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A brief history of Greco1970 – 1973 The ‘Gneco’ Years The Early Years In the beginning prior to the incarnation of Greco in Japan there was a Greco brand that was owned by the Hershman Musical Instrument Company in New York. (the company also behind Goya Guitars Inc) The original ‘Greco’ logo emulated that of the Goya logo which was apparently based on the signature of the 18th century Spanish painter , Francisco Jose de Goya. Story has it the name Greco was taken from the 16th century Gretan painter, El Greco. There is some conjecture as to if this brand was sold to some Japanese buyers or made under license but it would seem by the early 70’s Greco Guitars were solely made and sold out of Japan. I would love to get to the bottom of this at one stage as I have seen early Greco guitars being sold out of Japan as well as in America and personally do feel there was some sort of relationship between the two. My feeling is Goya was using Kanda Shokai to manufacture guitars under license although there isn’t too much evidence of this. Either way though, during the years form 1967 to 1970 there were Greco guitars being manufactured in West Germany/Yugosalvia for the Hershman Musical Instrument Company and in Japan by the Kanda Shokai Corporation (established as a distributor and trading company for musical instruments in 1948) During the mid to late 60’s Japanese Grecos were made by the Teisco and FujiGen guitars factories. Solid body guitars were given the Greco brand whilst acoustic guitars used the Canda brand that I can only assume was a take on the Kanda Corporation’s name. Electric guitars produced were based on some Hagstrom and EKO designs mostly being semi-hollow, I can only think were destined for the US market. During 1967 a Telecaster model was produced followed by a Hofner style Violin Bass in 1969, no doubt to meet the demand of a world obsessed by Paul McCartney….. disturbing really. I would love to know who was responsible in the Kanda Corporation for deciding it was better to make the ‘r’ in Greco look like an ‘n’ but whoever did ushered in the ‘Gneco’ years. With the youth of Japan having just been bludgeoned by the hammer of the Rock Gods, Led Zeppelin the demand for Gibson Les Paul Customs, SGs, Stratocasters and Telecasters grew exponentially. During this time Kanda Shokai used one main subcontractor to make the rock dreams of the Japanese youth become reality. The workers of the Matsumoko Gakki factory were set to work lifting designs of popular American guitars from catalogs, guessing calculations, scaling drawings and emulating body finishes. At this stage Kanda Shokai also entered into the world of celebrity endorsement with the recruitment of Shigeru Narumo (1947 to 2007) to plug the EG-360 that was originally copied from a photo of Paul Kossoff of ‘Free’ fame. This relationship would go on with several successful collaborations on EG-420, EG-600, EG-700 and a hotely debated EG-800 ‘Narumo’ model. ‘Gneco Years’ catalogues show a explosion of new models and the cementing of Greco’s naming convention, LL (letter) denoting the model and NNNN (number) denoting the price in ‘000 Japanese yen. EG – Les Paul Style During this formulative time both Canda and Greco acoustic guitars were a big part of the Greco Catalogue – I guess after listening to Led Zep’s I and II one just had to have one. These models appear to be largely based on large box Gibson Models – mostly of which a steel string. One model – the G series sports an entirely new Greco logo ‘ the Greco Guitar’ with a very Scooby Doo inspired font…. Still looking for one of these. On a side note – I’ve read that Kanda Shokai also acted as the sole importer of Gibson Guitars into Japan, would kind of explain why later on their copies become so good but also makes me wonder about the politics of pricing and release of the actual Gibsons into the domestic market. Ohhhh conspiracy. 1974 to 1975 saw the manufacture of Greco move to the FujiGen Gakki factory, thus beginning what I consider to be a boom period for Greco. Along side Greco the FujiGen Gakki also produced another brand, Ibanez that would be directed towards the growing export market. During this time someone must have also pointed out that the ‘Gneco’ logo didn’t make a lot of sense and the ‘n’ was changed to a definite ‘r’ for the first 1974 catalogue, therefore ending the ‘Gneco’ years. With the invasion of pop culture in full swing many new Greco models were released. Two that particularly interest me are the ME-700 and the RW-700 that were not continued after 1974\75, beautiful design but very rare. Other highlights of this time was the MR series which began after Mick Ralph (Bad Company) visited Greco, the MD which was based on a Flying V with a cut away, perfect for arm chair metal and GO series which were based on Alembic designs. L – Gibson L-5 Style All through this time Greco were defining and improving their manufacturing process, most EG and SG models now had their necks set not bolted, tone wood selection improved and most models used medium tenon neck joints with dowel reinforcements. Pickups during this time were manufactured by the Nisshin Onpa company, otherwise known as Maxon. The relationship between Maxon and Greco also extended to a small effects pedal range with rebadged Maxon Blubber wah’s and Phasetone’s screen printed with ‘Greco Makes It’ 1980 – 1986 Super Real and the Mint Collection This period could probably be considered the beginning of the end in many ways as in 1982 Kanda Shokai was bought out by Fender, which of course then became Fender Japan. From that time on Greco ceased making Fender copies. That said though Greco’s made during this time are arguably some of the best ever. In the early 80’s the FujiGen Gakki obtained a CNC wood router that enabled the precision required for bulk manufacture of the ‘Super Real’ and ‘Mint Collection’ series. Super Real and the Mint Collection models were very high end indeed with Greco now manufacturing pickups for their high end range instead of buying from Maxon. The EG range expanded and paid homage to some high profile rock gods of the time.
This year also saw the introduction of the G Series guitar controllers – I’ve heard these were seriously based on the Roland Guitar synths of the time but have yet to have a play with one. By the time the 1982 Metaliz Catalogue had been realeased Fender style models had ceased manufacture under the Greco name, this time ushered in a time of drastic upheaval in both guitar design and hair style, behold the ‘Power of Metaliz’. |