Vintage & Rare guitar of the week: Zemaitis GZV 500 MF

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This Zemaitis GZV 500 MF is a Japanese-made Greco/Zemaitis guitar rather than one built by the late legendary British luthier himself. Nevertheless it is a very elegant piece, one of the most attractive Flying V style guitars that I have laid eyes on. Metallica's James Hetfield is also a fan having played the exact same model guitar on the World Magnetic Tour. The guitar features a two-piece Mahogany body, engraved aluminium top, DiMarzio DP103 PAF pickups, a 25" scale, and Schaller M6 tuners.

This guitar is currently being offered for sale via Vintage & Rare priced at €3709.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1960s 4-pickup Greco solidbody "surf" guitar - but does anyone know the model?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Amy Osbourne wrote the following on our Facebook page:

Hey all! I own a shop in Indianapolis. I came across your info while researching this Greco that just came in. There is no serial. Would anybody be able to tell me more about it? Anything is helpful! Thanks!

Well, it's very similar to a Greco we looked at before but has four pickups rather than two.

Wikipedia tells us that:

...in the mid/late 1960s, Kanda Shokai produced Greco branded guitars based on Hagström and EKO designs for Avnet/Goya in the USA and these guitars were made by the Teisco and FujiGen guitar factories and were very similar to the late 1960s Ibanez guitars based on Hagström and EKO designs.

I wonder if they also used Framus guitars as a design influence, for this Greco is very reminiscent of the Framus Strato Deluxe, especially with the large metal plate behind the bridge.

Guitars were so much more interesting back in the 1960s, it seems. You had companies all over Europe producing all manner of weird and wonderful designs, and then you had the Japanese copying them so that with some guitars it's very hard to tell which is the original design and just who copied who.

But if anyone does have any further information about Amy's 4-pickup Greco, please chip in under the comments section below this post.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Sekova hollowbody electric: another 1960s Japanese-made oddity

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These days I find myself increasingly drawn towards thinline hollowbody or semi-hollowbody guitars than I do to solidbodies. I think it's something about the resonance that the guitar gives when you play it; it feels somehow more alive.

However, I take one look at these photos of this 1960s Japanese-made Sekova and I can't help imagine it rattling like hell when played and producing a boxy tone.

There's something very odd-looking about its construction. Take a look, for instance, at the way that the neck pocket is biased towards the treble-side of the instrument when it looks as if there was plenty of space to have it centred and achieve a better fit.

I confess that I know nearly nothing about the Sekova brand, so I'm not going to throw random Japanese brand names about (Teisco, Kawai, Guyatone, etc...) hoping that one will stick. However, if I was to make an educated guess, I can't help noticing the similarity of the headstock shape with that of this Greco guitar produced by the Kanda Shokai company (which had guitars built at the FujiGen and Teisco factories).

This may be a "rare" or unusual guitar in this day and age, but once again we see a totally unrealistic hyper-inflated Buy It Now price on eBay, a downright crazy $1,440.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Vintage Japanese 1960s Greco Shrike with V-shaped pickups

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We've looked at a Greco Shrike before, but that example was missing one of its very distinctive V-shaped pickups. This example pictured above, currently listed on eBay UK with a whopping starting bid of £1,995 has both pickups but alas still is not fully intact as it is missing the vibrato arm.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Merlin/Greco Arthur Smith Country Squire

guitarz.blogspot.com:

In August 2010, Bertram posted a Guitarz blog entry featuring a 1960s Merlin/Greco 921 guitar, which prompted reader Jim Garcia to submit the above photos. Jim writes:

I just picked up that same guitar, except it has a different pickguard (I'm thinking the white one [on the guitar we featured before] may be a replacement, maybe from the Greco), the pg on mine has semicircle cutouts that wrap around the curved bottoms of the single coil pickups - the material is black with cream binding, and it says "Arthur Smith" (in gold script) "Country Squire" (in Abalone script). Arthur Smith had a hit in the late forties with "Guitar Boogie", as early an example of rock n roll guitar that you will find. The model was distributed through Lowe's from '62 to '64 from what I've read and been told. I had thought the Merlins were made by Teisco but it's likely all the Greco/Teisco parts got interchanged.

Hey Jim, thanks for filling in another piece of the big jigsaw puzzle that is the history of the electric guitar!

As always, we want to see your guitars, and the more unusual they are, the better! (I think we've all got the measure of what Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, SGs, etc, are like by now, but if yours is an intriguing variation on a theme then it's still good!)

Keep 'em coming, folks!

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Greco Tusk "V"

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've looked at a Greco Tusk with an Explorer/Star-shaped body before, and here's another from the Tusk series with Randy Rhodes-esque V-style body.

Ken Shima, who found this guitar on the Yahoo Japan auction site, comments "totally awesome tuners, how do they work?"

Well, I think it's effectively a headless system with the tuners on the bridge, while the three "tuners" on the headstock are actually just string clamps.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

60s Merlin/Greco 921

guitarz.blogspot.com

This Merlin semi-hollow body beauty is a mystery - not a big one, but I'm afraid I cannot identify it! 

Well, I do identify it as a Greco 921 as it is in Greco's 1968 catalogue... But why it is here a Merlin guitar, I cannot tell - but we're not surprised by this typically 60s cross-branding! This is from before the time Greco started to clone American brands - but I told this story already before...

Anyway, it is a marvelous guitar with its pointy horns - always cool on a semi-hollow body guitar - contrasting with the round pickguard, the 3 vintage single coils, the unusual 3 switches on the lower horn and a superb tremolo.

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Here's one for all you 1980s hair metal throwbacks: the Greco Tusk

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Ken found this Greco Tusk for sale on Yahoo Japan. Greco, of course, are best known for their high quality replicas of guitars by the likes of Fender and Gibson, and whilst this does have a touch of the Explorer about it, it would appear to be an original design. Whilst it's not headless, the headstock is really only there for aesthetics - and perhaps balance too - with the tuners being down at the bridge.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Greco Les Paul Custom Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Back in August of last year we took a look at the Czech interpretation of a Les Paul bass with this Jolana Diamant.

Leave it to the Japanese to come up with the most convincingly Gibson-esque Les Paul style bass, the above-pictured Greco. Whilst Gibson have made several Les Paul basses over the years, I don't believe they have ever made one based on the Les Paul Custom, certainly nothing that looks as good as this.

Greco, along with Burny, are known for their quality Gibson replicas, with some guitarists even preferring them to the originals. It seems they also ventured into the realm of fantasy instruments, ones that Gibson could have built but didn't. The bass appears to be short-scale (judging by the bridge position) and has a set-neck as it would have done had Gibson built it. It is apparently a model built for the Japanese market only and few would have been seen outside of that country.

The only things that niggle me about it are that the top of the 24-fret fingerboard probably isn't accessible anyway, so why bother with 24 frets, and it also seems odd to have the same legend on the pickup selector disc as the guitar models, i.e. Rhythm / Treble. How about Bass / Bassier? (Or is that getting into the realm of Girl Brand guitars?)

Oh, and shame about the stickers.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Greco Firebird copy

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Another Firebird, and a vintage black one (!), but it's not a Gibson, it's a Greco... 

I don't have more info about this guitar, but it looks like a faithful copy, obviously from the lawsuit era... Greco were so good at copying other companies guitars that they ended up as Fender Japan - just had to change the logo on their teles!

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Watch this eBay listing get pulled...

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Rickenbacker are known to be particularly zealous when it comes to copyright infringements based on their brand name, designs and trademarks. They are known to trawl the eBay listings looking for cheaper copy guitars listed in conjunction with the Rickenbacker brand being mentioned. The best a seller of a Ricky rip-off can do is to display good clear photos so the buyer can see what they are getting, and avoid mentioning the R-word anywhere in the text. Even derivatives of the name, e.g. Ricky, aren't advised, as these will get pounced on too.

With a feedback score approaching 1000, you wouldn't have suspected the seller of this Greco of being that green in this respect, but he or she is really asking for it when listing this guitar thusly: "1984 Greco Rickenbacker Vintage and Rare COOL!"

They are only making matters worse for themselves when they say:

If you have been craving a Rickenbacker but don't have the funds then this might just be for you, it's a made in Japan 1984 Greco Ricky copy with 3 toaster pick ups and the all important blend knob which helps give it it's (sic) distinctive sound, it plays nice and looks the part, in fact you only need change the tail piece and truss cover to rickenbacker ones and nobody will know it's not the real thing.

Shooting yourself in the foot or what?

Anyone want to bet how long it is before this listing gets pulled?

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Anyone got a spare V-shaped pickup lying around?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's another fantastic original design Japanese guitar to feast your eyes upon.

The seller of this vintage Greco Shrike in redburst from 1968 claims that his primary reason for listing it on eBay isn't to sell it (although he would be willing to do so if you wanted to shell out the readies) but to try to find a compatible pickup for the one that is so obviously missing, so allowing him to complete the resoration of this guitar.

However, I doubt that V-shaped pickups are too easy to come by. When did you last see one? (I expect that each pickup is composed of two coils. I can't imagine how the maker would be able to wind it otherwise). Possibly, the only way he's going to get a new pickup for this is to get one custom-made. But you never know...

If you can help, click through to the auction page and contact the seller.

G L Wilson

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1960s Greco Surf Guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This 1960s Greco is in immaculate condition. It looks as if it could be new. I just love the probably impractical headstock design.

If asked I would have guessed that this was a European, possibly Italian guitar, but of course - being a Greco - it's Japanese.

Greco were better known for their later Fender and Gibson copies in the 1970s and which seriously worried those giants of guitar production.

The Greco brand were produced by Kanda Shokai and were of such high quality that Fender legitimised the production of Japanese replicas of Strats and Teles with the launch of Fender Japan and the Squier brand which were also produced by Kanda Shokai and Yamano Gakki and built in the FujiGen Gakki, Tōkai and Dyna Gakki factories.

G L Wilson

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!