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As for grecos, those price ranges you mention are reserved for guitars which were really high specs, certainly better then most Gibson of the era and probably a lot of the ones from today. Built using very nice quality woods, craftsmanship, great hardware and electronics. And if you look at a high end super reals (EGF-1200 and EGF-1800) as well as high end mint collections (EG58-120, EG59-120 and EG60-180), these are not only great guitars which have become collectibles (much like various examples in the guitar industry), but also they were built in relatively small numbers.
As for Navigators, again I have very little experience with the ones from the 80s, although I know the top higher end models, were extremely well built. But I can tell you that if you look at N-LP-380 models from 2000-2005 or N-LP-480 models, from 2005-onwards, then you're looking at guitars built with honduran mahogany, american hard rock maple tops, great craftsmanship, great hardware, great pickups. Easily in the same camp as a good historic.
Now the psychological effect of not having Gibson written on the headstock might prevent some people from understanding what is otherwise a very logical concept. But that doesn't mean the guitars aren't worth it.
I'm lucky enough to own guitars from both camps including some nice historic reissues, some vintage examples and some of Japanese made instruments as well. They all have their place and it's great to have the choice.
and if you are paitent you will pick a 80s one up on e bay for £1400
definitely note saying Japanese is better than USA, there are excellent examples of both
I have been house clearing the last week as we move more of our life to Spain and the ES345 is now up for sale and I got the Greco fired up for the first time in 6 months and was going to put it in the classified. But plugging it in reminded me it's probably as close to a golden age Les Paul sound as I will ever get, it does that BloomTele on steroids tone and adjusting the tone and volume takes on a whole new perspective and brings forth so many old classic Les Paul tones, Besides being old wood whatever that means the DryZ pickups are just that little bit microphonic and make it something way above my paygrade.
So it's not going anywhere as I think you could offer me 10k and I could not replace what it does in a US Guitar I tried the 60th anniversary recently and it was nice and better than some R9's I have tried over the years but still just a parody to me.
YMMV
It happened with yamaha sg1000s some collecter/ seller selling 80s ones for £1700 to 2k ++ ,not going to sell, a sg1000 is a £900/£1000 s/h guitar .
That finish. Good lord.
But for the vast majority of people the Gibson logo, regardless whether these might be perceived by some as inferior instruments by comparison, carries most weight because of the strength of brand, street cred, and the ready market that makes resale much easier whereas there are only a very small minority of potential buyers that are prepared to pay these types of prices for non-Gibson Marques.