Teye Guitars

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About Teye Guitars

This Flickr Photo Group is for owners of Teye Guitars. Teye is a quicly emerging luthier in Austin Texas. He grew up in the Netherlands in the 1960's. After many years and tours and bands he began studying classical guitar at the Netherlands Conservatory of Music, and eventually joined the flamenco masters of southern Spain where he learned their unique style of flamenco guitar playing. His dedication to Flamenco guitar extended almost 25 years.

In the 1990’s, legendary British luthier Tony Zemaitis made two guitars for Teye. Zemaitis' work opened Teye's mind to the importance of balance in electric guitars. His instruments would react as lively, vibrant and responsive as his best flamenco instruments by Manuel Reyes and Lester Devoe: no other electric guitar had ever done this.

Despite the excellence of the Zemaitis guitars, Teye's natural curiosity led him to explore luthiery on his own. He built a metal top guitar he used in his live performances and began the journey of improving his guitars steadily over the next several years in tone, function and form. The result of his years of curiosity and improvements is his Electric Gypsy guitars. The design combines everything he has always liked about guitars: three pickups, simple switching, vast array of “real” sounds at his fingertips, 24 fret heel-less neck, the direct response of a flamenco guitar, and playability. To top it off: a stunning stage presence in shape and adornment. It was only natural then that anyone who saw or played an Electric Gypsy liked them too.

The next couple years saw the Electric Gypsy exhibited at shows and admired by players all over the world including, Les Paul himself, Keith Urban, Manuel Reyes and even Paul Reid Smith who proclaimed "“Incredible. You will be making many more guitars.”

Teye's A Series guitars are hand-made start to finish by Teye himself. They are beginning to receive wide acclaim for their intricate adornment, engraving and unique electronics that produce a wide variety of sounds uncommon for a single instrument. There are currently 18 La India Models, One La Mora and One La Perla in existence.

In early 2008, Teye introduced his S Series guitars that are still completely hand-made by a team of talented luthiers under Teyes close supervision.

This Flickr group is a place to celebrate these fine instruments. If you have a Teye - post your pictures. Post pictures of yourself playing your Teye. If you see a Teye on stage somewhere - take a picture and post it. If you have a 20-30 second video of a Teye in action you can post that as well. This group allows videos.

This is a space to celebrate the work of this great emerging luthier.

Tagging Guideline:
If you are posting a picture of your Teye Guitar please add a tag that dictatesThe Series, the model, number and year, like this:
"A Series - La India - #8 - 2007" or "S Series - La India - #2 - 2008"

Alan Barley is maintaining the official photo log portfolio of all Teye guitars (thanks Alan). This is not meant to replace his work. You can view this photo collection here:

web.me.com/alanbarley

All the Best!

Davo


My Electric Gypsy guitar design was admired by guitar players, exhibited at shows, and played on stage and the orders started coming in. I build all the A-Series guitars completely by myself, and have also developed the team-built S-Series.