Just scored a new (to me) guitar today for like 300 bucks. A 1977 Greco Supersounds. Im super stoked about it so now you're gonna get guitar lore dumped.

Our story begins with Leo Fender selling out his brand to a big corporation in the 70s. Big corpo does what big corpos do and starts cutting corners, enacting "cost saving measures," etc. While still charging premium Fender prices. Meanwhile, over in Japan there's a huge demand for Fenders but they're kinda hard to get and they're barely even worth it anymore.

Japan was always ahead of the curve when it came to mass-producing cheap guitars, and by the 70s they've gotten quite good at it. Greco (and other companies) start mass producing Fender copies that are genuinely good guitars for a fraction of the price that a real Fender would require.

They prove immensely popular, even making their way overseas and eating into Fender's bottom line.

In 1981, Fender approaches Greco's manufacturer and offers them a deal. Drop Greco and start making Fenders for us. Obviously the manufacturer takes this deal, and thus the MIJ Strat was born, offering a high quality budget option to Fender's lineup.

So, my 77 Supersounds is a solid, but affordable strat copy that was made in a factory that later produced similar guitars for Fender themselves. It's so cool I love it.