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.
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".
I had to go have a look on some of the Tokai and MIJ guitar forums to see exactly what this one is about. It is an early 1978 Tokai ST-60 in the sub-600 serial range. These early Springy Sounds had a slightly narrower neck plate and also pre-date the use of the "E" stamped grey bobbin pickups.
I was able to confirm that indeed that the pickups were original; the solder is virgin and I had never seen the particular brass grounding plate that Tokai used on these guitars.
It is a typical ST-60 with a centre-matched SEN body and one-piece maple neck with a nice thin poly finish. These really look to me like fresh nitro with the thin layer or poly letting the grain of the SEN come through.
It came with a rare "Springy Sound ST Series" hangtag that is actually a sticker. Nice to see one of these, I don't recall seeing them before so perhaps it was something from the early days.
Currently available in my Reverb store (click link below). Direct messages welcome as well!
Original "Type A" pickups
Stamped "ST-60" and a reverse ink transfer of the S/N stamped on the neck
Tokai assembly with pickup grounds soldered to the baseplate
Yes, it has been over 2 months since the last post here. Belated Happy New Year 2019, and Happy Lunar New Year while it is still the season.
This popped up for sale earlier this week and I couldn't resist getting it. It is an ESP Japan guitar with all the goodness that entails, plus the amazing inlay work in the headstock, fretboard and body. As a nice touch it has a pair of Seth Lover Seymour Duncans which I really like for a PAF-like humbucker.
It is apparently an ESP 30th anniversary model from 2004. I found an old listing of this on Reverb from Ishibashi with a list price of $4648. The serial matches so it looks like someone bought it a couple of years ago and then traded in to another guitar store in Tokyo last week.
These Potbellys are available as ESP or Edwards models and this one at least has a great balance between body and neck. Green is not my colour of choice for guitars but it works pretty well IMO for this one.
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?
