Greco SE600

A Japan-made guitar from 1976, before the Super Real era.
This is the series which awoke Fender’s wrath, ultimately leading to the brand being bought up by the US manufacturer.

SE600 Super Sound model.
The guy i got it from sold it as an SE800 but i don’t care, it’s still a great guitar with a beautiful rosewood fingerboard.

I had been dreaming of this exact model since my (very remote) youth
1st replica of a 3-tone sunburst ’62 Strat
Body with nitrocellulose lacquer
Flamed maple neck with a Brazilian rosewood fingerboard and pearl inlay
D-profile, ideal for small hands like mine
Sen wood body (1 or 2 pieces, I can’t clearly see the junction so you can tell it was a great work). The wood resounds incredibly, hit it with your finger and all the strings start resounding for a long, long time, so sustain is not a problem! Even unplugged, it sounds great…
3-way switch
22 frets
3.2 kg/7 lbs


USE
Almost the perfect Strat. For a 40 year old instrument, it’s in a remarkable state.
String alignment is a little faulty with the low E a bit too close to the edge of the neck while the sharp E is a bit too far from it, but I’ll have it set up soon.
The problem is well known on some ols MIJ guitars, but this definitely can be cured.

3 single Maxon Excel pickups: a rich, dense and never dirty sound.

SOUND
I play it on a 36W H&K Tubemeister, and I’ve also trie dit on my guitar teacher’s Fender Twin Reverb. It sounds good...
The original single Maxon Excel sound really good, but when I can I’ll replace them with MS Tornados or Hepcat Replicas Series. I expect to gain more mids.


OVERALL
I bought it used in May 2013 and am happy I got one of the first 1962 “Series L” replicas.
Japanese guitars from these years are the same quality compared with American models, sometimes even better, but the price is clearly not the same though used MIJ guitar prices tend to go dramatically up these years (a bit too much in the case of some Grecos).

I’ve compare dit with US Standard Strats from the 80s, 90s and 2000s, there’s no match… Here goes for my third MIJ guitar. So if you hesitate to buy an old used Greco or Tokai guitar, stop hesitating and go ahead! The equivalent in Fend*r’s catalog would be a totally unaffordable (for me at least) Custom Shop model...