It arrived & it's a beauty. It sounds absolutely gorgeous!! Firstly, it's not a Ranger but an earlier J56.
OK, it's built exactly the same as a Ranger but this puts it in the '65 - '68 bracket. There's a serial number but I'm struggling to find any online resource to help date it more accurately. Not even Mr Brandoni knows. The body is in fantastic condition. No hideous laquer cracks like a lot of these guitars were prone to having.
Just a couple of honest dings. The neck is straight as an arrow, lovely inlays & pretty good repro tuners (that will be changed to original ones soon). The pickguard is missing but there's no damage from it being removed, just a paler tide mark where the guard used to be.
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But following the end of shipments to Vox in 1968 and to LoDuca in 1971 as well as the growing Japanese competition in the middle-priced electric guitar market, Eko had to redeploy onto Europe and to focus on acoustics, so that the Ranger Series emerged as the very centre of the company’s business in the 70’s. May 06, 2010 As my son said a year or two back, after playing a much more expensive guitar than the Eko, 'After playing the Gibson [J50] and the Taylor [214E], that's like playing a cardboard box'. But, on balance,they were the right thing in the right place at the right time at the right price.
Again, I can get a NOS period correct (b/w/b) guard for it. They only cost £8 from Brandoni.
I think I did well for £100 + £8 postage. More pics over the weekend, no doubt. I've just found a comment on a different forum saying: 'I have a J56/1 12 String (SN: 326432) that I have been banging around since I bought it new at the House of Guitars in Rochester, NY.
I paid $129 for it on Dec 6, 1967.' His serial number is around 1500 higher than mine so I'll assume mine's from the same year. The tuners aren't bad at all. I've no idea what they cost the seller but I might sell them on to re-coup some of the money I'll spend on the original nickel ones. Half the bridge pins are non-original. I've a spare set of 6 somewhere I could throw in but that'll leave me short still.
Instead I might buy some nice dark wooden ones. Something else I've noticed is the gorgeous patina on the body binding. Very reminiscent of my old '59 Gibson ES125T. This things aged well in all the right places. It's also missing a strap button at the bottom.
Again, I think I've got a spare knocking around somewhere so it's no big deal. PorkyPrimeCut wrote:Question: If I changed the aluminium section of the bridge to a wood strip (or bone?) and used wooden bridge pins would it affect the tone?
It already sounds great but I'm all for small cosmetic alterations to enhance it even more. I always go for brass bridge pins on my acoustics, and I know for a fact that they 'improve' the tone and sustain. I haven't tried them myself, but I believe rosewood ones are also a step up from standard plastic ones. I would guess that a new bone bridge saddle would be an enhancement too, especially as the block on there just now looks 'not right' to me. Here's a pic of what they usually look like: It looks like yours has been messed with, possibly after the original saddle fell out. UlricvonCatalyst wrote: I always go for brass bridge pins on my acoustics, and I know for a fact that they 'improve' the tone and sustain. I haven't tried them myself, but I believe rosewood ones are also a step up from standard plastic ones.
I would guess that a new bone bridge saddle would be an enhancement too, especially as the block on there just now looks 'not right' to me. It looks like yours has been messed with, possibly after the original saddle fell out. I was thinking the same myself. I've seen a few of these over they years but never one with a slotted metal bridge. My Ranger VI actually has what looks like a plastic bridge that's buckled inwards over time. I might look at getting them both swapped out, bridge & pins.
It's all completely reversible so I'm cool about doing it. After more digging around I finally came up with what I reckon is a. I reckon I can put all the research to bed now as this looks to be pretty accurate. There are a couple of surprises. The original b/w/b pick guards had a little cowboy detail.