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Eston - Australia - Ken Palethorpe Eko acoustic guitars Rangers, 100 series and Classical series were imported into Australia by Lamberti Brothers of Melbourne under there own brand Eston not as Eko. The "TON" part of ESTON is named after Tony Lamberti. I had traced the Eston brand to Lamberti Bros, Melbourne. I spoke with Mr Tony Lamberti who was an importer of guitars in Melbourne for many many years importing from Italy and then from Japan. Mr Lamberti is now in his eighties and his family still runs a music store in Melbourne. Melbourne has a very large Italian community
centred around Lygon street (A bit like Little Italy in New York).
He also ran a music school with over 250 pupils at any one time.
He had two radio shows on the then most popular station 3XY. He had other brands, Stella and Canora, which I remember as entry level guitars. Mr Lamberti also sold thousands of banjo mandolins of his manufacture. He said that after Oliveri Pigini's death he moved more towards Japanese manufactured guitars including YAIRI. He told me that the Australian importer of the electric guitars under the Eko brand was probably Rose Music which was know as Rose Morris until around 1966. Now Rose Music was probably one of the largest music suppliers in Australia. They were involved with the JMI products which may explain the Vox / Eko / Crucianelli connection. Rose music are no longer, Alan Rose died many years ago. Tracing the importer of the Crucianelli built Elite brand currently (2007) points to another Italian Australian Lou Topano. Like Lamberti he ran a music and dance school, Lou Topanos school of music,which was focused on television production and was quite an influential figure. His daughter Peta Topano is a well know actor. In my research into Australian sold guitars and amplifiers of the 60s his name always crops up when Elite brand guitars are mentioned as being the importer.
http://www.greatguitars.com.au/
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