Call Of The Wild

Receiving rave reviews in the USA, Teye guitars are now becoming available in the UK. We listen to the howls of the Super Coyote.

- Dave Burrluck

Teye Guitars is named after the brand’s founder, Teije Wijnterp (aka Teye), whose claim to fame as a guitar player is his association with Joe Ely in the 90s. He started building guitars a decade ago and now aims to produce 150 guitars a year in the company’s new Nashville-based facility, where it relocated to, from Austin, early in 2016. The Super Coyote is part of a limited run that begun in 2015 at the company’s previous Austin base and, despite its price, comes from the start-up TMF (Teye Music Factory) level. The Artisan models, with hand-engraved plates, are the next ‘level’ up, topped by the very limited Master guitars, which are handmade and engraved by Teye himself.

Zemaitis style abounds here: a similar headstock with its curved rear tip; the neck joint where the full width neck slots into the body like a bolt-on, but is glued, leaving a noticeable edge in the treble cutaway; the 24-fret single-cut style with its more waisted outline. Then there are those aluminium plates on the headstock, top and treble side which are acid-etched not engraved, the rear cover plate is plain – and the aluminium bridge, like an enlarged tune-o-matic, with big saddles, while the thumb wheels look like small circular saw blades. The string anchor is quite low on the body, with an additional and sharply-pointed etched plate. Even the pickup rings are etched aluminium.