Hello from Finland

[MWaldorf]

Were there any interesting Finnish made guitars in the 60s? Were the echo units the German, Italian, British or others? I know most if not all the US made tape echos were single head models, and most if not all of the European ones were multihead, and I think it's part of what makes the euro-instro sounds special.

[Chemo]

Were there any interesting Finnish made guitars in the 60s?

Nah, not really. Some of the young rautalanka bands made their own instruments, because they could not afford Fenders. But there are no interesting electric guitar manufacturers from that era.

Were the echo units the German, Italian, British or others?

Back in the 60's they just used whatever they found, basically. But today the most popular tape echo among rautalanka guitarists would be the Pearl Echo Orbit EO-301 (they also tend to accept Vorg). The Roland units like RE-201 Space Echo are also popular.

You're absolutely right with the single/multihead matter. It is very typical for the european instrumental bands to use multihead tape echos. The biggest influence being The Shadows, it is quite natural to follow Hank in that way too.