Greco SST-88

Japan continues to produce very high quality guitars - most of the brands we know and love from the 1970s and 1980s still continue to this day, but only a few continued into this century with Japanese made products, and the quality that Japanese guitars are so well known for. Ibanez, Burny and Greco continued MIJ lines alongside History, ESP, Seventy Seven and a few others. If you had the budget and respected that quality costs decent money, then these guitars were available; albeit mostly to the domestic Japanese market. Outside Japan, we had MIJ Fender and selected Ibanez models to satisfy us. We were missing out.

This is one such guitar - a Fujigen produced Greco SST-88 in non-gloss black, a rare finish for a rare guitar - most were Wine Red. A Black SG is always a fine looking thing - the lack of gloss gives it an even more menacing look. I suspect this is one of the only SST-88s to leave Japan, they were built in tiny numbers to start with. A featherweight at 2.55kg (5lbs 10oz) and still with its Classic Screamin' pick-ups, the sounds this makes are not featherweight. Tracing its roots back to the Mick Ralphs line, the Screamin' humbuckers were ceramic magnets and here we have 2 different outputs - the neck is a Classic Screamin' output of 8.4k, just like the units in the reverred EG ranges from the mid-80s, and the bridge unit is a whopping 15.95k; so we have set it as low as we can to best match the neck unit. Just know that a turn or two on the height adjuster will deliver ridiculously loud lead tones. Fujigen produced their own pick-ups (they acquired the famous Nisshin Onpa factory in the early 80s), and these pick-ups are found with brand specific names in the History and FGN ranges.

In fantastic condition, this sounds as wonderful as it looks, and surprisingly versatile in the middle position. No headstock tax here - you are just paying for a fantastic example of a properly made guitar.