The best kind of days!
The newest addition to the family is this 1978 Greco SE-1000. It's obviously a S-style guitar, one from the lawsuit era of Japanese copies. There are several excellent makers from that time, and Greco is certainly one of them...along with Tokai, they are probably makers the most desirable copies from that era.
The SE-1000 is second top of the lineup of S-styles offered by Greco at that time. It is second only to the SE-1200 which is exceptionally rare. The specs should be well documented but in all honesty before buying this guitar the only specs I had to go on were:
1. Aluminium pickguard
2. Greco PU-119 pickups
3. 60s style headstock with Schaller tuners
4. Japanese Ash (Sen or Tamo, I'm not really sure) bodies, sometimes 1 piece but also seen in 2 piece
Since getting the guitar, I am able to provide more specs (at least found on this guitar):
1. Measured 7.25" radius fretboard
2. Vintage style frets
3. I suspect it is a nitro lacquer finish (to be confirmed later with an acetone test)
Issues
Now there are several issues with this guitar...most of which I will end up addressing. They can be split up into 2 categories - the superficial issues and the setup issues
Superficial:
1. A previous owner has sanded the back and underside of the headstock.
2. There are 4 holes on the upper horn where a previous owner has tried to fit strap buttons. It is the most moronic fix I can think of when encountering a stripped strap button screw hole...drill a second hole! Then a third, then a fourth!
Above: a job well done!
Setup issues
1. The bridge saddles have bottomed out to the base of the bridge (i.e. they cannot be lowered any more). At the same time, the action is too high, and the neck has some relief in it but not a crazy amount. As far as I know, this only means one thing...neck angle will need to be reset. In a bolt on, that means shims. This is quite common in old instruments, nothing to be worried about as wood compresses over time and the stresses it gets put through.
Above: Corksniffers might say the bottomed out saddles provide maximum contact area with the bridge thus promoting resonance and sustain (jokes)......I say let's shim the neck pocket!
These issues are all fixable, and the guitar can be improved with a good setup - which I will attempt myself. I am not looking forward to it, with the truss rod adjustment being at the base of the neck instead of the headstock end, but it'll have to be done. Further blog posts will document my progress. I anticipate some surprises (bad surprises...they are always bad) as I progress
Incidentally, the guitar did not come with its original pickups. Those were lost somewhere along the way of its 40 year lifespan. They have been replaced with a set of Rocketfire Total 60s that were bought by the last owner. Nice sounding set, and seems to suit the guitar well.
As for how it plays and sounds: very nice neck profile...that is the first thing that struck me when I picked it up. Comfortable soft V is the way I would describe it. I prefer it to the thicker '58 style necks or the slim 60s. Back of the neck is not sanded, but is still very comfortable and worn in - no stickiness even though it was once a gloss finish.
Tonewise, it is very resonant, especially in the upper register. Very nice sounding but the action is a little high even for me. Intonation is slightly off, perhaps because of the action as well. The pickups work well with the neck pickup being very usable even though it is wired vintage style without a tone pot. I might not even bother remedying this - I usually set up all my strats to have the second tone pot wired to the bridge instead of middle position but this may not need that. I will reassess once I set this thing up and play more with it.
We've come to the section where the pictures do the talking....
