I think I did well for £100 + £8 postage.Įko Ranger 12 StringMore pics over the weekend, no doubt. The pickguard is missing but there's no damage from it being removed, just a paler tide mark where the guard used to be.Īgain, I can get a NOS period correct (b/w/b) guard for it. Ranger VR XII, the re birth of an iconic classic guitar.

As of 2015, Eko Guitars were imported and distributed in the United States by Kelley Distribution located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The neck is straight as an arrow, lovely inlays & pretty good repro tuners (that will be changed to original ones soon). Eko guitar has been manufacturing guitars since the early 60's and continue to through present day. No hideous laquer cracks like a lot of these guitars were prone to having. There's a serial number but I'm struggling to find any online resource to help date it more accurately. OK, it's built exactly the same as a Ranger but this puts it in the '65 - '68 bracket. It sounds absolutely gorgeous!!įirstly, it's not a Ranger but an earlier J56. *The first pic is the one that looks the closest to the actual color/shade. Eko is an Italian manufacturer of electric guitars, acoustic guitars and similar instruments, catering to professional level and manufacturing largely for.

I might make this the one acoustic I keep for life. One of the nicest acoustics I've ever had. Never seen that type before.Īnyway I really like mine. I guess these were fairly common back in the day in Europe.ĭouble bound body. Has some cracks but they're only on the clear coat. It's stamped 1968, made in Italy and it also has a signature. Having said this, there are a lot worse guitars out there, and as well as being historically important, the 1820 bass can certainly provide the goods when required.Some pics of my new guitar. Over the course of the 70s, the Japanese output improved dramatically, and in many ways these early 70s models are a low point for the brand. These new Epiphones were based on existing Matsumoku guitars, sharing body shapes, and hardware, but the Epiphone line was somewhat upgraded, with inlaid logos and a 2x2 peghead configuration. The Matsumoku factory had been producing guitars for export for some time, but the 1820 bass (alongside a number of guitar models and the 5120 electric acoustic bass) were the first Epiphone models to be made there. By the end of the 1960s, a decision had been made to move Epiphone guitar production from the USA (at the Kalamazoo plant where Gibson guitars were made), to Matsumoto in Japan, creating a line of guitars and basses significantly less expensive than the USA-built models (actually less than half the price).

Eko Ranger Guitar Serial Numbers