Sekova Flatbody Hybrid

A beginner?s guitar, what can I say? Most parents don?t want to buy an expensive instrument for their kids, for fear they?ll loose interest, so beginner guitars are manufactured inexpensively. The trouble was, in the past, the intonation was so bad and the action was so high/hard, that most kids would never learn to play anyway. By contrast, today?s beginner guitars have a much easier action & stay in tune, while still being affordable. That wasn?t the case in the 70?s.

In the 70?s most beginner guitars were made in Japan, Hong Kong, or Taiwan. By companies like Harmony, Kay,Sekova, Ibanez, etc. Some were horrible sounding sort-of look alikes of better brands, others were dead-on knock-offs with decent sound. Sekovas wew somewhere in the middle.

I got this guitar as my first ?new? electric in 1973. It?s not a copy of any particular model. It is a sort of hybrid mix of Fender flatbodies. The lower body has a cool off-center twist like a Jaguar, but the horns are taller like a Mustang. It has a Jaguar-like tremolo & chrome plate for the knobs. It has two single coil pickups encased in wide chrome covers so they have the appearance of mini-humbuckers. They are controlled by two slide switches. It?s got a lot of features for a Sekova, so I guess it?s one of the nicer ones

The intonation was always a little off, you could never get all six strings in tune with each other. Ok for a partial chord or to pick a simple melody, but open chords always sounded horrible. It sounds better with X-Lite bronze acoustic strings.

The scale looks and feels like a 24 ? like a Gibson, the neck is real fat, like playing a baseball bat. 22 frets. But the body is very thin, like a Telecaster, and has the Jaguar shape & lay-out. It has a nice burgundy to black burst, which was Fender?s rarest color. The action was very high, even after adjustingh the bridge & truss-rod, so I inserted shims between the neck & body to re-angle the neck, then re-adjusted the bridge & trussrod to reflect it. I lost a little sustain, but the action is much lower/faster now.

The intonation was always a little off, you could never get all six strings in tune with each other. Ok for a partial chord or to pick a simple melody, but open chords always sounded horrible. It sounds better with X-Lite bronze acoustic strings.

I only used it live at a few private parties, as a teenager. Since, then I've used better guitars for gigs. The tone is just not good enough for performances. Its solid as a rock bodywise. Nothing ever wore out except the original slide switches & pots got scratchy.
The Frets are some incredible alloy from space, they have NEVER worn down in 31 years.

My dad bought it from some electronc's hobby shop in Union City, NJ in 1973 that closed shortly thereafter. I dont even remember seeing a warranty card in the box. Never had to call Sekova though. It peformed as well or better than I expected.

Not a bad axe for the money. If the tone was better it would have been a great bargain. After a few years, I decided to do some upgrades. I installed a tunematic bridge (which helped the intonation alot), an Ibanez Super 70 Humbucker at the bridge, and an old single coil (60?s Tele?)at the neck. A 3-way toggle instead of the troublesome slide switches, all mounted on a piece of plexyglass, that I spraypainted from the rear. I removed the Sekova emblem & nobody knows exactly what it is. Sounds better too. The Humbucker
is bright when clean, & crunchy distorted. The nickel A&B strings ring out a bit clearer over the other bronze ones. The single coil, with the bronze strings & just a hint of chorusing sounds real sweet. Open chords are still just a bit sour, so my next upgrade will be a set of individual tuners and one of those multi-saddle nuts.

If it was stolen, Id feel bad cause it has sentimental value. Dollar-wise it?s only worth as much as the upgraded hardware & pickups I installed. I could never replace it though?..