Mint Collection Greco special SGs

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.

Triple mini-humbuckers. From https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobenis/

1989 serial From https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobenis/

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.

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....

Get your Ace Frehley on! Greco EG-600PR

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. 

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.

I814310

Environmentally friendly packing

I was a bit surprised when the Japan Post guy showed up on Saturday night and handed me the package on the left. Usually guitars show up in at least rectangular boxes of some kind. Fortunately the cargo was intact. This 1981 Greco SE-500 looked to be in very rough shape from the auction pictures so I was thinking it would need some serious work, or at worst be a source of some nice parts.


I814310, with the bridge riding exceptionally high due to the 6 screws being a cm out of their normal position. 

3TS SE-500 1981

Not looking too good

The action looked like something was not going to end well but after adjusting the bridge and the truss rod nut the action is just perfect. The frets are in great condition and after a good cleaning of some unidentified gunk this SE-500 is back in action.

Before 

After, weighing in at all of 3.1 kg. Lightest Greco strat I have had.

In bits and pieces for some cleaning and inspection

3TS finish, except under the pickguard. Why waste paint?

Number 5 for SE-500

Stamped steel saddles

Back in the land of the good old Greco

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.

Classy pair of 30-something Grecos

Greco 8's Black + Gold