I'll just say that I've been trying out a whole bunch of 1970s & early '80s Japanese Gibson/Fender copies, from the so-called "lawsuit era," over the past couple months and have been uniformly blown away by how good they are. Now these are 35–40 year old instruments, with plenty of time to settle in to being guitars (rather than, say, furniture) and often with plenty of playing time on 'em too, so I am benefiting from the natural sorting process. An oft-played but well treated guitar is likely to be a good 'un.
Anyway it's not just '70s era Gibson & Fender who were right to be concerned about these "interlopers" stealing business. The quality is such that, had they got started earlier, Ted McCarty and Leo Fender would've had to take 'em seriously too. Same with Alfred Dronge had they set their sights on Guild.
To my ears the best sounding "Les Paul" (among the best playing too) I've ever had my hands on is a '75 Greco EG-420 with amazing Maxon U-1000 pickups, chambered pancake body, ply top with flame veneer, maroon/honey burst and bolt-on neck. It was their first attempt at an LP…they fine-tuned the construction & cosmetic details later on, but sonically this one is already there. Got it in January, during a visit to Chicago, for $500. According to received wisdom it should be a meh guitar but instead it's killer. I've also got a '75 Ibanez 2386, set neck, that's nearly as good. Same fab Maxon pickups, sleek player. Both guitars were made by Fujigen Gakki, long-time maker of Ibanez and also earlier Fender Japan instruments. Then there's an '82 Burny Super Grade (looks like Luper Prade…ahem), precise model unknown, that plays terrific and sounds fab acoustically but is currently let down by its pickups. This will soon be rectified via a set of Maxon DRY-inspired HBs from a fellow in Ireland. The Burny has a handsome two-piece figured top, more complex than flame, and a faded nitro teaburst finish.
I won't go into detail on the '78 Fernandes FST-70 "Strat" I picked up during the same Chicago trip. But I can tell you the word killer would pop up again…
At this point I've stopped generalizing about any manufacturer or time & place of manufacture. The "facts," as they're presented to us and then repeated by us, are driven as much by image-making and marketeering as anything else. Dig beneath this stuff and you find things are not necessarily what they're claimed to be.
-Dave-