1978 Greco SE-1000

 

Pickups: Rocketfire Total 60s Set

Neck: Maple

Body: Tamo Ash (?)

Nut Material: Plastic

Bridge: Stock

Colour: Natural/Antique

Country of Origin: Japan

Weight: ?

Bridge Mounting Spacing: 54mm

 

 

One of the most drool-worthy Strats I've seen is a 1978 Greco Project Series SE-1000. It had a 2 Tome Sunburst body,  Rosewood fingerboard with an aluminium guard and it looked perfect. - and it planted a seed in my mind....

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This SE-1000 is obviously not the same colour scheme,  but it did have an even more attractive grain pattern on its body. Generally these SE-1000s came with 1 piece Sen Ash bodies in 1978, however I believe that this one is actually Tamo Ash. Safe to say that this guitar single-handedly started my interest/obsession in Tamo Ash wood.

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When it came up for sale I got it for a great price, well under what it was worth - because it did have one issue with it:

The upper horn had some damage to it - someone had put 2 holes in it near the strap button (presumably to try and fit a new strap button?!). 

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When I got it home I did a full inspection and also found out that the truss rod was already tight. I didn't push it - it is playable in its current state but I will need to get it inspected at some point. 

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The neck angle was also off, being such an old guitar I believe some compression of the wood has happened over the years. I shimmed the neck using some wood shims from StewMac.

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I lucked out in that the previous owner had installed a set of Rocketfire Total 60s pickups. They are quite nice, although I would have loved to also be in possession of the original pickup set. I'm sure the Rocketfires are an upgrade though.

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I'm not entirely happy with the bridge hardware. I plan to upgrade it to a steel block tremolo and some good saddles. 

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Jobs/Upgrades to be done:

None

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Upgrades done:

Pickups/Electronics

Allan Pascoe cold rolled steel bridge (local builder)

Highwood saddles

Raw Vintage springs