The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Greco's actually owned by Kanda Shokai & isn't directly connected with Hoshino/Ibanez - the confusion arises because Fujigen-built Grecos are frequently identical or very similar to their Ibanez counterparts.

If you look at the scans of early 70s Greco catalogues, the back pages often feature the names of Fujigen & Aria side-by side. The catalogues themselves also show Matsumoku & Fujigen instruments together - literally, in the case of the Rickenbacker 4001 bass copies.

I think the 1968 catalogue I linked to suggests a very close alliance between Aria & Greco in the early years - it's likely Grecos were all sourced through Shiro Arai Co at that point, and probably built by Matsumoku. Later Grecos, from around 1976/77, appear to have been exclusively built by Fujigen.

Anyway - sorry for dragging this off-topic!

J.

I think it was the Fujigen-era Greco's I was thinking about although I didn't realize the earlier Greco/Aria connection until pointed it out so thank you for that. And your comments are not really off-topic per se since there appears to be so much confusion about what's what that's it's good to x-reference. I have a cool book called Bizarre Guitars (unfortunately on long-term loan right now) that has a lot of interesting pictures and tidbits and also kick myself for not holding onto some of the "copies" I had including a "Rick" bass like the one in your avatar although I still have my 70's Greco "L5" and that's quite a nice instrument. More recently I picked up a Greco "Firebird V" and other than the sucky banjo tuners it's a great guitar. Even though it's not a neck through like the Gibson's (and a very few Japanese copies) to my ears it sounds (probably due in part to the stop tail piece and excellent mini-humbuckers) and plays better than my friends real one.

Out of curiosity...

How did this one manage to stay in what appears to be such nice condition?

Is this a favorite you've taken really good care of over the years, one of yours you didn't play much, or did you luck across somebody else's "closet queen"?

therein lies a story... i've had the guitar around 4 years and i came by it as the guy that owned the guitar shop, now out of business, "misplaced" my Tech 21 PSA1 that he had borrowed for some sessions at his studio. for months i tried to get it back and as the weeks came closer to his store closing it was my last chance to come away with something. this guy had some pretty cool stuff including a slew of oddball vintage amps, Microfrets guitars, the original Mosrite "surfboard" guitars made for the Strawberry Alarm Clock (pic below), some great acoustics, archtops, etc. and the Aria Diamond "Tele." in fact, it was my friend who worked there that pointed it out and said it was the perfect guitar for me knowing i like oddballs. it was already in excellent condition so you're probably right that it was a closet queen or under the bed special. it actually is a favorite of mine for the color alone although it does have a pretty good sound and plays pretty well. but it's amazing how much the quality, playability and sound of the guitars that came out just 5 years later were light years better. one other tidbit - - there's a custom builder who's name escapes me right now but who builds some very nice Tele "knockoffs" and uses the same exact cut-away as on this Aria Diamond "Tele," albeit on the "normal" side. now if i could only find the correct case and trem arm.

Was the PSA-1 a rack unit like the PSA-1.1? The 1.1 is a nice (& expensive) piece of gear (I was out of the equipment loop for a long time--from the early- to mid-90s to just a few years ago--a friend of mine has a PSA-1.1 in his studio, & it works really nice with a lot of instruments).

$$$ wise, you may have traded down a little bit (maybe not--I don't know anything about what Arias of this vintage are worth)--but if you like the guitar & it was the only way to recoup part of the cost of your PSA, I'm glad you're happy with the guitar.

While I like a lot of guitars (Uncle MATs included)--& I like T-style guitars, I would have jumped at the chance to get my hands on the right Microfrets (I've played several that I really liked, but every one I've ever seen was crazy expensive--& he probably knew that).

Yes, the same, but earlier version, that Tech21 makes. Great for a wide variety of uses including vocals, bass, guitar, keys, etc. What was worse is mine had been modded with higher quality innards. Losing that one was a huge hit and you're right that the Aria was and is no where near as valuable or useful to me. I would have loved to snag one of the Microfrets the guy had or any number of other instruments but the only one that he was "willing" to part with was the Aria. The Aria is cool and fun to plink on but definitely a lesson learned the hard way.