GOLD Jerry! GOLD!

Happy New Year 2020!

Stoptails, P-90s and gold. Gold Jerry! Gold!! 

 
Ok, excuse that Seinfeld reference.

Here are a couple of made-in-Japan tone machines that meet that recipe. The non-reverse Burny Firebird is an early 90's FB-65 or FB-75 (I think they adjusted the price at some point and the Crews is a recent model from around 2017 in the LS-02 series.

The Burny pickups sound really good to me. I'm not sure what the middle position switch does but will have to look under the hood some time. 

These are a slightly different shade of gold. I'm not sure what is more accurate to vintage Gibson colors. 

Both guitars have decent intonation all things considered with the stop-tails but full chords past the 10th fret just sound a bit off with the imperfect intonation. These are great blues and rock guitars though for single lines, bends and vibrato to make the intonation not matter too much.

The Crews is a Terada product and as usual is flawless in build has a perfect nitro finish and nice inlay and fret work.

I guess the Burny is a Dynagakki build from the routing and rough year but have no confirmation of that.

Gold Jerry! Gold.

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

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"

Deviser (Bacchus, Momose, Headway) Catalog 2003

Here is a link to a PDF of the 2003 Deviser Catalog. It has the Vintage Series Fender and Gibson copies. I don't know of any other links to older or newer catalogs.

Time machine Greco Spacey Sound SE-500 - D818100

A lot was going right on the Fujigen line to put out this combination of wood, metal and plastic back in April 1981. Aoyama Oyaji was just in Grade 6 back then and probably had never seen an electric guitar in person when Kenji Oyama was putting this together.

What happened here with the 2-piece ash body matched with a thick '54 style neck with some decent flame? I thought SE-500s were made with leftovers from the woodpile. It sounds like the specs of an SE-600 or even SE-800 aside from the thin poly, which feels pretty close to the nitro finishes they used back then anyway. I'll put it down to the Japanese work ethic at the time and some luck in whatever Kenji had on the woodpile at the time.

A number was stamped on bodies according to the model. Here the "5" stamp was used for this SE-500. If you think you might have a partscaster Greco check the neck pocket for the stamp.

This must have been stored in a nice place with air conditioning as there is pretty much no tarnishing or oxidation at all. Really "Mint" condition aside from a small bump on the upper back side.

It is also a light guitar at 3.4 kg which is pretty much perfect for my tastes. It has great sustain and the Excel pickups are wonderful strat replicas no matter what anyone says. Here are a few more pictures:

Time machine Greco Spacey Sound SE-500 - D818100

A lot was going right on the Fujigen line to put out this combination of wood, metal and plastic back in April 1981. Aoyama Oyaji was just in Grade 6 back then and probably had never seen an electric guitar in person when Kenji Oyama was putting this together.

What happened here with the 2-piece ash body matched with a thick '54 style neck with some decent flame? I thought SE-500s were made with leftovers from the woodpile. It sounds like an SE-600 or even SE-800 aside from the thin poly which feels pretty close to the nitro finishes they used back then anyway. I'll put it down to the Japanese work ethic at the time and some luck in whatever Kenji had on the woodpile at the time.

A number was stamped on bodies according to the model. Here the "5" stamp was used for this SE-500 If you think you have a partscaster Greco check the neck pocket for the stamp.

This must have been stored in a nice place with air conditioning as there is pretty much no tarnishing or oxidation at all. Really "Mint" condition aside from a small bump on the upper back side.

It is also a light guitar at 3.4 kg which is pretty much perfect for my tastes. It has great sustain and the Excel pickups are wonderful strat replicas no matter what anyone says. Here are a few more pictures:

Tokai Custom Edition - what year is this?

And what kind of pickups should it have?

Any ideas at all? 22 fret model with gold hardware and likely veneer-top.Serial number 12726

Deep in the Heart of Texas

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.

Classic Bacchus Strat

Matching Headstock

I found this one for sale on Yahoo Japan in a modded state. It had just a single P-90 in the bridge position and no singles. I thought that might sound pretty nice in a LP Jr type of way. When it arrived it was pretty clear that the standard P-90 polepiece pitch was not wide enough to be centred under each string on the guitar. The result was that the high e and low e strings noticeably lacked output compared to the rest. Too bad as the routing and mounting was done professionally. In the end, I took out the P-90 and put in a set of Yutas that were from a Momose strat with a new pickguard. 

I think a mini-humbucker with the wider magnetic field would be great as a future possibility but for now it is back to a standard strat.

This has a nice thick neck and great frets. It has nice rounded fret ends that you usually see on more expensive guitars.

A few bumps and dents

Is this Inca Silver finish?

Dead Stock Greco SE-500 "Spacey Sound"

Sometimes a 2 year old guitar can look 30 years old, and other times it is the opposite. This 1981 Spacey Sound Greco SE-500 looks like it just came out of the factory and has been on the display rack at Guitar Centre for just a little while. The nickel parts have almost no oxidation and the finish on the body is very shiny with only a couple of small scratches and dents.

Deluxe Kluson-style tuner.

This is a later 1981 Greco which has the vintage Kluson tuners with the simple bushing. Earlier Grecos had Kluson-style tuners with a larger threaded bushing and a retainer nut. I am not sure if there is much difference in tone but it takes a 100 g or so off the weight.

Smaller tuner post bushings with shameless homage to a real Fender headstock decal

Thin poly finish on a three-piece Sen-ash body?

The benefits of nitro over poly finish are not much of an issue with this guitar. It is so thin you can see the growth rings of the body and the neck feels very nice. The poly is not at all like the candy-apple poly sheaths some guitars have. Greco-stamped steel saddles are a classy touch too.

Vintage size frets, bone nut.

The neck is a very comfortable shallow C-shape. I had a 1980 SE-800 Super Real Strat and could not get along very well with the extreme V shape. This one is my ideal neck shape. There is a bit of oxidation on the frets but no fret wear visible.

November 1981 serial number

I have a black pickguard that will match up with the holes perfectly.  I'd need to drill a few more holes into the body but this would be a great guitar to change into a D. Gilmour look.

Shiny

I love these pickups. The 2 and 4 positions have that classic strat "quack" that can be hard to get with other pickups. The middle pickup is not reverse-wound as far as I can hear so maybe that is a key point. But it IS just a lower-level Greco after all so I had to play the VanZandt side by side to see if I was being overly generous to the Greco on the sound and playability front. Result? The VanZandt is a better guitar to MY preference for the sound of the pickups but they both play about the same. The VanZandt has a lighter body and nitro finish but for the price the Greco wins by around 5 to 1.

Greco and VanZandt Japanese 57 strat copies