Eko 700 4/V c.1964 - gold sparkle/black

Eko 700 4/V electric guitar made in Italy in the early to mid sixties. It is a very unusual looking guitar for the sixties, but these guitars would almost certainly have been made by ex piano accordian makers - hence the gold sparkle body top and the beautiful faux red tortoiseshell scratchplate. The back of the body is in black and there is a gold division between the front and back of the body which runs all the way round the body. The model name is ''700'' and the number ''4'' stands for the number of pickups - the ''V'' is for vibrato or tremolo tailpiece. The four pickups are typical Eko models and are controlled by volume and tone controls and six sliders which are the pickup selectors. The bridge is an Eko tune-o-matic model.

The switch on the right side of the body may be an addition from later, as I have owned several of these Eko 700's and have never seen one with a rocker switch - it doesn't seem to do anything. There is also a mini socket next to the jackplug socket, again I have never come across one before.

The guitar is in a very nice condition apart from a small chip on the back of the body next to the neck plate (see photo), and it is largely original. For some reason the tuners have been changed at some point in the past as can be seen in the photo, however they were swapped for the very sought after Hofner ''butterfly'' covered tuners which are possibly better than the originals.

These are rare guitars to find and they are good players with plenty of sound variations possible.