The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

CRUSTY,
I have a theory as to why the Japanese guitars suddenly had a huge jump in quality. I worked in manufacturing for years and remember this happening with a lot of things, not just musicical instruments, and have some knowlege of how Japanese companies operate. I also worked for a Japanese company and became familiar with their strategies.
They quite simply reinvest on a huge scale. When Honda first introduced the Civic ( commonly known as a pregnant roller skate) I remember them being referred to as "junk" ( which they turned out not to be, they lasted a long time). Honda took the money they made from that car and invested in a lot of R and D and made a better car. They continued to reinvenst until they got where they are now, the best cars made, and are still investing heavily in R and D and on the forefront of technology.
They did the same thing with electronics.
We now see Koreans doing the same thing, for example Hyundai, which very much followed the same pattern as Honda. Put out a cheap car, take the money made from it and make a better one.
I think it likely that the reason for the huge jump in quality was because of the huge amount of guys that could not afford domestic instruments that were buying cheap guitars to learn on in the 60s. You couldn't swing a catgut string without hitting a Japanese guitar. I suspect the sudden surge in quality was for one reason, because they COULD. They had the money, and likely poured it into technology, which is quite typical for Japanese companies.
Japanese companies also tend to think decades ahead, unlike american companies that think months ahead. I worked for a Japanese company, and they build factories with a lot of extra room for expansion, they build and plan for years ahead, and take much pride in workmanship. Even to the point they are not afraid to take a loss in the best interest of their reputation.
In other words, the surge in quality was simply a side effect of the wealth they amassed from either other products or musical instruments themselves, which flooded the american market place in the late sixties.
Also, we tend to think of this from an american perspective, but it is notable that they were competing on European markets, where high quality instruments were already being made (Framus comes to mind). There is no doubt in my mind that the Japanese had the Eurpoean market in mind as well.
Although I don't know this to be fact, from my obsevations it makes perfect sense to me.

I think the Greco in your picture of the headstock is different from the Japanese Greco. I don't want to plagerise someone else's work so I will refer you to a Goya site :

http://goyaguitars.tripod.com/index1.htm#home

If you scroll to the bottom index and click "Goya History" you can see the association of Greco with Goya. This was in the 1960's. These Greco's were made in Europe. The Japanese brand arrived in the 70's.

If you go back to the index and open the "Greco Guitar Catalogs" the 1968 catalog I think on page 17? features a Greco 921 model ; the same one is found on the 1970 catalog page 4.

This Greco has the same headstock and pointy triangular truss rod cover as the one in your picture.

That is a great site, I found my Shrike 12-string listed there.

It's still not entirely clear to me; reading that site he says they're not the same yet describes how Goya got guitars from Fuji-Gen-Gakke. So it seems plausible that some models at least in that catalog were made in Japan. But maybe I'm missing something.

I'd like to see examples of the Logo styles you mention, that's interesting.