Guild "Lawsuiit Takamine"

Quantum Strummer

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A couple other examples of logo shenanigans (my early '80s Burny and (not mine) a '70s Greco):

AD5E0701-9E07-444F-8403-93C6AC8F73EF_zpspkpm4bx4.jpg


F2A077B5-9F3C-4DF3-91CB-9F5249DF79BA_zpsng0c9qbb.jpg


-Dave-
 

Bonneville88

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Never heard of either of those - very close indeed to the Gibson and Rick typography
 

txbumper57

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Burny made some of the Best Les Paul copies ever and were mainly sold in Japan. Greco (not to be confused with Famed Luthier Carlo Greco) also made some nice copy guitars. Not only did they copy the Ric but they also copied a few of the vintage Gretsch models very well.

TX
 

mavuser

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my friend has a killer semi hollow Greco from the 70s or 80s. its smaller than the Gibson ES-335 and actually it appears Gibson copied Greco on this particular model (the Gibson ES-339 which came out at some point after this Greco)
 

Quantum Strummer

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Those small bodied semis were made mainly for Ibanez but also sold in Japan by Greco. This was right around the time Greco began exporting guitars themselves. I recently picked up a pair of the Ibanezes (one plain, one fancy) and they are indeed top-class instruments. They predate the ES-339 by about 25 years. My 335 is lucky it has great sentimental value to me, otherwise it'd be out the door.

-Dave-
 

Bonneville88

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What a cool subject, damned interesting guitar history...

... fair to say the "golden age" of good-to-great "made-in-Japan" copies is mid-70's to mid-80's?
 

txbumper57

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That was pretty much the Golden Age of Japanese Guitar Making Bonneville88. The factories that some of the best came out of were the Matsumoku factory, the Fuji Gen Gakki Factory, and the Terada Factory (which today produces all of the Gretsch Professional series of guitars like the Falcons and Country Clubs). Several different companies used the same Factories. Takamine actually made all of their guitars in their own facilities. Some companies were even sneaky enough to buy up surplus wood supplies from the American guitar companies they were copying.

TX
 

mavuser

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Those small bodied semis were made mainly for Ibanez but also sold in Japan by Greco. This was right around the time Greco began exporting guitars themselves. I recently picked up a pair of the Ibanezes (one plain, one fancy) and they are indeed top-class instruments. They predate the ES-339 by about 25 years. My 335 is lucky it has great sentimental value to me, otherwise it'd be out the door.

-Dave-

Dave, nice! heres a video of my friends. pretty sure she changed the pickups, I think to Duncan's. Not sure what was in there prior, or if they were original.

m
 

Quantum Strummer

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Dave, nice! heres a video of my friends. pretty sure she changed the pickups, I think to Duncan's. Not sure what was in there prior, or if they were original.

Cool, I'll give it a look & listen this evening (out & about now and left my earbuds at home). Dunno what the pickups would've been in this model. Greco reserved the super duper DRY (aka Super 58) pickup for its Les Paul copies, I think, while Ibanez used the 58s in just about all of its Artist series models including the mini semis.

-Dave-
 

Bonneville88

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tx... cool... great info - will be looking at guitars of this period with new appreciation, different
eyes & ears from here on out
 

mavuser

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are you talking about Tony Scherr's Starfire II? we have discussed that one here before. he is a beast!

 

Quantum Strummer

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are you talking about Tony Scherr's Starfire II? we have discussed that one here before. he is a beast!

Yep, that's the one. Some close views of it in one of the YT videos I linked to in my last post. My pal Susan was watching the videos with me. "He's skronky!" she said. It was a compliment. :)

-Dave-
 
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