Greco no serials

sarge40 · Guitar God Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Posts: 47 Location: NY, USA

Thanks Mick,

I was going crazy looking for Grecos that were the same as mine. That kind of neck joint without dowels is unusual for Grecos, and that extra semicircular rout is really unusual for Grecos. The square bottom routs are something I could never find on Grecos. Most that look like mine also have volutes, which mine doesn't have.

I actually feel okay knowing that Tokai probably built this as they have put out some really good guitars. Anyone know how rare the Tokai Grecos are? Like I said, I haven't seen many around. The only other one I have seen before this thread was identical to pimphat's (pimphat, any chance you picked that one up off ebay from IANS007 last September?).

japanstrat · Guitar God Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 879

So far I have seen Tokai made Greco models EG-75 LP Standards and EGC-75 Customs and they are probably from the late 80s.

leadguitar_323 · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:26 pm Post subject:

Another Tokai made Greco, i emailed the seller informing him of his mistake in its description...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/GRECO-LES-PAUL-LONG-TENON-NECK-SOLID-MAHOGANY_W0QQitemZ300213375554QQihZ020QQcategoryZ155124QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Cheers
Mick
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so many guitars....so little money...

sarge40 · Guitar God Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Posts: 47 Location: NY, USA

leadguitar_323 · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 8:52 pm Post subject:

No they weren't , not to sure about that. He sent a reply and said he had been contacted by heaps of people and no two stories were the same, so he doesn't know for sure himself. He did add some comment to the listing acknowledging this, he seems like an honest guy %100 feedback and his reply was civil. Just trying to help..

Mick
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so many guitars....so little money...

leadguitar_323 · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:47 pm Post subject:

Hmmm, this one is very interesting, it has had fret binding but been refretted, you can still see whats left of the fret ends.{binding} and it doesn't have the Tokai route it is a square route like the fujigen route but.....it has unshielded wiring and black shielding paint...Any ideas???
i'll post pics later

Mick
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so many guitars....so little money...

guitar.sib · Plucker Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 7

can anybody help with this greco, please ??

http://slil.ru/25786064
http://slil.ru/25786070
http://slil.ru/25786075
http://slil.ru/25786086

japanstrat · Guitar God Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 879

It's a lower end Greco made by Cor-Tek (Cort) around the late 1980s.

guitar.sib · Plucker Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 7

ok, then how it explains this:
no Cort-Tek pots, no shielding paint in pickup and control cavities, different neck, head and logo

here 3 guitars on photos, first two are 100% korean, and third - the one i asked about

http://slil.ru/25791236 - heads
http://slil.ru/25791243 - logos, pu and control

necks:
http://slil.ru/25791247 - first one 100% korean
http://slil.ru/25791255
http://slil.ru/25791258

first two are the same in everything, and the third is different
why, if they all korean ??

japanstrat · Guitar God Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 879

I know what you mean. I've seen 3 different types of no serial Grecos. There are the Tokai ones that are easy to ID and then there are the Cort ones that are easy to ID with Cor-Tek pots and usually have shielding paint and then there is another type that has things in common with the Cort Grecos like the rectangular long tenon and the brick nut but also has some differences. I think that these are made by Cort but I'm not 100% certain. They do have the rectangular long tenon and same sort of control routing as the Cort Grecos. I think Cort changed the way they made some Grecos and did not stick to making them one way. All of the no serial Grecos are very different to the stamped Fujigen made Grecos. There are still a lot of things about the Grecos that's not understood properly. Grecos went through a lot of changes over the years. Kanda Shokai who own the Greco name are the distributors for Cort in Japan.

leadguitar_323 · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 3:17 am Post subject:

Hi Japanstrat, So what do you think of this one..??
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300213375554&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:AU:1123
sorry about the huge link.

Here is a shot of the tenon

Mick
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so many guitars....so little money...

japanstrat · Guitar God Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 879

That one is very similar to guitar.sib's one above. Rectangular tenon like the Cort Grecos but the pickup routing is a bit different, I'll guess Cort.

leadguitar_323 · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 5:48 am Post subject:

and it has fret edge binding as well and the "tokai greco" headstock inlay..
Interesting guitar that one..
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so many guitars....so little money...

japanstrat · Guitar God Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 879

It's a bit confusing but the Tokai no serial Grecos have the exact routing and tenon features of 80s Tokai's. Also the no serial Tokai Grecos are higher priced Greco models and the Cort Grecos are lower priced models (which is why they were made by Cort). I have never seen a Tokai with that rectangular tenon but I have seen Cort Grecos with that type of tenon. The brick nut's were used by Korean factories in the 80s. The first thing I would do if I bought a Cort Greco would be to replace the brick nut with a sloper. Those brick nuts don't look too good IMO.
The no serial Grecos that have some Cort Greco (the ones with Cor-Tek pots) features but have some different features could be because the Cort factory got new cnc routers or whatever. I think Cort were expanding pretty fast in the 80s. The Cort Grecos are pretty well made and have Volutes and a lot have shielding paint, it seems that maybe Cort were trying to impress Kanda Shokai, maybe trying to keep the contract. Cort didn't really need to put shielding paint on the Grecos IMO. Kanda Shokai and Cort still work together with Kanda Shokai distributing Cort in Japan.

The Greco above has different shaped pickup cavity routing to what FujiGen and Tokai made guitars have and I have seen that pickup cavity shape above on Cort made Grecos (the ones with Cor-Tek pots).

http://forum.japanaxe.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=825

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4993&start=225

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4993&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=210

guitar.sib · Plucker Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 7

ok, so is there any chances that Cort made heads and logo script similar to Japan Mint Collection ??
because the top of the head and logo script on the third guitar looks really the same with Japan Mint Collection from, let's say, 84 - 89 (in particular letters G,r,e), witch differs alot from well known korean guitars(like the first two)