4/18/2021 0 Comments Vintage Eko Guitar
Anecdotal evidence suggests that EKOs seasoned wood supply burned up in 1970, but I cant confirm that.The sight of those two-tone jobsoften done up in exotic colors like pastels or turquoisealways raises a smile of nostalgia, a glimmer of my youth when they were new and I had dreams of being able to hit the road.
Kind of like how I feel when I look at this very nifty EKO Condor. LoDuca Brothers were (or was if you consider it a company, not siblings) the American importers and distributors of EKO guitars (actually Rickenbacker handled the West Coast). LoDuca Brothers had its roots in a late 1930s, early 40s accordion duo Vaudeville act featuring Thomas and Gaetano (Guy) LoDuca. According to their son, Mickey, as good Italian sons, the brothers handed their earnings over to their father, who paid them an allowance and put some in savings. When theyd amassed a couple grand, they opened the first of what would become a chain of music studios around Milwaukee. As they thrived, they began to import and sell LoDuca brand accordions sourced from Oliviero Pigini of Recanati, Italy, just north of Castelfidardo, a town that is still the hub of accordion manufacturing in Italy. But when the wind was squeezed out of the demand for accordions, it kind of left the LoDucas with empty hands. They played around with importing keyboardsincluding the actual black and white key assembliesuntil, fortuitously, folk music happened and demand for guitars began to pick up toward the end of the 1950s. LoDuca Brothers had an accordion distribution network with around 600 outlets and was doing business with Pigini, so they were a natural partner to handle the expansion into guitars. I dont think it was ever used on accordions (though it eventually did get put on some electronic keyboards and drums). Just as with accordions, Pigini would gladly put the brand name of your choice on a batch of guitars, but EKO was their main string moniker. ![]() Vintage Eko Guitar Plus A RangeThe first EKO electric guitars were a pair of plastic-covered solidbodies, the Models 500 and 700, covered in sparkle plastic, plus a range of archtops, introduced in 1962. In this regard LoDuca enlisted a number of professional guitarists from the Milwaukee area, who endorsed EKOs. EKOs biggest year was probably 1967, when this Condor was made. Its the huge 67 catalog that most frequently circulates in the paper trade. I mean, its so T-Bird (as in Ford with a porthole) or Edsel (yeah, I loved those, too). Besides being a looker, this guitar actually plays pretty well, too. The single-coil pickups arent screamers, but theyre beefy enough. You get a nice variety of tones, though not those swell glassy out-of-phase sounds like on a jimmied Strat. Having four on-off switches is darned awkward, but otherwise this is a sweetheart. Tastes changed. Hendrix, Clapton and Bloomfield were whetting appetites for axes capable of chopping, not matching tuxedos. Then, at some time probably around 1968 or 69, Oliviero Pigini, who loved fast sports cars, died in a car crash.
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