Greco is one of the pioneers of "lawsuit guitar" makers. The brand was created by Kanda Shokai Corporation in the early 1960's. In the early 1970's, they got into making replicas of original Fenders and Gibsons mostly in the famous Fiji-genGakki plant. By 1974 or so, their standard of making these copies escalated and their craftsmanship were excellent.
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Greco made more clone models of original Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Gretsch, Zemaiti, lbanez, and other brands. Eventually, as the company found that the demand for their popular replicas grew and that the size of the production was getting too large, they relinquished their Stratocaster division to Fender Japan in late 1981. By 1982, Greco Stratocasters became Fender JV Stratocasters, then later MIJ and CIJ Stratocasters. These guitars were made by the same guys who made the Greco "Sparkle Sound," "Spacey Sound," "Sparkle Sound," and "Super Real" Stratocasters from 1977-1981.
Greco still retained the business of selling great Gibson clones and other brand knockoffs of extraordinary high quality up until 1989. After that, the pressure to "cease and desist" production of copyright-infringing designs took its toll on Greco and they decided to change their headstocks and logos to avoid a confrontation with the American manufacturers. No longer will "lawsuit" models of exact Gibson and Fender clones be made by Greco.
Greco copies are becoming extremely rare and demand gets higher as time passes for these vintage collectibles.
