so why is Tokai a bigger name than Greco?

Tokai Forum

Help Support Tokai Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

LarryC

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Messages
180
Reaction score
0
Location
USA
just curious as to why the Tokai brand name is so much bigger than Greco's? or is it really bigger even?
 
It is friday here at the office so I'll throw in my 2-yen here.

I guess because Tokai was probably the first to perfect their copies of gutars, they were both the manufactuer and seller of their guitars, and they still continue today.

As well, a lot of pros were using their guitars in the early 80's before the G and F companies got their reissues going.

Greco is a manufactured brand for sale by a trading company and had many different permutations including the new designs today. I guess they peaked from 1979-1982.

Tokai is certainly still quite big today in Japan as an alternative to US-made Gibsons and Japanese/US Fenders. As for the new Greco's, I dig the black customs but am not too taken by the look of the standard LPs.
I think they should just do a limited high-end Mint-Collection reissue series.
 
Is it bigger? Maybe depends who you ask, matter of opinion.

going by page counts on this forum...
Tokai=214 pages
Greco=31 pages
Burny=18 pages
Orville=6 pages

so yeah,I would assume Tokai is bigger,and lets not forget about Ibanez..
 
LarryC said:
Is it bigger? Maybe depends who you ask, matter of opinion.

going by page counts on this forum...
Tokai=214 pages
Greco=31 pages
Burny=18 pages
Orville=6 pages

so yeah,I would assume Tokai is bigger,and lets not forget about Ibanez..


Well, it is the Tokai Registry
 
thanks wulfman for your reply,you pretty much answered my question..
 
Personally, I prefer Tokai guitars to Greco, for the most part. Greco made some questionable choices at the lower end of their product range, whereas with Tokai even the lowest spec vintage models are worthwhile instruments.
 
Elliot Easton played a Greco Super Real for a while and was an endorser in one of the Greco catalogs.

Paul Stanley has used Grecos and has said that the best Strat he's ever played was a Greco.

EVH played a Ibanez Destroyer early on and it's basically the same as a Greco Destroyer as the Ibanez/Greco Destroyer was a cooperative design by Hoshino/Ibanez and Kanda Shokai/Greco.
Ace Frehley also played a Ibanez Destroyer in Japan from what I can remember.

A fair few of the well known players have played MIJ guitars starting mostly with Ibanez in the 1970s.

Tokai sold guitars overseas like Ibanez did and Kanda Shokai mainly sold Greco guitars in Japan so that's another reason why Tokai might be more well known if it is.
 
Paul Stanley has used Grecos and has said that the best Strat he's ever played was a Greco.


thats pretty interesting..I'd really like to see what he has to say about it.any articles/interviews to verify this?
 
I know he has used a Greco during the japan tour in late 70' but as far i can remember it wasn't a Stratocaster..
 
Tokai gakki was the oldest quality brand in Japan scene. They got Martin ties back in early 70?s so it gives them a lot of credit,Tokai?s motto has a lot to resembvle with it. They were crafting more correct replicas(staring in 1.977 les Paul and Les Paul Reborn series, Breezysound and Springysound ) before Greco did (1.979-80) with Super Real series. They have a factory whereas Greco is just a brand (Tokai made some Grecos). And what I guess the main reasons for us western people: Tokai was the first having a forum and named vastly in the internet.
I would also mention UK and Asutralian importers doing a great job for promoting the instruments.OK, Gottfried did it too.

And the quality,of course......
 
http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=7051&highlight=&sid=c20fbae4420794a9de083dca27e9d15e

When asked why they never got a deal with Gibson even though the band always thanked them on albums, he replied, "...it's no secret that, back in the 70's and 80's a lot of the Japanese companies were murdering the American companies in terms of quality. God knows the Tokai Love Rock les Paul copies blew away a lot of the guitars they were emulating. And the best Start I ever owned was a Greco!. I did my first solo album on an Ibanez Les Paul."
 
japanstrat said:
Paul Stanley has used Grecos and has said that the best Strat he's ever played was a Greco.

That's hilarious!!. "Played".....'he can't 'play' so what kind of endorsement is that??
 
I don't like Kiss very much and I agree about Paul Stanley,but it's still interesting hearing the story.
 
spikeymikey said:
japanstrat said:
Paul Stanley has used Grecos and has said that the best Strat he's ever played was a Greco.

That's hilarious!!. "Played".....'he can't 'play' so what kind of endorsement is that??

Ha ha, just what I thought as well.
 
Well, I'm not a Kiss fan at all but I think Paul can play a fair bit but he's not a Guitar God.
Why does someone need to be a Guitar God when judging a guitars tone?
I think songwriting is his main thing and I think he's written some good things.
He's also bald btw.
 
I would go even further and say that Ace Frehley was not that great of a guitarist either.
KISS riffs were not that complex, but they did write catchy songs and that is why I like them...
 
triniloverock said:
I would go even further and say that Ace Frehley was not that great of a guitarist either.
KISS riffs were not that complex, but they did write catchy songs and that is why I like them...

Exactly.... the songs, costumes and the pyrotechnics were a great distraction from their basic playing.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top