Product: EKO Jeff Beck Strat
Price Paid: US $400
Submitted
12/06/2005
at
04:15pm
by
BluesMan
Features
:
10
Standard Strat features, 1 Volume, 2 Tone Knobs, vintage style tremolo bridge.
Sound
:
10
I like creating Frankenstein type creations from parts of various guitars. In this case, I took the Eko Jeff Beck Strat neck and attached it to a Jackson guitar body, then upgraded the two humbuckers to a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in the neck and Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge. The result is an outstanding "Super Strat" for less than half the price you would pay for a Jackson Soloist.
The plan now is to replace the tuners with Grover locking tuners, which will almost certainly keep the guitar in better tune. And I'd like to add a coil splitting function for more Strat-like sounds from the humbuckers.
My "10" rating is for the Frankenstein creation ...
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
No Opinion
Reliability/Durability
:
No Opinion
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
10
Product: EKO Jeff Beck Strat
Price Paid: US $250 used
Submitted
09/04/2005
at
10:42am
by
Border Bandit
Features
:
7
Standard Fat Strat set-up (H/S/S). Great Maple Neck w/ Rosewood Board. Good paint and finish on body. Body seems to be a Poplar or Basswood. Neck and Fret Board are not exactly to Fender specs, a little wider and flatter. But, a great feel regardless!
Sound
:
10
This guitar sounds absolutely fantastic! This is the finest feature of these guitars. Acoustically these guitars are as good or better than American Strats. The Pups are like mid-level Fenders (think Tex-Mex quality tho not as hot). The Pups'll even give you a good Strat 'bell chime' and 'quack'!!! But, like every player with G.A.S., I put some vintage Greco Pups (S/S/S) on this Eko. Now, I basically have a pre-CBS sounding Strat for less than $300 ($250 for guitar, $40 for the Greco Pups).
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
6
This is the one thing that Eko (like Fender Mexico, Epiphone Korea, etc) could have done better- Put some time into on the back end of the product. These guitars are potentially great. Someone described them as Jimmie Vaughan Strat quality. I commented on the absolutely sublime acoustics. However, Eko needs to set these up and finish them a little better. I did the work myself. But, people should just pay $100 and have a pro adjust everything and finish the frets. Then, you WILL have a $600-700 guitar for around $350.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
Seems to be Fender level durability. Neck is very high quality (once the frets are fully dressed). Body seems to be Fender MIJ/MIM quality poplar/basswood. The paint and finish seem solid. Hardware seems mid-level. (Again, this is not going to compete with a Custon Shop Strat. But, you certainly get a great guitar for little $.)
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't tried. Something tells me, as others have stated, that these aren't even made anymore. Given that the Headstock is nearly dead-on Fender, these are probably the late-90's version of the 70's Tokais, Grecos, Fernandes. (Fender probably sent Eko a bid ol' Cease-and Desist.)
Overall Rating
:
10
Great value for the $. The woods sound American. The components are MIM level. Put in some Duncans/Fender American/MIJ Lawsuit Pups and you're smokin'!!! Just be ready to put an extra $100 for setup and fret dress (or do the work yourself). Once set up, you've got an exceptionally great sounding addition to the Strat tradition. AND, givin that this is a Lawsuit type copy (and Italian made not factory Asian), these Ekos might be worth a bit in the future, just like Tokais today.
