This is a really special Greco. It was listed as a 1979 prototype for the EGF 1800, and that Greco had used it in an advertisement. Of course, when it was for sale there was nothing in the listing to confirm either.

When I received it, it was definitely an 1800 level guitar with solid flame top, ORDER MADE stamped in both pickup cavities, two-piece center seam Mahogany back, one-piece Mahogany neck and a really thin nitro finish with subtle checking all over the guitar and that reacted instantly to acetone. It also has a very unusual serial number that looks like CC3879H (could be OC), so not a production model and looks like was made in August of 1979. One pickup was an EMG added at some point and the other an oddly marked Maxon supposedly original to it. Since it was such a great find, I really wanted to get a pair of DRY Z’s into it. But none were to be found.

Shortly after I received it a good friend in Norway spotted the actual guitar in a Greco ad! Flame tops can be like fingerprints, and this one is definitely unique – I’ve included side by side pics with the Greco advertisement. The ad appears in the December 1979 issues of magazines and is for the EG 850, which was the predecessor to the Super Real EGF 850. So the seller may well have had the story correct on both counts.

It wasn’t until just about a year and a half later that I found a really nice, matched set of 1980 DRY Z pickups. The only part of the electronics that is still original is the pickup selector switch, everything else has now been replaced. I didn’t realize what headache it would be trying to finding full-sized 300K and 100K pots like the DRY Z’s were installed with originally. It also needed a bunch of work, including a level, crown and polish.

As I write this, I had just finished it all up a day ago. Very happy with the result. I would still like to change the bridge and tail piece, neither of which are original, but it sounds and plays fantastic as it is.