history

TeleStar & LaBoz Musical Instruments
Some of you might remember TeleStar & LaBoz musical instruments from the mid-sixties. The company was originally started by my uncle Maurice and my father Charlie. They were the first US-based company to import Japanese guitars, amps and drums (originally Kawai & Teisco Del Rey) with the names TeleStar & LaBoz on them. They were also the first to introduce Sparkle finishes, multi-ply necks and dead-on copies of popular guitars of the time. Some even had 5 pick-ups, rocker switches & chrome pickguards!

When I was 13, I would take a long bus journey and walk (almost 2 hours total) at 6:00 AM from NYC to get to the Secaucus warehouse, where my job was repairing broken guitars. They were sometimes returns, sometimes damaged in shipping. I worked in a little space cordoned off in the warehouse surrounded by piles of guitar boxes (higher than me at the time). It was a very hot summer and the days were super-long, but I really enjoyed messing around with their guitars and hanging around all the funky instruments, amps & effects. It could be said that a majority of my time was spent “experimenting” as I knew very little about repair at age 13.

Not too long after that summer, I designed a guitar for TeleStar that was going to become a production model, but unfortunately, in the interim, the company was sold to Fred Gretsch Jr. and no longer made instruments. They became a distributor for musical supplies before meeting their demise in the early 80′s. On a sidenote, I once had the honor to eat dinner over at Mr. Gretsch’s house in Savannah Georgia, where I refused a tasty meal of fresh-killed venison. He was confused, but it just wasn’t my thing – sorry Fred! Read more about TeleStar/LaBoz @ Vintage Guitar Online