This is a very cool guitar, built at a time when solid body guitars were in their infancy. In the mid-late 1950s Britain didn't really have a guitar industry, the majority of guitars available were European imports. But the Antoria EG-90 was built by Guyatone in Japan, and was imported/distributed in UK by J.T. Coppock, Leeds in around 1958. It really is a cracking little guitar! It's very nicely made with a light mahogany body with maple(?) top and binding. It's quite small at 10 1/2" wide and 1 1/3" thick, and sports a three-piece maple/mahogany set neck, with a rosewood cap at the heel.
As explained above, Antoria was a house brand of UK distributor J.T. Coppock, but Guyatone made similar single and double pickup versions of this guitar for other distributors worldwide - branded Guyatone, Regent, Feather, Hi Tone, Vox and Star. There is no obvious way to precisely date this guitar, but it would seem to be from around 1958; give or take a year.
Like many early guitars the Antoria EG-90 has a floating bridge, which although a little effort to position correctly, at least ensures a more-or-less perfect intonation. One unusual feature is the use of nails/pins in stead of screws to attach the scratchplate to the body, though many early Guyatones have had these replaced by screws.
Early Guyatones like this were produced for various distributors from the mid/late 1950s into the early 1960s. Antoria seems to have been the earliest UK example, and even though few sold (especially single pickup guitars), they were used by quite a few up and coming British guitarists of the time, with the dual pickup Antoria LG-50 used by Hank Marvin (the Shadows), Johnny Byrne (Rory Storm and the Hurricanes) and Big Jim Sullivan (Marty Wilde and the Wildcats). It is not clear how long these Antoria guitars were available for in the UK, perhaps just 1958/1959. By the beginning of 1962, the guitars were being distributed by J. & I. Arbiter branded Guyatone.
This guitar, sadly, is not all-original. The controls and the rounded rectangular control plate are replicas, but not a bad representation of the original plate and knobs.
These are really well built guitars (despite the quirks like the nailed down pickguard), and it's not surprising they were widely adopted in the late 1950s. But they do have a reputation for high action. There is no truss rod adjustment, but in this example, at least, the neck is pretty straight and no adjustment is needed. The guitar is totally playable, but the action is a shade high - super low action doesn't seem to have been a thing in the mid 1950s! The problem is the pickup. It is quite a tall unit with no height adjustment. It simply screws to the body wood. There is room to lower the bridge (and the bridge itself is slotted fairly deeply), but bringing it any lower means the strings touch the pickup top. An easy fix would be to increase (just slightly) the depth of the pickup route... but with such a rare and collectable guitar probably better to suffer a slightly higher action!
Antoria EG-90 tailpiece, bridge and pickup. The floating bridge allows for almost perfect intonation - whilst the saddle does seem to be original, the base may not be. For a closer look at these components (including inside the pickup) and the restoration of this guitar see the extra content on the supporting members page.
These guitars were distributed under various brands (as listed above), with very little difference except for the branding on the scratchplate. This one has 'Antoria Foreign' in blue script.
The tailpiece is chrome-plated brass, affixed with seven screws.
The floating bridge is aluminium. The base and height adjustment wheels are likely not original.
Headstock front with 'truss rod cover'; there is no adjustable truss rod, the cover is merely decorative. Note there is no headstock branding.
The reverse of the headstock shows the three-piece maple-mahogany neck. The label on the back gives the model number EG-90.
1958 Antoria EG-90 'supporting members' content
Extra content on this guitar is included in the Supporting Members area here
- 66 extra images (with description): large detailed images (1200 px wide) including body routes, components
- Pickguard tracing (PDF for accurate sizing)
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