O-hisashiburi

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

Lighting and Wood: Tokai LS-80

Old Tokai LS-80s are a real pleasure to play and photograph. This particular one is an early one from 1978 with mother of pearl fretboard inlays and chrome plated hardware.

It was a sunny winter day here in Tokyo with the sun coming in hard through the windows. The top of the LS really caught flame and revealed the fine figuring of the old maple.   

A very clean headstock with the early pearloid tuning pegs.

A more subdued look in the shade.

Not your typical back grain here on the 1-piece mahogany.

Under the hood: Maxon 1974 U-1000 Pickup

This 46 year old Maxon U-1000 showed up on Yahoo Auctions needing a new home and a new pickup lead wire. I though the U-1000s started in 1975 but the stamp on this one shows a 1974 date.





Thankfully the pickup coils were both intact and there were no shorts. There are the remains of a "Maxon" sticker that would have looked like this:

You can see that Maxon did a decent job of replicating the good old PAF design with the wooden spacer and the metal bar. The magnet is probably Alnico 8 if it is in line with the typical U-1000 design.

A little bit of soldering action later we have a nice vintage U-1000 reading a bit over 8k in resistance.

Now to find a guitar to put it in....

Greco PU-2s and the letter "A"

These "A" stamped pickups show up from time to time, with no real reason or rhyme. Why did they use an "A" stamp on some 80's Maxon pickups made for Greco?

The only working idea I have is that they wound the "A" pickups in the same place and at the same time as they wound the "Z" pickups. I think they probably didn't want to get them mixed up so decided to use an "A" stamp for PU-2 pickups.

Are all "A" stamped pickups PU-2s? There are also some "A" pickups without "PU-2" embossing in the plates. One more mystery.

The pictured set is from a 1980 EGF-850. The numbers suggest different production dates. Only one has an "A".

Grecomania strikes again

Aoyama Oyaji has been busy lately with what else but some new Greco golden age guitars. 

Not much to report in detail, just some new pictures of old guitars.

1980 Super Real Custom. It came with DRY-Z but in a moment of stupidity they were sold.

1981 Super Real EGF-1800? It came with a Super Real case but no pickups.

EGF-850 Super Sound. No, really! PU-2, veneer flame, MOP inlays, and "Super Sound" on the headstock.

Good old 1980 EGF-850 "Super Real". Double white PU-2 pickups.

1983 Mint Collection EC57-60. Oddly light at 4.0 kg.

1986 EG60-180 equivalent. It has "Custom Order" in the pickup cavity, solid flametop, 1 piece back, and real nitro with finish checking.

1990 solid flametop with nitro finish. 2-piece back and neck heel make it an odd high-end model.

Why do those Dry Zs sound so good? - About those Super Real Pots

Greco Super Real Custom 1980 with split block inlays

I admit it. I did something bad with my 1980 Greco Custom. I sold the Dry-Z pickups and replaced them with some PU-2 pickups. DRY-Zs are the bees knees but PU-2s are dear to my heart as well and I guess needed the money that the sale brought in.

So out came the Z's and in went the PU-2s. Sounded great, if lacking the upper mid bite of the Zs. Then I got to thinking why not replace the stock Greco volume and tone pots with 500k pots and wire it 50's style. You are probably thinking "why?" at this point since of course the Super Real guitars had 500k pots like the old Gibsons.  But did they?

Bye bye Zs, hello PU-2

For some reason Kanda Shokai went with the odd combo of 300k volume and 100k tone pots for the Super Real series. As far as I have seen this was the way it was until late 1981.

The catalog says the 300k volume pots "have a smooth volume change" while preserving the highs and the 100k tone pots "give a sharp tone change." My experience is that they definitely do give a sharp change from having a nice balanced high end at 10 to pretty much no hi-end at 8.

For all the mystique of DRY-Zs and how they sound so good, please remember that if you are listening to them through 300k volume and 100k tone pots on "10" it is more or less equivalent to a 500k volume pot at 8.5 and a tone control on 6.5. That is a sweet spot for some nice tones on an LP and the DRY-Z works well in that zone. Change the pots to 500k all around and it opens up some nice tonal areas for the neck and bridge and also gives a bit more output on the volume.

From 1980 Catalog

Just in case you came this far and still need some more proof, here are some pot-shots for you with meter readings....

Tone measuring in at 90.3K fully open

Volume measuring in at 331K fully open

Tone pot: Here the leading "1" means 100K

Volume pot: Here the leading "3" means 300K

New catalog added: The Mint Collection 1982

Just click right here to get to it.

Thirty-six MIJ Guitars

Back at the old place in Aoyama the sun came through the window just right to take pictures of guitars on the wall hanger. Here are 36 Japanese made guitars from Greco, Tokai, Burny, Bacchus, Epiphone, Edwards (yes, an MIJ in there!), Orville by Gibson, Navigator (ESP) and a very rare Bison Golden Era reissue. I wish I had kept a few of these but they all have since passed on to new owners. 

And yes, I know I should have kept that Greco SG-800 Custom in cream.