Greco Dry / Screamin pickup identification help

[fiftywatt]

Hi fiftywatt, Interesting, i have seymores, tokai, custom hand wound, bill lawrence and dimarzio's and in my RR 65 the dry 1982 are awesome and the creamiest of the pickups i have, it well may be that i have the perfect combination of pickups and tone woods in this guitar, or i'm just lucky, but i play everything from metal to undistorted blues on this guitar and it does everything extremely well and not a hint of microphonics.This isn't an uneducated rambling either as i have been playing for 30+ years and have tried multiple combinations of pickups. They probably aren't the best pickups there is,but in this guitar they are perfect.

I suspect I came across a little harsh on my post. Screamin 82's have ranged from blah to downright amazing to my ears. Depends on the guitar IMO.

NWOBHM- I have an '84 Greco EG59-50 that is nice and 8 lbs. lightweight/very resonant. Nice wide growth rings on the center seam 2 piece mahogany back. This guitar sounds amazing with the Screamin's. No need to change them.

Mick, I agree about the Dry 1982's. I had an '85 RR-65 like yours with the D-82's. It sounded phenomenal for crystal clean tones or modern metal. Didn't care for the neck profile at the time but should have hung onto it I suspect. I'm an old geezer. Been playing since 1977. Bought too many replacement pickups to mention. The other Greco I had with D-82's was an 11 lb. '83 JS-65. Too heavy.. dense lows and shrill highs. No fault of the pickups to be sure. I've never been able to make one of the heavier weight Greco's sound good with replacement pickups quite frankly.

 

[MIJvintage]

Hi fiftywatt, Interesting, i have seymores, tokai, custom hand wound, bill lawrence and dimarzio's and in my RR 65 the dry 1982 are awesome and the creamiest of the pickups i have, it well may be that i have the perfect combination of pickups and tone woods in this guitar, or i'm just lucky, but i play everything from metal to undistorted blues on this guitar and it does everything extremely well and not a hint of microphonics.This isn't an uneducated rambling either as i have been playing for 30+ years and have tried multiple combinations of pickups. They probably aren't the best pickups there is,but in this guitar they are perfect.

I suspect I came across a little harsh on my post. Screamin 82's have ranged from blah to downright amazing to my ears. Depends on the guitar IMO.

NWOBHM- I have an '84 Greco EG59-50 that is nice and 8 lbs. lightweight/very resonant. Nice wide growth rings on the center seam 2 piece mahogany back. This guitar sounds amazing with the Screamin's. No need to change them.

Mick, I agree about the Dry 1982's. I had an '85 RR-65 like yours with the D-82's. It sounded phenomenal for crystal clean tones or modern metal. Didn't care for the neck profile at the time but should have hung onto it I suspect. I'm an old geezer. Been playing since 1977. Bought too many replacement pickups to mention. The other Greco I had with D-82's was an 11 lb. '83 JS-65. Too heavy.. dense lows and shrill highs. No fault of the pickups to be sure. I've never been able to make one of the heavier weight Greco's sound good with replacement pickups quite frankly.

Interesting wording there; 'growth ring structure'.........
I think that's a first, from my side of the fence.
Nice to see others taking note of the 'lumber'.................

.........and as far as the heavier weight guitars, chunk 'em..............................

 

[fiftywatt]

Interesting wording there; 'growth ring structure'......... I think that's a first, from my side of the fence.
Nice to see others taking note of the 'lumber'.................
.........and as far as the heavier weight guitars, chunk 'em..............................

MIJ, I think I have to give you the credit for the GRS term, or Villager maybe. I've been looking for the perfect Greco mint collection LP Custom for years now. Cannot find anything under 10 lbs. They never sound right compared to my Standards. I've bought and sold several so far. I guess the ugly dense woods got the black finishes alot of the time?

 

[NWOBHM]

Fiftywatt, That 84' a dark cherryburst? One of mine is under 8 lbs. Unfortunately, it was beat to death and stripped of it's pick-ups when I got it but, after I started tweaking it, It has got to be one of the best Les Pauls I've ownd from a tone point of view. that's including a couple 50's ones I've owned, I still got one, a 54'. I've looked it over and I can't find any seams in the back, looks like one piece to me. Best 350.00us I've ever spent on a Les Paul. My newest one is a black 84'. After playing for awhile last night, I've decided to keep it stock. The Lollars are nicer but, I'm at the point of being tired of swapping pups all the time. The stock pups sound fine to me. As far as a black Custom I just got an early 80's Burny coming in the mail, should be here any day. 4kg. I think that's 8.8lb. My 74' Gibson White Custom is 10lbs and I can't play it anymore too heavy and no where near as reonant as any of the Greco's.

 

[fiftywatt]

Fiftywatt, That 84' a dark cherryburst? One of mine is under 8 lbs. Unfortunately, it was beat to death and stripped of it's pick-ups when I got it but, after I started tweaking it, It has got to be one of the best Les Pauls I've ownd from a tone point of view. that's including a couple 50's ones I've owned

NWOBHM- That's some high praise for Greco for sure.

Some of these Grecos can be shockingly close to the vintage stuff. Yes, both of my 84's came in the dark cherryburst, probably EG59-60 models. One of them I had stripped and refinished in thin poly. The back is center seam two piece mahogany, just beautiful. The muddy red stain that came from the factory gave no indication of just how gorgeous the back and neck wood is. Very figured and that one weighs 8.2 lbs, with the stock Screamins too. If yours is beat, consider the refin route. It turned out great for me.

My other '84 is stock dark cherryburst and weighs 9.5 lbs. A bit on the heavy side but roars like a beast. I keep it strung with 12-52 D'Addario's and it's usually tuned to drop C. Hands down one of the most evil sounding Lester's for anything modern style metal that I need to do. The two 84's are the top dogs in my Greco arsenal. I've had a couple of '87 "63 SG" replicas and even one of Greco's "58 Explorer" replicas. All very nice and correct to the vintage specs, but didn't keep them.

The "Lesters" seem to be the only keepers for me. I've had 3x 1989 Greco LP's that were all under 8 lbs but w/ multi piece backs. The frets and inlay work were sloppier than my 84's, and they also didn't sound or play as good either. Go figure.

I snagged an '82 Greco "57 gold top" last year that has proved to be terrific. Its got a much bigger neck profile, a holdover from the Super Real era I am told. It came with tiny vintage style frets. I've since had it refretted with Dunlop 6150's. A world of difference for the better. And this gold top will destroy any "Historic R7" I've been able to try out in a music store.

 

[NWOBHM]

Can you post pics of that refin. I'd seriously consider going that route for sure!

 

[fiftywatt]

Can you post pics of that refin. I'd seriously consider going that route for sure!

PM sent regarding refin details.

Here's a pic of my Grecos. The wine red metallic refin '84 is on the far right. It has natural back and sides. The others are the ones mentioned in my prior post. '84 dark burst, '82 gold top. The cherry red '89 I have since sold.

 

[MIJvintage]

Interesting wording there; 'growth ring structure'......... I think that's a first, from my side of the fence.
Nice to see others taking note of the 'lumber'.................
.........and as far as the heavier weight guitars, chunk 'em..............................

MIJ, I think I have to give you the credit for the GRS term, or Villager maybe. I've been looking for the perfect Greco mint collection LP Custom for years now. Cannot find anything under 10 lbs. They never sound right compared to my Standards. I've bought and sold several so far. I guess the ugly dense woods got the black finishes alot of the time?

I know you're refering to Grecos but I have had several Burny RLC (custom) models that are in the 8.5 to 9.0 lb range.

 

[villager]

alex-sf

...I am not in the least bit delusional, I have sold 3 sets of dry Z at that price.

you don't think they are worth that....but you have no experience of the pickups...

if you think burstbuckers or the 490 gibson pickups have a good vintage sound then you would probably hate the DRY-Z, as unlike the above they are crisp, clear and articulate pickups. .. like the tom holmes..which are very good pickups.

if anyone here has actually played a set of dry-Z please feel free to comment..I am sure that anyone who has a set will think they are worth it..

 

[bart]

Hurry and get a pair of PUs from Wolfone!
Soon they will be surrounded by mojo and hojo and also cost $1000

 

[villager]

yes those are great PU's .... and voodoo's ....and wcr....

those are, in my view, the tops being made at the moment..

 

[JohnA]

alex-sf

...I am not in the least bit delusional, I have sold 3 sets of dry Z at that price.

you don't think they are worth that....but you have no experience of the pickups...
it..

Very little experience with DRY-Z's but I would like to say, a set of Burstbuckers retailing at well over ?200 make ?300 for a set of Dry-Z's look very good value just from a rarity point of view. I have some Greco PU-2's which are a bit furthur down Greco's range and IMO they sound heaps better than burstbuckers, Seth Lovers etc. If the Dry-Z's are better than these, which I'm sure they will be, they will be pretty unbeatable for the money.

 

[villager]

exactly...

 

[BigTone]

I actually have a set of DRY Zs from Villager. Don't have any experience with modern high end humbuckers for comparison but I will say they are exactly what I was hoping for. They are in my '87 burny at the moment. It didn't sound too bad before but its better now. So hard to subjectively sum up a pickup, but the swap is like taking cotton wool out of your ears. I don't know if anyone else thinks this, but when you back off the gain on your amp through to the crunch sounds and then clean, I find there is this zone with some pickups where they sound boring, where they become sterile with a kinda of muddy overtone. Well I don't get that with these pickups. The whole gain range is useable and musical. And just sitting there with high gain sustaining a note whilst getting wonderful harmonic overtones is just great. Planning to keep these pickups for life, and over that length of time the cost doesn't work out too bad.
Of course, you've still got to choose the right pickup for the job you want. I'm sure they won't be what everyone's after