1960s EKO-made Hohner HG OI Flattop Guitar
The Italian company EKO built for a number of different brands -- among them Vox, RuDelle, their own label, and apparently Hohner, too. I fondly remember a jumbo-dread-sized 12-string EKO-made Vox I had years ago and for good reason -- it was rugged and had its own, oddball 60s vibe.
This 00-size 12-fret guitar is, just like other products of theirs, curious. It's got a ladder-braced, all-laminate body (question-mark? top and mahogany back/sides) that's roughly classical-sized at 14 5/8" on the lower bout with a bolted-on (inside at the neck block) and fast, Gibson-scale (24 3/4") and profile neck. It's an interesting build and has a pretty loud, warm tone that's a lot like a Gibson LG-1 with the addition of a sort of rounder, fuller 30s 12-fret vibe due to the bridge location.
What I'm trying to say, is -- this is a pretty good, practical guitar for something so offbeat. I especially like the early 60s Gibson-y neck profile which makes it a great "player's" guitar. It's easy on the left hand and a shallow neck heel gives easyf access despite the 12th-fret joint.
Like all EKO products, the finish shows tons of long weather-related finish cracks. It's something about their glossy, thick finish. Later-production Levin/Goya guitars do the same.
My work on this instrument included replacing the bridge, saddle, and pins and giving it a good cleaning and setup. The frets were basically untouched -- so I didn't need to do a level/dress. I have it strung-up with a straight set of 54w-12 strings and the truss rod isn't even engaged, so neck stability appears to be grand.
This has a 3-piece mahogany/mahogany/mahogany neck. The truss cover is metal and I recut the slot for the rod access a bit to allow modern truss-turning tools to do the job.
Contessa is a brand seen employed on Framus-made instruments, too.
The fretboard is rosewood and has a 12" radius (or thereabouts).
The tortoise pickguard and white/black/white binding at the soundhole and top edge look 60s-cool.
The bridge is a replacement rosewood "pyramid" one that's a hair oversized vs. the missing original. I made a new bone nut for it and scrounged for vintage plastic pins that sort-of matched the trim.
Action is right-on at 1/16" DGBE and 3/32" EA at the 12th fret.
The saddle is a drop-in and action can be adjusted easily.
The sealed (Kluson-ish) tuners are interesting and work well.
The back isn't spared from the usual EKO-style finish weather-cracks.
Comments
So, it's probably not an EKO. Italian guitar provenance is a mess, but it doesn't matter. One of my working theories is the early Japanese guitar manufacturers got their cosmetic inspiration from Italy, not the USA. At some point they must have realized Americans were not all that crazy about Italian guitars, even the ones filtered through England and Germany.
Eventually, the craziest HG10 ever found me in Austin. It's a long story. You can still find it via "hg10 contessa klash". It's my favorite guitar. Somewhere on its journey to me it acquired a PRS McCarty pickup in the bridge, so my thanks to somebody.
Btw, I followed Ted's link. The twisted Tele alone was worth the trip, but there is so much more...
While playing it this morning I noticed a large phillips head screw with a significant washer on the neck joint plate inside the body. Could this have a bolt on neck joint? Do you happen to know?
Also, do you happen to know the tonewood used for the top? The grain in your example is very different than mine, Serial No. 16336 . I'd guess mine is spruce but I've read that EKO sometimes used water chestnut.