Eko SG Clone

I seriously don't know why I'm still keeping this thing around. I bought this weird axe back in 1998 or 1999, and for the life of me I cannot remember how much I got it for. Lot of things have happened since then...

I basically bought this axe because I liked the way it looked. I still believe she's a beauty, but, after a decade of fiddling with it, repeatedly replacing parts of it, patching it up etc etc, I have to say there is NOTHING ON THIS PLANET that can be done to make this thing sound like an actual guitar.

I used this on my band's first full length album. My band's first full length album was good, but it had crap sound.

And so do all EKO guitars. All of them, period. They are easy on the eye, but they are only good if you don't case about being in tune, and you don't mind sounding like your beatnik uncle's old band.

Let me list all the customizations I've performed on this bitch over the years:

• Changed the frets to jumbo ones.
  Helped a bit with the fretboard feel, didn't really do anything for the tone.
• Replaced neck pickup with a humbucker salvaged from an old Ibanez.
  Don't really remember what this one is, or even why I did it. I was probably getting desperate. I mean, truth be told, the pickups this one has on are true 60's vintage stuff, nothing really sounds like they do. Which is shit. I actually got a very good deal on the one I removed, I sold it to a garage rock afficionado for 180 euros. I think that's about as much as I paid for the guitar.
• Changed neck screws, reinforced neck join with glue.
  My main problem with this axe is that then neck is unstable, because of the very thin and bad quality woodwork. Tried everything I could on this one, and it's a bit better now, but still not stable enough.

After all that, all I have to say is that this guitar -apart from being pretty- is the worst guitar I have ever played I my entire life. I seriously think that buying something like this automatically makes me a Muppet. Same goes for all you out there, too.

By AC. Posted at 2007-12-16 03:36:44