I was interested to discover that EKO were originally accordian manufacturers based in Recanati,Italy, and shifted production to electric guitars with the waning popularity of squeezeboxes. Their first guitars, built in 1961, were similar to Fenders Jazzmaster but were adorned with squeeze-box sparkly moulded plastic and multi-coloured pearl. They also had lots of accordian-style knobs and switches! Presumably the Ranger accoustics followed later!