Excited to put up a brilliant vintage of Greco Stratocaster SE-800J, manufactured by Fujigen in 1981. I’ve owned dozens of Greco Stratocasters labeled SE series but was curious of ‘J’ postfix. While researching the details I found amazing stories behind it.

Back in 1978 when Japan was emerging as world’s super power, the rock musicians from the US flew to the country as if visiting their neighbor to entertain the rich audience. Jeff Beck and Stanley Clark were one of them. On the stage Jeff Beck most likely played Schecter guitar (nicknamed the Sultan guitar that Mark Knopfler played for Sultan of Swing). The folks from Greco, perhaps at the live gigs, were so impressed that they immediately started copying the same model. Well lawsuit copies were prevalent at that times and Greco must rather have felt overproud when they saw the guitar they made sound better than Fender…

Speaking of the guitar maintenance, she stayed in tact over 40 years without notable dings or dents. The pickguard was reshaped to enhance sexiness. Now, the geeky 3 switches function in a way that the top switch either splits the front and middle pickup or binds front and middle pickup for humbucking, the middle switch being the pickup selector, and the bottom one turns the pickup on or off. The ideal combination will play the chunky and punchy Jeff Beck sound. Enjoy!