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

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.

DRY-Z Part 3: From the blog of Jun Takano

Sorry, finishing this translation of Jun Takano's blog posts on DRY-Z development slipped my mind. Better late than never!

Part 3 of the blog entry of Jun Takano regarding the "Z-DRY" development. Translated from the original Japanese.

Part 2 here.

Part 1 here.

The factory cost of the pickups we had developed up to that point was higher than the popular imported Dimarzio pickup of the time and it didn't make any sense to put them in the lower-priced guitar models so they were used only on the high-priced models.

Many guitars that had the pickups installed were passed to foreign artists. Among them were some people like Andy Latimer who didn't want a guitar but only wanted to have the pickups.  

Of course, I was still not 100% satisfied with what we had accomplished up to that time. I wanted to improve the specifications but I was unable to successfully negotiate this with the factory side and so the road for being able to suggest further improvements became closed.

I was able to improve the bobbins at the time of the Mint Collection ramp-up but that was the end.

Some time after the new bobbin was introduced the specifications were changed for the worse. The stock of wire ran out and they switched to plain urethane wire but I never had any report of this.

After that rich tone was completely lost, it never came back.

From http://ameblo.jp/ktguitarresearch/entry-10475069153.html

Strats...I've had a few

MIJ strats. 

Here are a few of the ones I have had over the past couple of years. Some great Grecos, Tokas and Bacchus guitars along with a Fernandes and a very cool Aria Pro II Jeff Beck Model. 

Tokai ST-80 1980

 

Tokai ST-50 1980

Aria Pro ST-600 Jeff Beck Model

SE-500 Spacey Sound. One of the best Grecos I have ever played.

The "lowly" SE-450 Spacey Sound with case and original paperwork.

1979 SE-500 Super Sounds, just before the Super Real line came out.

1980 SE-600 Super Sounds.

Late 1981 SE-500J Jeff Beck Model. Mint condition but with a thin neck :-(

A refin project for a 1979 SE-600J Jeff Beck model

Greco's version of "The Strat". Super Sounds SE-600 perhaps?

Tokai Goldstar ST-50. 

A well-played 1979 SE-800J Jeff Beck model coming in at 10 lbs

Very nice Bacchus Strat. It has the Vintage-style decal but a modified headstock with the truss rod adjustable from the headstock. All-nitro finish. 

Lower-model "Limited Edition" Fernandes.

Minty SE-450 with changed knobs and pickup covers.

Tokai Custom Edition with flame maple veneer and gold hardware.

Tokai ST-70 version of Fender's "The Strat"