Star guitarists played on guitars from Eindhoven

Leading up to BRIDGE Festival, we step -together with Niels Guns (journalist; guitar freak; storyteller)- into the world of guitars, guitarists, guitar music and guitar gear. Niels touches the sensitive chord with tantalizing background stories and hands-on interviews, in the series 'Guns about Guitars'.

Long before BRIDGE, Eindhoven was a guitar town. Brian May, George Harrison, Keith Richards: they all played their first notes on the guitar on an Egmond. Together with Joep Egmond, grandson of the founder of the legendary brand from the Eindhoven area, I look back on the heyday. And with Eindhoven guitar hero Peter van Elderen, I take the test and try to distinguish the myth of Egmond from reality.

By Niels Guns

It all started on an Egmond

Unique family history hangs on the wall in Son in the garage of Joep Egmond, the grandson of Egmond founder Uilke. Seven special models that rolled out of the Egmond factories in Best now hang there as silent witnesses in memory of Holland's most famous guitar brand. The list of greats who once played an Egmond guitar is long. Brian May, George Harrison, Keith Richards, Paul McCartney and -closer to home- Dutch pioneers of rock 'n roll like Peter Koelewijn and Andy Tielman. The best and the most successful guitarists all started on an Egmond. "I am happy to acknowledge this instrument as a great portal into my life," says Brian May, for example, in the foreword to the book "Egmond, the legendary Dutch guitar brand" by Cees Bakker. "I cherish my memories and still have my original Egmond."

The Beatles and their Egmonds

But however legendary, the company went bankrupt in 1974. Joep Egmond still talks about the special family history with a twinkle in his eye. "In its heyday, 200,000 guitars a year rolled out of the factory," he says in the living room in Son after showing me a special hollow body edition of an Egmond guitar. "The company benefited considerably from the rise of beat music. When it became known that George Harrison and Paul McCartney also played on an Egmond, it didn't hurt."

McCartney, by the way, was quite inventive with his 1959 Egmond Rosetti Solid 7. He took off the guitar strings, put thick piano strings on, replaced the pickups and voila: the first electric bass guitar of the later Sir Paul was born. His Beatles colleague George Harrison's copy, by the way, was gathering dust in a closet in northwest England for years, but it now hangs in The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool. The thing brought nearly 400,000 euros at auction. Paul McCartney's Rosetti was smashed to smithereens by the Beatles after the instrument was dropped and thus considerably damaged.

A guitar with a story

And there are countless more stories about the famous guitars from the Eindhoven region. Just as every guitar has a story to tell. Competition from Asia eventually killed the guitar maker from the Eindhoven region. "They could no longer compete with the pace of work, the work ethic, the low costs and ultimately the quality. By far most of Egmond's guitars were exported to America. When they realized that they could also get good and cheaper guitars in Asia, things went quickly," Joep recalls.

World player

Joep Egmond, a renowned painter, has stepped up as Egmond's heritage guardian. He proudly recounts the time when his grandfather recognized the need for guitars in Europe. "He started as a violin maker, but he recognized after the war that young people were more influenced by American culture. A smart move to go into guitars." Joep's father and three uncles eventually made Egmond a world player. "A great time it used to be. There was always a lot of music at our house. For example, the guys from the Rosenberg family often came over to our place."

Joep has also been in the music business for a long time. For years he ran music store Musica on Hooghuisstraat in Eindhoven. Some time ago, Joep had contact with Brian May to make a special reissue of his first Egmond guitar. "But that didn't come about in the end. Brian is also so busy with all kinds of things."

Egmond Typhoon 3V

Time to put them to the test. Because what kind of guitars were they? Bridge bought an Egmond Typhoon 3V with which I sit down in the living room of Peter van Elderen. Who better than this Eindhoven guitar icon to judge this legendary guitar? "Super cool!", is the first thing the winner of a Duiveltje in 2005 (the award for best guitarist in the Netherlands) exclaims when he takes the indeed beautiful specimen in his hands. The semi-hollow model is inspired by a Fender Jaguar and has to rely mainly on its looks: beautiful mother-of-pearl pickguard, a graceful shape and a unique pickup controller.
Peter plugs the guitar into a Supro, his living room amp. It squeaks, it creaks. "Oh, wow," Peter says. "That's a bit of a search. I can see right away that the bridge isn't adjusted quite right. The intonation isn't what it should be. And also that tremolo is a little strange. Like it's actually some kind of acoustic body that they've incorporated elements from an electric guitar into."

Really beautiful guitar

Constant playing, that's really the motto with this one. As soon as Peter lets his fingers rest, feedback takes over super fast. "It's a cool thing though," he says again. "The neck isn't doable that thick, though. You could maybe play nice surf riffs on it." Not much later, Peter -who plays BRIDGE Festival with his band TankZilla- fiddles a few fat Dick Dale riffs out of it. For comparison, he picks up his own Gibson Les Paul. You don't have to be a professional guitarist to hear the difference of almost night and day. Still, the Egmond has its charm, a bit like any first guitar elicits fond memories. "I do understand that they lost the battle," Peter states. "Of course, they also had a lot of bad luck and, of course, the competition at that time was also doing all sorts of things in terms of development. With a better marketing strategy and a slightly better product development, they might have been able to save. Because it's just a heart-stopping guitar with a whole lot of nostalgia and a wonderful story."