New Acquisition, I'll call it an EL Degas "Original"

[Barry]

I did a bit of digging about tonight to follow up on Lorne's mention of Greco as the genesis of this design.

Sure enough, I found an interesting listing in a 1977 Greco Japanese catalogue:
http://www.geocities.jp/guitarofworld/Greco-GO900.html
This model GO900, is very similar to some of the ED copies seen in this forum (or rather vice versa).

You can quibble over bridges, control layouts, trim details and neck thru versus bolt on, but there is not much denying the that the body style is the same. (I would still submit that the "Gumby" headstock version is courtesy of Uncle Matsumoku.)

Here's another reference: http://ushigomepan.seesaa.net/article/191452408.html
I don't know if we're further ahead as to who actually made the ED version, but it looks like the original design may be credited to Greco (or whomever built it for them!).

[charles]

Great sleuthing, Barry.

I personally feel like this is an Uncle Mats creation, but we'll probably never say 100% positively whether it is.

[thornbush]

You guys have totally lost me.......

[charles]

You guys have totally lost me.......

"Uncle Mats" is a nickname for Matsumoku.

[thornbush]

They come...they go...I think I'm going to sell this one, it's not getting played....any takers at $400?.....I'll swap for a good acoustic electric.

[Barry]

I was nosing around some more in an effort to try and find more on the subject of the Greco/El Degas link.

I found this very interesting post over at Jemsite.com which pretty much ties in FujiGen, Hoshino, and Kandashoukai as the original designers and builders of the GO series of Greco models: http://www.jemsite.com/forums/showpost. ... ostcount=1

It looks more and more like the top quality versions we've seen likely came from this consortium. The cruder/cheaper ED versions however, is anyone's guess.