Just got an '81 Greco Super Power .. how'd I do?

[detroitace]

Just got this beauty off ebay and I'm quite happy. It arrived yesterday and after some tweaking, it plays great. It's a semi-hollow les paul with a subtle book-matched flame top.




I'm not done with my mods, yet. I plan on replacing the pickup rings, putting on a toggle plate and maybe a pickguard. And I may replace the tuners with Kluson-style for a more vintage look.

The guitar itself, that is the wood, frets all seem to be in great shape, but the electronics and hardware seem to be kind of a mish-mash taken from other guitars to make it work. For instance, the guitar came with two bridge pickups instead of a neck and bridge pickup. I realized this when I chose the middle toggle position and the sound was out-of-phase. I thought the wiring looked untouched and original, but I could be wrong. I quickly switched this out for a Yamaha neck pickup I had lying around and now it sounds like it should. I may still change the bridge (maybe to the original 'neck' pickup that came with the guitar to see what that sounds like. (If anyone can help with IDing the pickups .. maybe you can see the serial numbers?) The serial numbers seem like they could be original so maybe it came this way from the factory??
The tuners are all Grovers, but they seem to be of 3 different lots: 3 of them are identical, another 2 are alike and the final one is different still, with a slightly shorter post.

The body is in great shape for a 25 year old guitar. There's hardly a scratch on her. The top is really nice, I think. It's a very subtle flame that shows up in certain angles. I'd been looking for a semi-hollow body and I finally got one at a good price.

Anyway, let me know what you think! Comments appreciated!

Thanks, Bill

 

[20 century boy]

"super power" are middle of the range models, still better than an ?piphone.

 

[detroitace]

"super power" are middle of the range models, still better than an ?piphone

Thanks 20th Century. By ?piphone, am I to assume you mean Japanese ?piphone, including the new ?litist series?

Thanks! Bill

 

[detroitace]

So, as an update, I figured out what was up with the original pickups. Of course, this is only after having taken them out and tried some others. It turns out the neck pickup was indeed a neck pickup, but it was of the wrong polarity wrt the bridge (and 3 other bridge pickups I tried). So, I loosened the bobbins, rotated the magnet 180 degrees, and now everything is as expected. The pickups do sound very good and I'm probably not going to swap them for the SD pair I just bought of ebay.

What's really peculiar is that the factory wiring all seemed to be intact. I guess from the factory they put a reverse polarity neck pickup in and after all this time, nobody ever noticed or cared to do anything about it. Strange, indeed!

 

[20 century boy]

"super power" are middle of the range models, still better than an ?piphone

Thanks 20th Century. By ?piphone, am I to assume you mean Japanese ?piphone, including the new ?litist series?

Thanks! Bill

No no, I'm talking about Korean ?piphones. The "super power" are not top of the line guitars!! There's a step between the "super real" or "mint collection" stuff and the "super power" models, don't get carried away :wink: But I prefer the greco PU to the ?piphone PU. The Elitist PU look the same than on the other ?pi, do they? Don't remember wich PU were on the LQ I tried ( a few years ago), I think it was the average ?pi PU too.

 

[tudor]

Bill,

Congrats ... nice looking guitar.

Your comment on your upgrades was very interesting because I had a similar problem with the pickups.
But in my case the pup magnets are in the right position, the wiring is Ok ('cause self-made) and they do still sound out of phase - seems I have to contact a prof now ... I'm at the end with my knowledge! :-?

But your wiring looks like a properly made Vintage wiring,I can't see something wrong.
BTW - it's funny that people don't hear that AOP-sound??!!

Enjoy playing ...

Roger