wagmusic2krx
Joined: 19 May 2006
Posts: 86
Location: Plymouth, In.
Post subject: El Degas?
I have been playing for 40 years and working in the industry for over thirty years. I remember selling a few El Degas guitars in the early 70s at a little shop I worked in so there were some sent to the USA for sure.
I forget who it was that we got them from. For those not in the biz here is how it works. A particular NAME belongs to a certain company. For instance the Ibanez name belongs to the HOSHINO company, the Electra name belonged to St Louis Music, the PENCO name belonged to a company called Pennslvania Music Company or something like that.
So when these companies wanted guitars built they contracted with a manufactuer and had them done under that name. As of now I cannot recall who was the distributor for the ElDegas guitars but i am sure it was what is called a JOBBER. Usually that is a company that sells mostly accessories but will also sell a lesser known name of guitar that they either own or get the rights to sell.
For instance I have an old catalog from a company called TARG and DINNER from 1973 and in it they are selling Harmony, Encore, Sekova and also ARIA guitars. I am pretty sure it was one of the jobber companies that sold the ElDegas stuff.
I sold an El Degas accoustic to a buddy of mine back in about 73, in fact that is how I met him, sold it to his Mom for his Christmas present as I recall. he still owns and loves that old guitar to this day. They were pretty good stuff for the time period and the money spent. It was pretty much a Martin copy and we sold it for about $125 or so I think.
If I see anything in my old catalogs more about El Degas i will let you know on this thread.
The catalogue was never posted! Damn! Still no further ahead.If you look at what we are saying in this thread it kind of shows how the music biz works in a way.
SRD mentions that in western Canada as a kid he saw a lot of El Degas stuff, while myself and others in the USA have said, we know the brand but did not see all that many even back in the day.
Translation: Where SRD lived there was either a very active wholesaler who sold the Degas stuff to a lot of stores, or one particular store that was very successful selling it. Where I grew up the wholesalers were concentrating on different brands.
For instance I have sold Washburns in my store for years going clear back to the late 70s so I have loads of them coming into my store all the time. Not that it means much to anyone else but I just find it interesting how the brands that a local store or distributor choses to handle can have such an influence on what guitars are laying in the closets etc of the people in the area.
Now, if I could just remember the names and addresses of all those guys that I sold Travis Beans to back in the late 70s I would really be thrilled! lol
The full post is here: http://airline-guitars.com/phpBB/viewto ... 87d0239f50
