Eko Ekomaster 400 Offset Guitar - Four Pickups, Cool Knobs - All Original - Modern Faux Tweed Case - 1961

I am selling my Eko Ekomaster 400, made in Recanati, Marche, Italy in 1961. The body is beautiful, no nicks on the front or back, no cracks. The black finish has a smooth sheen and the celluloid finish is almost flawless. The Eko logo and the clear pickguard are often missing on these models but are fully intact. Everything is original - including  tuners, roller bridge, tailpiece.

The medium size neck is straight with some relief and the truss rod will tighten or loosen with a 7 MM tool. The zero fret is a bit worn under the high E string, creating some fret buzz on the first fret. I've used two small pieces of scotch tape to adjust this and get rid of the buzz. The neck has a small bit of relief and I've tightened the truss rod a bit - but have left it mostly alone as the zero fret has small grooves in it and I think would have to be adjusted somehow if you tweaked the truss much. All notes play with low to medium action which could be lowered if the zero fret was replaced. If you run your fingers up the fretboard the sides of the frets extend a bit, most likely the fretboard shrinking slightly over the years. This gets more apparent below the 12th fret. If I were going to keep this guitar (it’s a hard one to let go of) I would eventually replace the zero fret and have the frets smoothed on both sides.

This offset guitar was clearly inspired by the Fender Jazzmaster, thus the name. They came in a few different versions, spread out over a few years, some with tremolos, some with more or less sparkle, one, two pickup and four pickup versions.

The single coil pickups have a clear layer on top that is intact - they a little bit of light corrosion on the sides that is hardly noticeable. The way they adjust for height is with the four screws on the black plate - it raises up and down like the Goya models of that era. I was able to get the pickups very close to the strings pretty easily.

To control the rollers they turn towards the pickups to bring up volume and tone. These rollers reach resistance when they are at peak or low level, but if you push them enough they will keep going. From what I can tell they are not meant to keep turning, it doesn’t harm anything if you turn too far once in a while but I have tried not to push them past resistance and have had no issues with them. 

The push buttons all work and are numbered for the pickups they work with. The top button (towards the neck) is all on and the button towards the bridge is all off. The single coils are not really loud but the combinations give distinct tonal differences and are clean sounding. The readings on the meter are unusually high, which I’ve seen on other European guitars with unusual setups and lots of filters (it’s an Italian thing). They read as follows:

Master: 20

PU 1: 24.3

PU 4: 44.1

PUs 1+4: 20

PUs 2+3: 72.5

Off: 0

Length: 40 inches
Lower Bout: About 13.5 inches
Neck Scale: 24.5
Number of Frets: 21 plus zero fret
Nut Width: 1.75 inches
Body Depth: About 1 3/8 inches

Comes with a modern Faux tweed case that the guitar nestles nicely into.

I’ve described this 65 year old guitar as best as I can with words and images, if you have any questions be sure to ask me before you buy.

Have included a link of someone doing a nice job of playing and demoing this guitar model.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Will pack professionally and ship quickly.

I'm putting a few of my personal guitars up for sale - some Hofners, a Kapa and a Burns among others. Feel free to check them out.