NGD: MIJ Greco EW105
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2024 1:04 pm
Les Paul meets PRS meets Patrick Eggle meets Hamer.
Well this is an interesting little thing. Built at Fujigen in 2018, the EW range are 24.75" scale, mahogany/maple bodies, mahogany/rosewood necks, LP controls, 12" radius, and come with either a tuneomatic setup or a Wilkinson VS100 like this one. This neck is one main piece and then 2 little bits for the ears, the body is 3 pieces.
The neck joint is bolt on, and when they say bolt on they really mean it:
The bottom machine screw there goes through into the neck pickup cavity where it's got a T nut to thread into, and the other bolts have their own corresponding threaded inserts in the neck too, and because Greco are diligent dudes they shield the cavities with shielding paint then run ground wires back to the control cavity. Does it help? Maybe. Is it cool? Yep.
That's a pleasing neck joint:
The neck is a monster. It's a lot like a '58 Les Paul neck, thick with rounded shoulders like a Fat D (if ya know what I mean). It's different to everything else I have and the more I play it the more I like it. It's not the fastest neck to get around, but there's something about digging in to bends on a huge neck you can't get anywhere else and I'm pretty sure the sheer mass of the mahogany there contributes to the deep low mid tone that is, unsurprisingly, right in the Les Paul ballpark. I have a Gibson LP next to it in the rack and they have very similar tonal signatures with not a lot of top, but lots of sustain in the lower mids.
The pickups are a bit shit. Very compressed and sort of generic sounding. The bridge is around 16k, the neck is around 8k. Both ceramic mags, which isn't a problem inherently, these just sound a little meh to my ears but they're fine for now.
It came with a bunch of stuff including the original manual, hang tags, warranty card, and a Greco pick holder. Nice:
It's a cool guitar. Different enough to be interesting but familiar enough to not be scary, all with Fujigen's impeccable build quality.