A view on the East-European and German side of my museum. Down right you can see two Defil's, made in Poland: a Julia II in a violin shape and a 12-string Echo II.

Besides the Defil's are a few Jolana's, made in Chzechoslovakia: two Iris and a Star V.

Hanging on the wall are three Höfner's, besides them two Klira's and four Framus's.

Everywhere are also old guitar amplifiers, some are in working order, others waiting to be repaired by yours truly ...

Another part of the museum: the Italian side, with the Eko's: glitter & shine from the 60's!
Together with the guitars are also a few Eko amplifiers. Those aren't easy to find!

Everywhere you look you can also find LP's and singles with guitars on them. I've a few hundred and some of them with guitars or basses found in the museum.

Well here's one of my Eko amp's: Electric and Acoustic Guitar Amplifier, manufactured by Eko Strumenti Musicali S.P.A. Recanati, Italy. It's build in 1972 and I've a strong feeling that also Charlie amp's used the same amplifiers. I've been told that Jan Akkerman used such amp's in the 70's.

This Eko "2230/SC800" Solid State has two channels with incorporated reverb. Although I'm into (full)valve amp's I must say that this design, as many from Italia, is very nice and eye strucking.

But, as for lots of items, I couldn't find any thing on the Net regarding this amplifier.
Besides the SC800 there's another Eko amp: Herald I, build in the 60's.
In front of the amp you can see several pedals:the one on the right is an Eko "Multitone" with several effects build-in:Strepitoso/Treble Bass Booster/Distortion/Repeat; the middle one is an Eko "Crescendo", a simple volume pedal; the left one is an Italian made JEN "WaWa-WaWa/Fuzz" donated by my good friend Daniël Termonia (thanks man!)

Here's a small part of the Japanese section. Left there's a Teisco (model unknown), then an Ibanez Musician Lefty, then a Samick-Hondo SG under the brand name Life (especially for MusikJacobs Euskirchen Germany), an unknown who also can be seen at the welcome page and an Aria Strat-like.

Aha! Even Russia has his guitars. Here's (right) a mid 80's Solo "dwa" (Russian for two) with an incorporated fuzz and phaser device. There for all those knobs and switches. Although this guitar has the looks of being very sophisticated and special, she doesn't play well. With a very thick arm and a lot of weight this guitar isn't very playable. But it's a guitar and probably some one over there has enjoyed it!

Soon I will get another Russian guitar: a Formanta. Those guitars aren't easy to be found in our western world.
The red one besides the Solo II ... still researching its origin, but now I'm certain it's a Bulgaria "Orfeus" cheaply from the 70's!, and not really easy to be used. Whenever you need to change a cord, it's possible that the tremolo rips the others apart and pushes the tremolo cover off of the guitar. Better tie the tremolo arm to the guitar before changing cords!

My first Bulgarian guitar!

This semi-acoustic 335 copy/12 string from (around) 1965 is a real jewel! It has a carved top and bottom (archtop) with 2x2 pick-up's. Every two pu's are set-in in one pu-holder. The head reminds me strongly at the Fender XII. Although the body and hardware (vibrato arm missing) are very pro, the neck isn't: instead of Ebony or another hard dark wood they just painted the fingerboard black! Also the tuners aren't good ones and usual for the quality "behind the Iron Curtain" ...
This guitar is a real beauty, very easy to play and eye catching!

This USSR bass was made in the mid 70's in Moscow at the "Moscow Experimental Factory Of Musical Instruments" and cost 130 Roubles at that time. Roden is named after the famous French sculptor A. Rodin, pronounced Roden in Russian (thanks for the info Iouri Dmitrievski !!!). It's one of those eye-catching designs you can't turn your head from! After close examination I've found out that the stoptail was also equipped for six-string use. So, it's possible that they also had some electric guitars produced at that factory, although never seen one ... If anyone ... ? ...
It seems to me that they where 10 years behind the sparkle age (or 10 years ahead of the revival of the sparkle age ... ?): the scratchplate sparkle and shines like the early Italian Eko's or the German Klira's, or ... or ...
The bridge is made of wood and uses acoustic stop pins (like to retain strings on an acoustic guitar) to get the right height (speaking about simplicity ... I wonder how they ever got the Sputnik into orbit ...)
Even the tuners are bad: you can almost turn half a turn before tuning reacts ...

This is one of the heavy amp's. At first sight and from a distance it seems an Orange ... but no: it's a Ranger. I took this amp completely apart, first to repair it, but the real reason was to find out by means of the transformers and/or the potmeters or valves (full valve amp!), or ... to find out where or who build this heavy amp.
No luck ... nothing to be found in this one ... All I know is that's a Ranger "Two Bass" with 2x 12AX7; 1x 12AU7 and 4x EL503!!
Must be a 100W power beast. So: if anyone knows something about this Ranger brand (Orange clone ...) please let me know, I really will appreciate it !!!!
Someone just told me that Ranger is an Italian brand, still researching for further info! ...

Today (31-aug-04) received info from FBT, an Italian amp manufacturer, that Ranger was produced in the 70's by them. There was an 150 and a 250 Watt bass amp with one or two boxes!