1/4 Joep Egmond with his collection of Egmond guitars (photo: Rogier van Son).
The Bridge festival starts in Eindhoven on Wednesday. Not a strange place for this new guitar festival, because the region used to be the beating heart of the guitar industry. This is where the Egmond guitars were built. World guitarists such as Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones and Brian May of Queen played on such an Egmond. The 71-year-old Joep Egmond proudly talks about the guitar brand that his grandfather Uilke started with his sons in a garage.
Paul McCartney and George Harrison of The Beatles also played on a cheap Egmond guitar from the factory in Eindhoven. Harrison’s first guitar later sold for nearly $400,000. “Who hasn’t started on an Egmond?” says Joep Egmond proudly.
“All those guitar heroes wanted to start a band. Because they simply had no money, they chose the Egmond guitars. Later they switched to other brands that were of better quality, but also much more expensive.”
The Egmond guitar comes from the family business of the same name. Joep’s grandfather is the founder. “He was retired. He gave violin lessons, but around the war there was a shortage of instruments. Grandpa went to check and repair pianos with his four sons. They also built instruments. In the end, they chose the guitar.”
250 Egmond models came on the market. Sometimes under a different name, but they all came from Brabant. “They started with acoustic jazz guitars. Then the electric guitars came into play. My father was the youngest son and was an electrical engineering graduate. He made sure to put some electronics on the guitars.”
“They made 150,000 guitars a year. That’s how it exploded.”
The demand for those electric guitars increased in the sixties and Egmond cleverly responded to this. “It was all because of The Beatles. They picked up those guitars to develop their new music. The youth also all wanted a guitar. Only the American guitars were priceless. The dollar stood at ten guilders.”
“Something had to be done in Europe as well. Workshops that first made violins or mandolins switched to the guitar. The companies remained small because they were not automated.”
The Egmond brand did become a success. “My uncle Dirk Egmond had a technical talent and started automating the factory. With bicycle chains. My uncle Gerard had sailed the world’s seas. He could pull the cart internationally. They started exporting and those studios couldn’t do that. They got stuck.”
The demand from America for those European, cheaper Egmond guitars also increased. The company grew into a factory in Best with 200 people. “They made 150,000 guitars a year.”
“The Egmond has become history. A legend.”
Later America and England started importing guitars from Asia. Egmond could not compete with that. “Wages were much lower there and production capacity was better. The end of the seventies was the end of the story for Egmond. It has fizzled out.”
For Joep, the memories remain, a large collection of forty Egmond guitars and the photos. He likes to keep the family history alive. He proudly starts about the personal contact he had with Queen guitarist Brian May. “He wrote a nice message. That Egmond got that generation rocking on the guitar.”
“The Egmond has become history. A legend. The history of pop music can partly be attributed to the Egmond guitars.”
