Does this look familiar?

[Barry]

We've discussed this design over the last couple of years and I submitted that this was originally a Greco model.
Seller advertises it as a 1979 Greco Speedway.
Here's the ad link, and I've saved the pix for the record (below):
http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/msg/4151014717.html






Well...whatchathink?

[charles]

Interesting! The body shape and construction are about right, with certainly a different feel to the contouring and finish.

The question, I guess, is... is the Greco design itself original to that company, or were they copying someone else's design?

[Barry]

Dunno......but I think it's an original design at least. I don't know if Greco had its own facility or not. Certainly the build quality here is top notch, on par with Matsumoku, FujiGen,etc.

The ED versions we've seen tend to vary a bit in quality, like all ED's. I've seen at least one of these up close and it's amazing, and I've seen others in ads which look less than stellar.

[charles]

The Greco looks stellar. You can tell why they are one of the most sought-after 70's "knock-off" brands.

One thing that really set brands like Burny and Greco apart from El Degas was that they never seemed to skimp on features, quality or finish. The ED's definitely come in all flavours... for the Greco-esque model alone there are bolt-ons, set-necks made to look like neck-throughs, and true neck-throughs - all with their own level of fit & finish.