The Teuffel Tesla was introduced in the year 2000. Ergonomics (playability and comfort) have a major influence on the design of the Tesla, its overall style is similar to the Klein electric ergonomic guitar - headless with an axe shaped body. The Tesla is available in three versions: the midi, the classic and the studio. These three models are all available as 6 or 7 strings. Teuffel also offers custom versions - for example with long scale or 8 strings.

The Tesla Classic

The Tesla Classic was the original and most common model. It has two pickups and three noise buttons.

The Tesla's noise buttons are somewhat surprising in this age of noise reduction circuits. But this was part of Teuffel's vision - he wanted to preserve those interesting "unwanted" background noises for example, pickup feedback resulting from un-potted pickups, or loud humming from a loose solder joint or the complete sound cut-out of a bad connection.

These unwanted sounds have disappeared as a result of technical improvements and quality control but  the Teuffel Tesla has switches and sensors all over the body, which can simulate these low-fi noises.

The left button causes a 60 cycle hum, the middle switch interrupts the guitar signal. The right button activates a microphone under the neck pickup which allows controllable feedbacks.
   
In the classic version the pickups are controlled by a push-push switch. Only the bridge pickup or the neck pickup can be activated at any one time.

The Tesla Studio

The Tesla Studio is similar to the Tesla Classic but has three pickups. The pickup selector also allows combinations of pickups to be selected - unlike the Classic model.

The Tesla MIDI

The Tesla midi has a midi converter, piezo transducer and magnetic pickups. These signals remain separated with separate output jacks: one 1/4" jack for the analog signal and a Roland 13 pin jack for the midi signal and the piezo-signal.
                
The Tesla MIDI guitar has a Tune-o-matic bridge in conjunction with RMC piezo saddles and a MIDI controller. The bridge there has a special ebony string rest which optimizes the string pressure on the piezo crystals and prevents string-to-string crosstalk by dampening the strings between the tuners and the bridge. This improves the midi tracking.
                
The tesla midi controls are  volume knob and tone knobs for the magnetic pickups, a volume knob for the Synthesizer and a volume knob for the piezo acoustic sound. Beneath the pickups are two push-button switches which control the channel selection of the MIDI converter.