greco

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 10:59 am

whats some history, before gibson, sister co what?

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:14 am

one more time? in english please?

Joined: 07 May 2012 Posts: 357 Location: Hellhole

lordkronos187 wrote:

one more time? in english please?

I do say kind sir, that man of the revolution was requesting to be given information on the instrument company known as "Greco". He is also requesting to know if the company had begun the manufacturing of musical instruments before the company "Gibson", or if they were in collaboration with The Gibson company. Good day sir!

Joined: 06 Feb 2012 Posts: 98 Location: Milwaukee, WI

Greco in japan was making guitars on its own in the 60's, after the Beatles and some other musicians begam touring through japan they started making knock off gibson guitars during the 70's. I dont believe they were ever partnered with Gibson, just trying to be like them other guitar companies. They've stopped production of the look alike guitars to avoid being sued, now the close look alikes are hard to come by since after the lawsuit threat they changed the designs so they were so exact to the original.

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 2:15 pm

SlightlyMorbid wrote:

Greco in japan was making guitars on its own in the 60's, after the Beatles and some other musicians begam touring through japan they started making knock off gibson guitars during the 70's. I dont believe they were ever partnered with Gibson, just trying to be like them other guitar companies. They've stopped production of the look alike guitars to avoid being sued, now the close look alikes are hard to come by since after the lawsuit threat they changed the designs so they were so exact to the original.

Greco made a lot of them, they are around, I see them up for sale everyday on MLP

Joined: 06 Feb 2012 Posts: 98 Location: Milwaukee, WI

Northwinds wrote:

SlightlyMorbid wrote:

Greco in japan was making guitars on its own in the 60's, after the Beatles and some other musicians begam touring through japan they started making knock off gibson guitars during the 70's. I dont believe they were ever partnered with Gibson, just trying to be like them other guitar companies. They've stopped production of the look alike guitars to avoid being sued, now the close look alikes are hard to come by since after the lawsuit threat they changed the designs so they were so exact to the original.

Greco made a lot of them, they are around, I see them up for sale everyday on MLP

Oh I didn't think they made that many, but that be silly of them to not to. Makes sense.

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 5:59 pm

thanks,sorry for the bad grammmer.

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 13396 Location: Earth

I called Google's offices and had them drop everything and get you your answer...

Here is more information and knowledge than you could ever hope to find on this forum.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Greco+Guitars

Joined: 29 Nov 2003 Posts: 12252 Location: PEORIA ILLINOIS

I had a Greco LP Custom before. It was nicer than the Gibbys I played at guitar center. mine had ebony fretboard and weighed 12 pounds. I wish I hadn't sold it. I dont know wtf I was thinking. I only paid 700 shipped . this was about 10 years ago , now alot of them are crap. you really have to research them when buying.

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:32 am

Orville was Gibson's Japanese Partner/Sister Company.

Joined: 29 Nov 2003 Posts: 12252 Location: PEORIA ILLINOIS

greco, orville, burny(aria pro/ fernandez) and tokai factories were all at one time or another the same freaking company/owners/share holders.

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 2:26 pm

Greco and Ibanez worked very close in the 70's.
I might be wrong, but Greco built the 1st Iceman and Ibanez then continued using the shape.

Again I'm not 100% sure on my facts though. Don't believe they were ever afiliated with Gibson.

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:16 pm

BLOODROOT wrote:

greco, orville, burny(aria pro/ fernandez) and tokai factories were all at one time or another the same freaking company/owners/share holders.

I guess what I meant was that "Orville" was the only Licensed one out of the bunch! Laughing

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:09 pm

Twiggi_G wrote:

Greco and Ibanez worked very close in the 70's.
I might be wrong, but Greco built the 1st Iceman and Ibanez then continued using the shape.

Again I'm not 100% sure on my facts though. Don't believe they were ever afiliated with Gibson.

Same company only difference, and there was no affiliation with Gibson.

Greco = Japanese Market

Ibanez = American Market

There was still allot of anti-Japanese sentiment in the 70s leftover from WWII. That's the reason why Greco named it's American line Ibanez.

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 13396 Location: Earth

Fernandes have some amazon Lawsuit models too under the name Burny. Back in the 80s before they started to make guitars in other countries and everything was done in Japan the Fernandes/Burny catalog was filled with amazing reproductions of American made guitars.

ESP still makes amazing lawsuit guitars under the name Navigator. They rival anything made by the Gibson and Fender Custom Shop. The prices are steep though. Just google "ESP Navigator" for the Japanese site.

You can find some great Japanese lawsuit guitars here as well as a read on history of them.
http://www.guitarsjapan.com/index.html

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:25 pm

The best Les Paul copies I have ever seen were made by a Japanese manufacturer (Aria) under the brand name Shiro. Wish I could find another. When I was manager of Hilton Music in Amsterdam, NY we had a couple. A Black Beauty and a Natural. Both weighed over 10lbs and were unreal in build quality. They came with factory coiltaps, real MOP inlays, nitro finish, multiply binding, 1 piece mahogany necks and bodies which differed from their Norlin era multipiece counterparts. I have also seen references to bolt on versions but never personally saw one, only setneck versions

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:42 pm

good information, i didnt so many copies existed.

hoow can you tell a good one, froma bad one.

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:49 pm

revolutionman wrote:

good information, i didnt so many copies existed.

hoow can you tell a good one, froma bad one.

1980 and before is a good start. The original Tokai Love Rocks were pretty nice also from then

Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 13396 Location: Earth

Northwinds wrote:

revolutionman wrote:

good information, i didnt so many copies existed.

hoow can you tell a good one, froma bad one.

1980 and before is a good start. The original Love Rocks were pretty nice

No matter what, just make sure it's made in Japan. Not that the Korean/Chinese ones are bad, but if you're buying one of these it's because you want the nostalgia and the playability of the Japanese ones. Any other country of origin is pointless.

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:27 pm

Northwinds wrote:

revolutionman wrote:

good information, i didnt so many copies existed.

hoow can you tell a good one, froma bad one.

1980 and before is a good start. The original Love Rocks were pretty nice

If we are talking Orville I think it was 88 and after. My Dad had had easily 10 Orville's and they rival any other Japanese Guitars on the Market and beat the current USA Gibson's hands down!

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 5:27 am

Life was much easier when all you had to do was bust out the Sears Catalog to get a crappy guitar to get you by. Now there are too many crappy options. It's amazing to me. Guitars now are like throw aways to people.
I still have the first shitty Teisco I bought for 20 bucks-doesn't mean I ever liked it but I still have it Wink

Joined: 28 Jul 2004 Posts: 956 Location: D.O.A. 04-00341

The first JV squires were greco made for fender and they continued making guitars for them.
When fender bought them selves back from cbs they didn't have the ability to produce a lot of guitars and wanted to get in the japan German Europe market.

Story goes " and you know how story's are" The Cease and desist request was sent with a offer to build fender guitars... pretty smart on fenders end since greco already were building great fender knock offs.
Fairly reasonable story.

Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 1129 Location: Atlanta, Ga

I've got an '81 Greco Les Paul Custom

BEST Les Paul I have EVER played.
I've had it for a few years now and it's my #1.
Will never let it go.
It's about 10-11bs.
It currently has a JB8 and Mean 90.

Here's a clip of it through a RedBear MK60.

Joined: 12 Jul 2007 Posts: 934 Location: Tokyo/Northern VA

From my experience, I usually prefer Grecos from around 78 to 81.
I own a 1980 Super Real series EG900 that my dad passed on to me, and this thing plays just as good, if not better than a lot of Gibson LP's. I've swapped the original Dimarzio PAF's to Rio Grande Texas BBQ set and it screams!

I'm lucky because I live in Japan and can buy these guitars pretty cheap. If anyone ever comes around to Japan, they should definitely shop around for vintage MIJ guitars.