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The Teisco Spectrum 5 was made around 1966 to 1967 just before Teisco were taken over by Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Company. Kawai then discontinued the Teisco guitars brand in 1969, although it survived on models sold in Japan until 1977. Teisco guitars of this era were often influenced by other makers and there are echos of Hagström and EKO in the Spectrum's design.
Teisco were proud of the Spectrum 5: it used humbucking split coils, like on a Fender precision bass or on Leo's later G&L guitars, it also had stereophonic outputs! The Teisco Spectrum 5 had a slim, highly contoured body with a German carve. The headstock was the Teisco hooked style that originated around 1964 to 1965. The rosewood fret board had white triangular / club style inlays. The two-ply pickguard covers the front area under the strings, and hooks around to include the volume and tone controls and stereo and mono out jacks. The push-buttons pickup selectors came in five colors arranged in the correct order for the visible electromagnetic spectrum.
Mark Knopfler has used the Spectrum 5 model in the studio (on 'Postcards from Paraguay' and 'True Love Will Never Fade' for example).
