Seizing on the success affordable Japanese export guitars had in the '60s, companies like Greco, Ibanez, and others produced as many guitars as they could for the '70s guitar market. In this period, Greco's approach was so brazen and unabashed that many designs are shameless copies of guitars made by other builders.
But among the "lawsuit era" guitars, the Greco BM-900 is unique. It's a guitar that is a shameless copy of the one-of-a-kind "Red Special" guitar Brian May built for himself. At the time, this wasn't a design that was commercially available, so Greco seized the opportunity and introduced the BM-900. At the time, Queen was one of the biggest bands in the world, and Brian May's carefully crafted sounds and sharp playing stood out. Of course, the BM-900 was in no way licensed or endorsed by Brian May, but that's Greco for you.
This BM-900 dates to 1979, and from what we can tell, it was originally produced for the Japanese market. It includes its original Faultless case, and opening the case is like unearthing a time capsule from a late-'70s Tokyo guitar shop. This Greco includes an interesting Greco-branded sock for the guitar, paperwork that is all in Japanese Kanji, and a hang tag that lists the price as ¥90,000. As far as we're concerned, that's an absolute steal for your own copy of Brian May's legendary axe!
It's a heavy solid-body with three single coil pickups, a very '70s harmonica-style bridge, and a vibrato tailpiece that mimics Brian's. The double cutaway body and 24-fret neck give you plenty of room to stretch out, and the three pickups and unique wiring lend a wide range of settings. While Brian May's guitar has slider switches, the Greco BM-900 has two toggle switches for each pickup—one turns the pickup on, and the other reverses the phase.
This 1979 Greco BM-900 is a vintage guitar, so it shows some play wear and finish checking. But, it's fairly clean cosmetically, and it includes all of its original parts and components. It plays nicely, and it's a cool tribute to a unique rock n' roll icon. Plus, it's a vibey piece of authentic '70s MIJ ephemera.