Eko guitars italy series#
The 700 series is rich in details and is the perfect example to remember the early days of Eko, when accordion pieces, in particular celluloid, were still used to build totally different guitars than those that were produced in USA.
This idea of the triple cutaway, typical of the 60s models, seems to be an invention of Bartolini and the Cingolani brothers.
«The Eko 700 series was produced from 1961 to 1965 and all models were characterized by the triple cutaway the one placed on the underside of the guitar was designed to play seated, with the neck facing upwards, as per the classical setting. In 1984 Korral and Chetro remained in production, the Ranger disappeared and the AW took over in the 6 and 12 string versions with electromagnetic amplification in the neck or a piezo in the bridge. In the early 80s, as regards the production of guitars, the classics section saw, in addition to the already existing Alborada and Giuliani, the birth of the Conservatory 51 and Conservatory 53, both with solid Val di Fiemme top and the whole Carulli, all in solid wood.įor the acoustics, from 1983 also Eldorado had a solid Val di Fiemme top and the D100FP model was born, again with a solid top in precious Val di Fiemme.
At the amplifier section department, whose head was Ferdinando Canale (later founder of SR-Technology and Sound Engineering), they created the wonderful and excellent SC800, still with a Val di Fiemmecabinet, of which two batches of 50 were produced. The first acoustic electrification system was the Shadow piezoelectric (the best pickups available at the time) and consequently, the need to have an amplifier to match the purpose also arose. The hardware was in solid brass and was produced in the internal workshops together with the excellent pick-ups (anti-hum in barium hexaferrite and in American alnico 5 ° – a special alloy of aluminum, nickel, chromium, cobalt and copper) which were offered as an alternative to the DiMarzio. On the electrical side, unibodies instruments were born, both bass and guitars, such as the M24, M20, CX7 and the BX7 and MB21 basses. (ACOUSTIC RESEARCH LABORATORY) in fact obtained the name Giuliani. Only the instruments that pass the very strict final tests of the E.A.R.L. And it follows:” The Giuliani is the only guitar available today for which the manufacturer can guarantee the level of both power and sound quality. An exceptional instrument from all points of view etc. It was a musical “Italian Invasion”: an English sound with a really great Italian echo.The end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s had seen the birth of high-quality instruments, entirely in solid wood and with Val di Fiemme spruce tops, such as the Alborada and Giuliani for classical guitars and the Korral Special and Chetro for the acoustics. One of the many instruments Eko made for Vox (and for other international brands) was the Vox Tornado featured in these photographs: an outstanding semi-acoustic electric guitar, that was exported all around the world. ‘Italia capta victorem cepit’, to paraphrase Horace: “Italy conquered her conqueror” (the original mentioned a “rude”, ‘ferum’, conqueror – meant to describe the Romans as opposed to the refined Greeks – but here the adjective would certainly be unsuitable, considering the high-tech and incredibly successful products Vox put on the market). In the same triennium, a different part of the British music industry reached the Italian shores as well: the English musical equipment manufacturer Vox – famous for its instruments and amplifiers – came to Recanati, Leopardi’s hometown in the province of Macerata, to ask the leading guitar company in Italy, Eko, to make its instruments.
For those three years, everyone listened to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and even bands like The Animals and The Kinks achieved considerable international fame. With the 1964-1967 British Invasion, rock, pop and beat music bands from the United Kingdom rose to the top of the charts all around the world – including the homeland of rock, the United States, to the detriment of American artists.
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