ShortScale.org

anyone got any info... someone is selling a classical with the brand name checkmate... i guess it's about 20-30 years old from what they tell me.... anyone got any info? i can't find shit on da google...

I did a bit of searching and only came up with this review of a checkmate acoustic. Sorry mang.

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... e/145/10/1

"Checkmate" is almost invariably low-budget cheese, man. Exceptions are only made in the 60's electric guitar department, and even that is sort of "pawnshop" stuff, it's just sufficiently kooky to generate interest in today's garage-friendly music scene (no thanks, I'm sure, to the fact that some of them were re-branded Teiscos that inexplicably DON'T go for an arm and a leg on ebay...)


GP article, 2006:

By the early 1960s, Japan’s Teisco company was churning out large numbers of guitars and amps to meet the burgeoning demand for electric instruments that was being spurred on by the British Invasion. In 1964, the Checkmate name began appearing on some of Teisco’s products, and by 1966 there were at least 11 Checkmate amplifier models listed in U.S.-issue Teisco Del Rey catalogs.

Jycphe-signal time.

it might be worth it if its cheap enough.
alot of those old crappy acoustics have rosewood back and sides, and they are solid.
most of the time they need to be re-shaped, and worked with quite a bit, but the payoff is perfect.
i may have some pics floating arund but i worked on a no name classical guitar from the 60's and it was trashed, but the body wood was perfect for harvesty, hell the back had come unglued on its own, i never got to finish it, but i started the re-builed proccess of the whole thing.
just remember that if it does fall apart, and it has some nice wood, you could chuck it on the luthier community for 100-300 bucks depending on the quility and what not.