It has been a long Corona year, and there really is no good reason to stop posting guitar photos and occasional thoughts about all things related to Japanese instruments. Today I'm just going to add a few photos of some amazing Grecos.
A rare pair of EGF-1800 Super Real Grecos
EG57-60 from 1982
52 Blackguard-style TL-800
The one that should have stayed: 1981 Greco SS-800
When checking email for auction alerts I had a Greco SG notice that was already an hour old.
One click on the link, and right away I am staring at a Greco odd-ball SG, the same one that I remember seeing years ago on the legendary Udonitron's Flickr site (pics below from the talented Udonitron). With a fair purchase price, I remembered enough to read the description before hitting the magic button. "The Greco logo looks similar to a Gibson - don't purchase if that bothers you." stood out but only as something I've never seen before. The pictures look decent enough so click, click, click and off the market it did come.
Someone from the great FB Greco group posted a video link to another example from 1989. There is some good playing here to demo the pickups.
Certainly there was another 3-pickup SG that came out around the same time, also with gold hardware but with P-90s, dot inlays, and metal tuning pegs like on a junior. One one of the auction sites, a proper model name: Greco SS-85S model for Ranmaru from "Street Sliders."
A quick search and we have actual footage of the man himself with the guitar.
I pulled these pictures from an old auction:
So that solves one Greco 3-pu model story, but I couldn't find anything for the SG model with mini-hums. At least there is one more out there. There is one more SG that I had, but as is my bad habit with most of the rare guitars I get, I ended up selling it. Perhaps it was a custom order or a model made for an artist. I'm sure another one will show up someday.
Ace Frehley and Kiss have been big in Japan since the 70s and still make waves today. The current Ace-less KISS incarnation just finished played the Japan shows on their latest farewell tour.
Back in the 70's when Gibson's glory days were behind it and Japanese guitar makers were building on years of experience to produce excellent handmade Gibson models even Ace had to see what all the fuss was about. There are photos of him playing the Mick Ralphs model and a special AK-1400 flying V model during live shows in Japan.
Ace with Greco AK-1400 Flying V model - Key Music Limited
Ace with a 1977 Greco MR-1000
There have been many Greco homages to Ace's famous three-pickup "Budokan" 1974 Gibson Custom over the years starting in the mid 70's with a few Greco models. I just acquired the very clean 1981 EG600PR below from everyone's favorite music store Ishibashi. It is a fairly light one at 4.2 kg and has a nicely matched 3-piece top. The U-1000 pickups are ceramic and work very nicely as open pickups. While the 1980 Super Real catalog has this model listed as having an ebony fretboard ("エボニー") it does not, and I've never seen one that does from the Super Real era and I'm pretty sure that was an unfortunate error in producing the catalog. I'd love to get am EG800PR which has an ebony fretboard and MOP inlays but they are fairly rare.
Aoyama Oyaji has returned back to the Aoyama base since last month and no sooner did the dust settle than I bought couple of nice Grecos from the early 80's. Both have a little bit of good old fashioned playing wear but with a string change and a cleanup are back in fighting shape.
1982 Greco TE-600 (guess) and 1983 EC-57-60
The tele in the black and gold style is an April 1984 tele which means the end of the line for Greco Fender copies since the partnership with Kanda Shokai and Yamano Music with Fender USA and Fujigen started up around that time. This is a tone monster with some very nice tele pickups inside and great sustain. From what I can tell under the poly finish is a 3-piece sen ash body. There were a few of these D82**** models out there including the one pictured below from a few years back which suggests a free for all on the production floor or perhaps alternately these were new models planned for the 1982 "Mint Collection" era that didn't make it past the month of April 1982.
April 1982 SE-???
The Mint Collection EC57-60 is a version of the original 50's era Gibson black beauty Les Paul Custom that gives the warmth of the all-mahogany body construction, along with the weakness of the non-volute headstock. Fortunately this one has survived with no damage except a couple of finish chips on the neck.
It is just over 4.0 kg which is quite light compared to the two example I had before which were 10 pounders. The three Screamin' 1982 pickups give the three neck / out of phase middle+bridge/ bridge options. It would be lovely to have an ebony board with MOP but this rosewood board is nice and at the price point there really are no complaints.
There are a few of these "Sonix" guitars out there. The background is that they are a store brand "produced" by Sonix store in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture in Japan. Hamamatsu also happens to be the home of Yamaha musical instruments and Tokai Gakki.
As far as I can tell the Sonix guitars were made by Deviser and more or less matched the Momose line of guitars for specs.
Sonix seems to have been one of the big dealers of Bacchus, Rivdrhead, and Momose guitars from the late 90's and you can see some examples of that series (one, two, three, four) courtesy of the Internet Wayback Machine.
I have seen a few Sonix guitars for sale over the last few years and managed to get the 62-style strat and SG two at reasonable prices. The specs seem to vary between the runs they did. The strat is basically a Momose-spec with a 2-pice body and nitro finish. It came with a nice set of Lindy Fralin Blues Specials but I think the last owner put those in along with the reproduction .1 mfd cap.
The SG has the same "Custom Craft" logo as Momoses and has a 1-piece mahogany body and nitro finish. There were models with Brazilian boards but this one seems to be Madagascar to me.
Here is a recent acquisition: 1979 Greco SE-600J. This was based on a customized strat Jeff Beck used during the 1978 Japan tour "Jeff Beck with Stanley Clarke." Even thoughJeff didn't seem to use this strat exclusively after the tour Greco was soon to issue their own versions along with similar models from Aria Pro II, Fernandes and Navigator. I have had a couple of these including a light mint condition 1981 SE-500J Spacey Sounds model that was about 7 and a half pounds. This one from 1979 looks like to wild older brother compared to that one and has a ton of honest play wear in it. It weighs 9 and a half pounds which is more than a good number of Les Pauls. Check out the fretboard wear at the first few frets. All in all a nice (if a bit heavy) natural relic that sounds and plays great.
1982 Greco Mint Collection EC57-60. Sure, it doesn't have and ebony fretboard or MOP inlays but it is a pretty good Gibson substitute with the all-mahogany body/top/neck, 50's style neck and headstock angle.
PGM guitar are amazing. I've had some Navigators, Tokais and Grecos that had a lot going for them but so far the classiest Fender copies I've tried are PGM Van Zandts and Moon guitars.
You could definitely do worse than getting one of these Momose MLS1-STD/NJ Les Paul-style guitars. Links here and here to Guitar Planet in Ochanomizu. Photos from Guitar Planet. No affiliation with the store, I just like the guitars. Here is a link to the product page on the Deviser site.
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