The Egmond story, in short. To get the complete Egmond story, I recommend the books about Egmond, written by Wim Markenhof and Cees Bakker. As a retired station-master, in 1932 Uilke Egmond (1878-1959) founded a music school and a music shop in Valkenswaard, that was named Musica. In the music school he gave violin lessons and in the shop he sold instruments that was, mainly, imported from the Eastern Europe. In 1935 the business moved to Eindhoven. Uilke's sons, Gerard (1904-1974), Dick (1920-1992) and Jaap (1921-1993) joined the company during WWII. The import of instruments ended and they decided to make the instruments on their own. In the early 50's there were 20 employees and 50 guitars a week, was made. Production of Banjos and Mandolins was added. In the early 60's there were 80 employees and 2000 guitars a week, was made. And the business moved to Best, a northern suburb of Eindhoven. In the 60's the Egmond was the largest luthier in Europe and they were more known for quantity than quality. Cheap instruments was made in large numbers and, practically, everyone could afford to buy a guitar. The cheapest models had a price tag that was only 10% of the cost for a comparable model of a Gibson or a Fender.