1967 Eko Kadett bass and more...

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Following Bertram's blog post yesterday about the Eko Kadett guitar, there were some great comments that I felt should be given more prominence on the blog. Jozef Porazen tells us that:

I have bass version of Kadett - made in '67. Honestly, as far as bass goes, the body is horrible. Neck dives like mad, body is too small, that body 'horn' goes right under your right hand and it hurts :-P

The neck is pencil-like, strings are floppy, due to short-scale, but overall its nice little funky bass nonetheless :) I did change the bridge, coz original was broken and the tuners (put in some small schaller ones, just like the guitar-ones, but for bass). Here's the pic [see above], bad one, I used phone.

So, it seems that sometimes these vintage quirkily-designed guitars come at a price other than the purely financial; that is to say that if you want to play one you have to compromise and/or upgrade components to make them practical usable instruments.

Ryan Waldron also commented about Eko guitars:

From album covers and pictures, I've noticed that EKO guitars seemed to be omnipresent in West Africa in the late sixities and early seventies - they must have been heavily distributed there. Here's a great clip of an orchestra in Mauritania rocking a three Eko line-up:

Thanks for that, Ryan. It's a great clip indeed!

G L Wilson

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