1980 Greco EGF1200 Super Real Les Paul '50s makeover.

jumping@shadows

Hi all, as some of you may know I restore vintage '50s/'60s Gibson guitars, with a particular focus on '50s Burst conversions, where I find trashed '52-'56 P90 goldtop Les Pauls and rebuild and refinish them to exact '59 PAF sunburst Standard spec. 
While I have a revolving door of enviable vintage Les Paul's in my workshop (current line up is a flamed out '52, incredible 8lb flamed out late '56 factory stoptail, a '60 Burst amongst others..), I don't actually own a guitar of my own to play! 
I have minimal budget for something as frivolous as a guitar for myself, plus I'm a massive nerd so needed something that satisfies my geekery, so I decided to seek out an extremely rare and highly revered top end '80 Greco EGF1200 LP replica.
While Greco are far less known than same era Tokai, those who are lucky enough to own one of the 500 or so 1200's hand built between '79-80, absolutely rave about them, and while the spec is funky compared to the late '50s Std it was built to emulate, it does have a Braz board, old Honduran body and DRY Z PAFs made with NOS '50s plain enamel wire.
To cut a long story short, I took a punt on a tatty example with severely cracked top veneer, but mostly intact including the DRY Z and set about making it over with a '50s correct aniline refinish.

jumping@shadows

jumping@shadows

First observations were the top carve is fabulous, and the neck lovely and chunky, and the DRY Z are truly remarkable, but the split veneer had to go! I assumed I'd find a two piece plain top beneath, and it initially appeared to have a slighly off-centre seam when the first chunk of the very thick cross banded laminate came away, but further work revealed a 5 piece block board.
I decided to see what I could do with what I had, and set about evening out the pieces by sanding and bleaching, and it ended up looking pretty good:

jumping@shadows

eSully

Bookmarked, I love threads like this, looking forward to see how it goes @jumping@shadows ;

jumping@shadows

I toyed with bursting it as it stood and perhaps blending the seams with a wider burst shading, or shooting it translucent cherry, but I was feeling ambitious so decided to fit a much thinner 0.6mm Eastern Maple flame veneer with a Wacky Races style improvised vacuum bag press, and I'm glad I made the effort  

jumping@shadows

jumping@shadows

jumping@shadows

jumping@shadows

I used pure nitro and aniline dyes, so the finish will cure incredibly thin and hard and fade like a real '50s LP Std, and while I'd usually do some deliberate fading before assembly, as this is my own guitar I'll complete the process and let it fade naturally, and will add weather checking and playwear in due course. 

jumping@shadows

eSully said:

Bookmarked, I love threads like this, looking forward to see how it goes @jumping@shadows ;

Thanks eSully  

jumping@shadows

I'll be polishing out the finish over the weekend then will assemble and let it cure awhile, and am fully expecting a guitar to rival my golden era Gibsons for vibe and looks at a tiny fraction of the value. 

paulnb57

Nice interesting post, enviable skills, loving the colours in that burst......

photek

Lovely! Agreed about the DRY Z's, fantastic pickups!

guitars4you

You are obviously a very talented guy - looks great and the story via the pics is interesting

just wondering what value you could place on such a guitar if ever sold - add up your time etc, let alone materials etc and I dare say it is not a good return on your own involvement  But it looks  a very special guitar and I dare say based on looks and performance it will out pace many of the LP's with a more famous brand name

iseverynamegone

Glad you found one, hope you got a deal. You just missed my EGF850 on ebay. 

Looks good , nice work. 

Danielsguitars

I'd take a vntage mij over any modern gibbo, i've also had a egf 1000 Greco which is the model below this one
Only difference are the pickups

Great work Yukki

richardhomer

guitars4you said:

it looks  a very special guitar and I dare say based on looks and performance it will out pace many of the LP's with a more famous brand name

Indeed - I’d definitely fancy its chances against a Terry Morgan @Bridgehouse? (Thought you’d like the tag... )

Bridgehouse

richardhomer said:

guitars4you said:

it looks  a very special guitar and I dare say based on looks and performance it will out pace many of the LP's with a more famous brand name

Indeed - I’d definitely fancy its chances against a Terry Morgan @Bridgehouse? (Thought you’d like the tag... )

I wish I could spray finishes like that... and so does Terry

jumping@shadows

guitars4you said:

You are obviously a very talented guy - looks great and the story via the pics is interesting

just wondering what value you could place on such a guitar if ever sold - add up your time etc, let alone materials etc and I dare say it is not a good return on your own involvement  But it looks  a very special guitar and I dare say based on looks and performance it will out pace many of the LP's with a more famous brand name

Thanks for the positive comments
This was just for fun for myself, and I didn't really have value or resale in mind in this instance, but as an EGF1200 will run to €2500/$3k if you can find one, and I paid significantly less than that, and arguably improved it with a thinner, better looking veneer and a pure nitro refinish, I'd say to the guy looking for one of these extremely rare guitars, it'll be very attractive

Neil

That is some beautiful work there. I really respect people with your level of craftsmanship.

One thing though, you put a value of around 2500-3000 Euros on an EGF1200 but you have shown it to be a five piece blockboard body with a veneer top, so nothing like the guitar it is purportedly emulating.

I'm interested to know, why the value?

Is it simply down to rarity?

Trying not to be rude, but It looks pretty cheaply made for that sort of valuation.