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Jolana Production dates and serial numbers - for those of you seeking more information, here's the link to the full list of all Jolana models, including those we don't have on the site, with production dates and serial numbers.
Jolana was one of the most widespread brands in Europe, but still it's not really famous. Futurama guitars, imported by Selmer, were popular in UK in the beginning of the 60's and were used by George Harrisson, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton among others. But, as the time went by, Czech guitar quality went down and Jolanas were marketed mainly in the countries of the "Eastern Block" - behind the Iron Curtain. It is reported the company was closed in 1989, but we have a '1991 RK bass on our site which means at least some facilities were functioning in the beginning of the nineties.
Czechoslovakian guitar production is the most documented among all the Eastern-Europe cheesy stuff. A couple of articles by Dusan Palka, Jiri Tutter and others were already written before www.cheesyguitars.com appeared in 2001. But still, we're happy to introduce the almost full listing of all Czech-made instruments. Currently about 90% of the Jolana production is covered. Many of the pictures show non-stock (modified) instuments, so if you have better pictures, please contact us and we'll update the site.
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