings: D'Addario XS 10-46 gauge
  • Case: Custom padded fitted leather case with soft material internal lining secured with zip.
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