Today I removed all the frets from this EKO guitar n. 100, vintage semi acoustic from the 70s, Italian factory production (Recanati).

Removing the frets is usually a necessary operation on all vintage guitars, which have not had special care over time.

The frets needed to be changed with the use of the guitar, being composed of relatively soft metal material (18% nickel). Only a few recent models mount hard stainless steel frets, which last longer, but unfortunately make various complications during their mounting on fretboard.

When only the first frets getting used, it often means that the instrument played with a wrong setup.

The fret can be worn uniformly or locally, in the latter case you can only change the “slotted” buttons, while in the first case we will have no other option than to change all the metal bars.

Changing the frets makes significant improvements in the instrument’s playability. Better sustain, better tuning, less “buzz” and better action

One of our endorser Valter Vincenti is an EKO endorser and he uses on it our C-Big Beat pickups.

Hystory of EKO 100

The Eko 100 has been produced in the acoustic or electric version with one or two pickups. When Eko stopped serialing, this guitar took three different names, each for a different type of finish. Mascot, the economical two-tone “burst” finish (“Medallion” in the USA). Commander, “red-burst” finish; Escort, “natural” finish. No palette or binding until the next model, 200.

from Fetish Guitars