Retro-Rama
1960s Greco Bass
Well, I guess it was inevitable that it would happen sooner or later: I took a chance on a funky eBay axe, and with a little T.L.C. and new strings, I have fallen in love with this quite goofy ’60s Japanese-made Greco bass. The company later became famous (or, more correctly, infamous) for its shameless knockoffs of various well-known instruments. I did quite a bit of research and could find very little about Greco’s early activities, and this model predates the earliest catalog I could find, which was 1968.
The bass was probably repainted this gunmetal gray color at some point, and perhaps the hand-painted dragons and flames were added at the same time. The more modern Gibson-type transparent knobs are almost certainly not original, but this bass already has such a wacky look that nothing seems too far out of context. The groovy polished-metal pickguard is a video director’s nightmare. The 34" scale and chunky neck are bigger than one would expect for this fairly small, thin body, and with its huge “hockey stick” headstock, it’s a little neck-heavy—but I couldn’t care less. This thing is just too much fun to play!
After reassembling the bass (it came with the neck detached), I had the pots, connections, and switches cleaned and repaired, and pow! The sound hit me right between the ears. It is very even level-wise, both string-to-string as well as up and down the neck—with the exception of one high fret on the upper end of the G string (way out of moneymaking range!), which I will get fixed. After trying a few string sets, I discovered that GHS Infinity coated roundwounds were the perfect match: They’re just a little mellow on the top, and twangy and punchy on the bottom, not to mention they look good in red.
The Greco sounds full and clear when played lightly, but the harder you play, grunge and dirt start to come out in the tone. The pickups are surprisingly robust, and while the 3-position switch doesn’t seem to fully disengage either pickup, to my ear it gives you two very different midrange boosts—one low and gnarly, the other higher and barky, with a fatter setting in the middle that still stops just short of murkiness. All three sounds are useful right out of the chute, and they have a lot of character. An interesting quirk of the pickups is that wide string bends (especially in the upper register) create a noticeable tremolo effect as the string goes in and out of the polepieces’ range, and with a little practice you can create a very cool tempo-based vibrato effect!
As soon as I finished tweaking it, I used the Greco on a session for a loose, Little-Feat-meets-Rockpile “scuffle” groove. The bass had just the right amount of meat and potatoes along with an extra edge of grit and funkiness. The tone inspired me to go for a Nick Lowe/Joey Spampinato-type rumbling bass part that really fit the song’s attitude.
In the months I have been writing this column, I have learned more and more about the joys of older basses. I have gotten some great e-mails from readers sharing their “my first bass” stories, as well as plenty of questions that assume I know all there is to know about old, weird instruments. Truth be told, I don’t consider myself an expert on vintage axes, just a lover of bass in all its various forms. Let me put it this way: If it feels good to you, it is. If it sounds good to you, then it is, and the rest is totally subjective. The moral of this story, which also applies to many things in life: If you trust your gut instincts and follow your heart, and you aren’t afraid to take a chance on something that may be unusual or different, you may be rewarded far beyond your original expectations.
