Vintage Greco Solidbody - No Serial Number

November 3, 2023 Update
According to a reader, this guitar is in fact an "... EGC made by Cort in Korea post 1989," and "not a 1975 Gneco." I thank this kind individual for dropping by and sharing his/her opinion on the matter. 

December 12, 2020 Post

Restoring a Greco EG550B earlier this year was an educational experience; to say the least. I never thought that I'd be working on another Greco quite so soon. Yes, this one also resembles a Les Paul Custom. However, it differs from the EG550B in that it has a regular set-in neck and top hat knobs.

Perhaps the most intriguing feature is that it lacks a serial number on the back of the headstock. Interestingly, Vintage Japan Guitars affirms that Greco only started issuing serial numbers in 1975. Therefore, one can safely assume that this black beauty was manufactured before 1975.

This Greco came in for a thorough electronics check because i) only the neck pickup was active in all three switch positions; and ii) none of the controls worked. A quick check with a multimeter revealed that the bridge pickup was indeed functioning. However, the hot and ground leads from both humbuckers were wired directly to their respective tone pots.

Gotta admit that this was the first time I'd ever come across such a wiring scheme. One usually wires each pickup to its volume pot, and then takes the signal off the input lug to the tone pot. Meanwhile, the signal from the output lug of each volume pot goes to the three-way toggle switch; and out to the output jack.

The wiring was in such an unwieldy mess that I did not bother trying to figure it out. I simply desoldered everything and did a full rewire. The tiny pots, which I suspect were not the factory originals; were dumped in favor of full-sized Alpha A500K Long Shafts. The toggle switch and output jack were serviced and reused as they were still in good condition. Thankfully, the guitar sounded as it should after rewiring. Here's a SoundCloud audio file of the rewired Greco through my little 'ole Ross G515 MiniMouth amp.

It's a beautiful instrument, no doubt. Amongst its impressive appointments are gold hardware, "Greco Guitar" tuners, abalone headstock inlay, five-ply headstock binding, seven-ply body binding, bound ebony fretboard; and mother of pearl fretboard inlays. I don't think they're mother of toilet seat. Nah, Japanese guitar makers were dead set on outdoing Gibson at their own game in those days. So, I don't think they'd go for fake MOP. What do you think?

 

Nashville Legend Solidbody Electric Guitar

I was not able to find any usable information on this gorgeous dual-humbucker Nashville Legend electric guitar on the web. It was sent to me by the owner for an electronics check, cleanup and polish, plus restring and setup; prior to being put on sale.

The guitar is a double cutaway solidbody featuring a quilted-maple veneer top. The bolt-on maple neck is comfortably chunky and boasts what appears to be a two-octave rosewood fretboard. The headstock features the same attractive veneer as the body; while the three-a-side tuners feel solid and turn smoothly. All hardware is gold, right down to the smallest screws.

The "Licensed under Floyd-Rose patents" double-locking tremolo is rather unique in that you don't have to cut the ball ends off the strings. Just feed them through individual brass tubes beneath the fine tuners. Nice idea indeed! The original tremolo arm is missing, but I've found that one from a Squier Strat fits quite nicely.

The control cavity is shielded with conductive paint, wiring is neat and tidy; and the pots are full-sized. Seriously, I was expecting to see some crappy dime-sized pots and iffy wiring. Sorry, but I forgot to take a pic of the control cavity -- my bad! Well, the overall quality of the workmanship and electronics tells me that this guitar was definitely not "fabrique au chine." I'm guessing Japan.

The two ballsy "Zebra" humbuckers have been paired with a three-way toggle switch and controls for neck pickup volume, bridge pickup volume; and master tone. This Nashville Legend Electric Guitar impresses me with its good looks, overall decent build quality, playability; and solid tones. The next person to own this guitar is certainly a lucky fellow!

Frankenstrat Partscaster Build

I was handed the components for this partscaster build in a cardboard box, no kidding. The beat-up natural-finished body was solid wood capped with an ash-like veneer on the front and back. The body cavities appeared to be shielded with conductive paint, but further inspection revealed that it was just plain old black paint.

The preloved 22-fret maple neck was scalloped and sported a '70s-style big headstock. Those decals? They were already on there when I got the neck. It was clearly another one of those notorious Chinese "replica" necks. Don't nobody sue me now, you hear? I just put parts together so my clients can have a guitar to play on.

The client had provided me with a battered white pickguard, new Chinese single-coil pickups with cream covers; and replica vintage-style tremolo bridge with bent steel (read: pot metal) saddles. Putting everything together took a very long time, with "measure ten times, drill once" being the word of the day. Basically, the whole process mirrored what I went through on the Candlewood Strat Kit Build.

The bottom of the pickguard was shielded with aluminium foil, and body cavities with conductive carbon paint. New electronic components included Alpha A250K pots, a K73-16 0.022uF cap, generic five-way selector switch; and NYS229 output jack socket. This guitar was strung with 10s, and required a little truss rod tweaking and neck pocket shim to get it playing like it should.