2 Nice old MIJ guitars, Tokai & Greco

[Gasp100]

On TGP:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=450570

[Jimbilly]

Non-gear page members can't access your ad, pls care enough to post a real ad here.

[doody]

That is a pet peeve of mine also.

[Gasp100]

That is a pet peeve of mine also.

Sorry guys, I was in too big of a rush. Definitely my bad. Okay, here goes:

Prices include shipping/insurance/paypal to lower 48US confirmed address.

Two cool old MIJ guitars that I just got in. They were actually in pretty sorry shape from the original seller (old strings, no setup, etc...) but I was able to clean up and tweak both guitars and they are playing, looking and sounding great.

Tokai "Breezysound" TE-50 (1981) = $625

First up is a good condition 1981 Tokai "Breezysound" TE-50. It's a 50's era Tele copy made with good, old wood and aged nicely. The first thing I was going to do was upgrade the pups, but damn if they don't sound great as is (and quiet!). The hardware is nice (tarnishing, relic'd if you will

It's all original except for someone tried to put an 8 hole blackguard on it which fits, but it pulls the neck pup a little off center. I'm taking off the price of of new 5 hole pickguard (~$25) to make this a sweet deal.

I have had several MIJ / CIJ Fender Tele's and this one just has a bit thicker, fuller, vintage feel and sound overall. The body is resonant, the weight is about 7.5 pounds and the neck is great (not super chunky, but a nice girth, "C" shape, 1 5/8" nut, 7 1/2" radius - just like the real deal).

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Greco LP Special LJ600 (1975)= $525

Nice and light, everything is in good working order and the P90's sounds warm and fat clean, excellent with some grit and gain. The scratch pictured is just that, a surface scratch that lifted some of the finish. There are no breaks/repairs at all. The wrap around bridge is very cool, tweak so the action is nice and slinky (but not too loose). The G and B tuners get a little stiff/tight when getting to pitch, but some WD40 would probably clear that up. This is a nice, simple tone machine and it's a blast to play. It is a really neat old school vibe and the action feels really nice for straight ahead rock or blues. The neck seems to be in between a slim 60's style and fatter 50's. I believe it's a 12" radius but I do not have a guage. Comes with good hardshell case.

[Submariner85]

Those are killer.

Question. I've heard about lawsuit era but never looked into it.

Did they get sued by Gibson or Fender? Because it looks like they went to great detail to copy them down to the G on the Greco logo and the T on the Tokai.

[Gasp100]

Those are killer.

Question. I've heard about lawsuit era but never looked into it.

Did they get sued by Gibson or Fender? Because it looks like they went to great detail to copy them down to the G on the Greco logo and the T on the Tokai.

From what I understand the whole "lawsuit" stuff is kind of a misnomer of sorts. I believe only ONE company out of all of those brands was ever really sued, and even then I'm quite sure it was a scare tactic to force all other companies to change their brands slightly. If I recall, Fender never sued anyone but Gibson did sue?

It turns out that a lot of these great lawsuit era guitars (Ibanez, Greco, Tokai, Burny/Fernandes) were all made in the same/similar factories in Japan that eventually even got the gig to build Fender Japan products.

I believe the 1975 Greco is probably pre-lawsuit, whereas the Tokai might be right around the beginning of that era. I'm not a student of MIJ guitars but there is a lot of neat information out there that I have read.

I have or have owned Japan made stuff from: Fender MIJ/CIJ, Greco, Tokai, Edwards, Fernandes and each piece has been really nice, especially for the prices.

Hope this helps - Greg

[MCChris]

Non-gear page members can't access your ad, pls care enough to post a real ad here.

That is a pet peeve of mine also.

For future reference, The Gear Page is set up so hotlinks on other boards don't work. You can, however, copy and post the link into a browser and it will work as normal.

[Gasp100]

Those are killer.

Question. I've heard about lawsuit era but never looked into it.

Did they get sued by Gibson or Fender? Because it looks like they went to great detail to copy them down to the G on the Greco logo and the T on the Tokai.

From what I understand the whole "lawsuit" stuff is kind of a misnomer of sorts. I believe only ONE company out of all of those brands was ever really sued, and even then I'm quite sure it was a scare tactic to force all other companies to change their brands slightly. If I recall, Fender never sued anyone but Gibson did sue?

It turns out that a lot of these great lawsuit era guitars (Ibanez, Greco, Tokai, Burny/Fernandes) were all made in the same/similar factories in Japan that eventually even got the gig to build Fender Japan products.

I believe the 1975 Greco is probably pre-lawsuit, whereas the Tokai might be right around the beginning of that era. I'm not a student of MIJ guitars but there is a lot of neat information out there that I have read.

I have or have owned Japan made stuff from: Fender MIJ/CIJ, Greco, Tokai, Edwards, Fernandes and each piece has been really nice, especially for the prices.

Hope this helps - Greg

Here's a pretty quick but fairly concise article that might help:

http://www.recordingreview.com/articles/ar...rted/Page1.html

[cmatthes]

That article is full of inaccuracies, but the guitars for sale are cool.