Before JV

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   Although this site concentrates mainly on the export JV series guitars, we thought that you may be interested to know a little of what the Fuji Gen Gakki factory was producing just prior to the advent of Fender Japan and it's JV series instruments.

   Squier JV Pages contributor Tim Pershing,  has very kindly sent in some detailed pictures of his 1980 Greco 'Spacey Sound', and it is interesting to note that there are certain similarities with the Fender JV models in the construction this guitar, particularly some of the first Fender logo Squier models, with a 9.25 (9¼")  fingerboard radius, and neck pickup to neck pocket routing.  It does fall somewhat short of the export Squier JV's in the vintage detail and finishing departments though.

The neck is a bit chunkier in the hand than a JV, without the nicely rolled edges of the Fender item, and less attention has been paid in general to neck and headstock sanding, although the contouring and finish of the body is very good indeed.

The DM50-3 pickup selector switch, is a five position switch with the strange feature of a very vague 2 and 4 position, but the one pleasantly surprising thing is the great sounding Japanese pickups.

Although not as well known as the infamous Tokai Springy sound guitars from the same period, with their scarily Fender-like logo's; (seen on the JV Articles  page), these Greco models are every bit as good in the quality department as the Tokai's (well, certainly the bodies), and are in some respects more accurate in their vintage details.

Here it is! 

Note to eBay sellers and buyers:  This is NOT a JV Strat!

Above: An S-5 Pickup Fitted to the SE500 and SE450 Spacey Sound Models. 

Note oversize screws. (Normal size screw shown for comparison)

The dating of Greco models is fairly straightforward, and the example above (J802280) is deciphered thus;  J = month = October and 80 = 1980 with the last four digits denoting the production number 2280.

Here is another SE500 Spacey Sound model (three piece sen ash body); this one was made in August 1981 (H81xxxx), and is owned by myself (pic's below).

(Close up of headstock shown at the very top of the page).

These pictures below are of a top line SE800 Super Real model and shows the slightly greater attention to vintage detail (i.e. full size screening plate on the pickguard).  Thank you to Sami from Finland for the pictures.

Above: An '8 Stamp indicating its SE800 pedigree.

Below are a few pages from a 1980 Greco Catalogue (no translation I'm afraid).

  As you can see from the top of each page, under the guitar model numbers, the Greco brand (as with some other Japanese guitar manufacturers) numbers also denote the price and grade of the guitar; For example an SE600 would have cost 60,000 Yen, and an SE500 = 50,000 Yen and so on.  This is also true for the domestic Squier JV Series (SST-50 = 50,000 Yen).   Tim has told me that after placing his SE500 Spacey Sound and SE600 Super Sound models side by side for comparison, he could hardly see any difference in quality betweeen the two, and one has to wonder where the extra 1,000 Yen has gone into making the SE600 a higher quality instrument.

For more info, see HERE!