Greco Guitars - History

History

Kanda Shokai was established in 1948 and the Greco brand name was started in 1960 by Kanda Shokai. It was not until 1966/1967 that electric guitar production was begun in earnest with the introduction of Greco Telecaster like models. Kanda Shokai at first used the Greco brand name for the solid body models and used the Canda brand name for their Acoustic models which was based on the company name Kanda (Canda). Also in the mid/late 1960s, Kanda Shokai produced some Greco branded guitars based on Hagström and EKO designs for Avnet/Goya in the USA and these guitars were made by the Matsumoku and FujiGen (and possibly Teisco) guitar factories and were very similar to the late 1960s Ibanez guitars based on Hagström and EKO designs. Greco also produced a few original designs in the late 60s including the Greco Semi-hollow "Shrike" guitars which were imported and marketed first by Goya and later by Kustom. The "Shrike" model was unusual in that it had a pair of weird boomerang "L" shaped pickups. These "Boomerang" shaped pickups predate the Gibson Flying V2 "Boomerang" shaped pickups by over 10 years.

In the early 1970s Kanda Shokai made Greco Gibson like models with bolt on necks which were very similar to the Ibanez Gibson like models at that time and most of these models had a Greco logo that looked more like "Gneco". By the mid/late 1970s most Greco Gibson like models were being made with set necks and open book Gibson headstock designs. Some other Greco Gibson like models from the 1970s had a different headstock design (more like a Guild headstock design) that had a Greco logo with equally sized letters.

Starting in late 1979 the Greco "Super Real Series" were introduced which were high standard replicas of Gibson and Fender models. In 1982 the Greco "Mint Collection" was introduced which continued the high standard of the "Super Real Series". In 1982 Kanda Shokai and Yamano Gakki become part of Fender Japan and Kanda Shokai stopped producing its own Greco Fender replica models. Since the end of the Greco open book headstock Gibson replicas in the early 1990s, Kanda Shokai have produced various models using the Greco brand name such as the "Mirage Series" (similar to the Ibanez Iceman), various Gibson copies (not using the open book Gibson headstock design), Violin basses (VB), Zemaitis Guitars and various other models as well.

Some notable guitar players that have used Greco guitars include Ace Frehley who used Greco Les Paul replicas when Kiss were on tour in Japan and Elliot Easton of The Cars.