GRECO PU 2 pickups - any good?

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MIJvintage

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I recently acquired a 1980 Greco EGF-850, the pickup bases are stamped (embossed) PU 2, and also ink stamped with an upper case A, and 200220

I've heard of these/read about them but haven't owned any, until now

Does anyone here know if the Greco PU 2 pups are any good?

Thanks in advance for any info :)

As a side note; the rear pup is a double white & the neck pup has at least one white bobbin (seen through hole in photo).......

GrecoPU2.jpg
 
Thanks for all those replies & keep 'em coming, lol.....................

.........I put new strings on this beat up girl, adjusted the bridge & the truss rod each, a couple of times, and I must say, I am very impressed with the output & response of these PU 2 pups but then again, taste in pickups is a very subjective issue.............

I actually believe these PU 2s are closer in response to the older Burny VH-1 pups; I like these much better than the pups in most of the other Grecos I have owned :)
 
The 1980 prices of Greco pickups were

Dry 20,000 Yen
PU-2 15,000 Yen
U-2000 12,000 Yen
U-1000 10,000 Yen



EGF1800 DRYx2
EGF1200 DRYx2
EGF1000 PAFx2
EG1000C DRYx2
EG900 PAFx2
EGF850 PU-2x2
EG800GS HOT LICKx2
EG800C PU-2x2
EG800PB U-2000x2
EG800PR U-2000x2
EG800 PU-2x2
EG700 U-2000x2
EG600PB U-1000x2
EG600PR U-1000x2
EG500 U-1000x2
EG500C UDx2
EF500J U-1000x2
EG500GS UD-DXx2
EG480 UDx2
EG450 UDx2
 
japanstrat, thanks for the info, very nice

in the listing, the seller claimed the pups as Double Trick so, I suppose the seller didn't even bother to remove 4 screws to actually determine what the pickups really were :eek:

just another example of another seller passing off something, that was really not what the seller claimed, and in this case it was an easily identifiable item :roll:

funny how some sellers wanna piss & moan when their snafus are thrown about...........................
 
finally got around to pulling the covers on these 1980 Greco PU-2 pups, and as suspected, they are 100% double white :D

I think I will put them in the 'shop order' BLS-59 after it arrives in a couple weeks 8) ..............


PU-21.jpg



PU-22.jpg



PU-23.jpg



magnets are not at all charcoal in color but are very silver = Alnico :) , also as suspected ......................
PU-2mag.jpg
 
Which Greco pu are comparable to the '80 Ibanez Super 70, manufactured by Maxon too?
 
Well here's the deal. Last night I played my just recently acquired 1980 EGF-850 at a gig. The guitar looks great, feels great etc BUT the PU-2 pickups left me COLD. :eek:

I realise that this is a bit of sacrelige but the U1000 pickups in my EG-500 Super Real sound better. More "sparkling" and probably a bit more higher output. I confess to being a bit disappointed.

Anyone here know the output of these 2 sets?

Dave
 
I don't know the output level but I have played a lot with PU-2 in my EGF850 and they were really great pickups.
No so far from the Dry Z in fact...
Not as great off course but near.
That's why I very surprise of your post. :eek:
 
ozgrecofanatic said:
Well here's the deal. Last night I played my just recently acquired 1980 EGF-850 at a gig. The guitar looks great, feels great etc BUT the PU-2 pickups left me COLD. :eek:

I realise that this is a bit of sacrelige but the U1000 pickups in my EG-500 Super Real sound better. More "sparkling" and probably a bit more higher output. I confess to being a bit disappointed.

Anyone here know the output of these 2 sets?

Dave


Maybe your PU-2s would sound better to your ears, in a different guitar?
Just a thought.
Too bad you don't like them in the 850 :(



I have played the same set of pickups, and in different guitars, and they can sound quite different in the different guitars.

I have done this with many sets of pickups.

It would seem reasonable to assume that a set of pickups would sound the same, or almost the same in any guitar but from my expereince, that is not the case.

The above pictured PU-2s sounded great in the 1980 EGF-850 that they were originally in, even though the guitar was a POS :lol: with the delaminating veneer top :p

I have yet to install the PU-2s into a diffrent guitar but when I finally do get around to it, I hope they sound as good as they did in the EGF-850.

If they do not, I won't be surprised.
 
hi
if you dont like them ........ i would like to try them :D :D :D
and i am pretty sure you dont like them :D :D :D
all the best
otto
 
Are you sure that the U-1000 has alnico 8 magnets?


Yes, I'm pretty sure.

I have some U-1000 pickups and I've also had Super 70s and they are just about the same.
The Alnico 8 magnet produces a distinctive brightish sound in the old Maxon pickups plus Maxon have said they used Alnico 3, 5 and 8 in the old pickups and Dry Z are Alnico 3 and therefore sound vintage like and U-1000 have the Alnico 8 thing going on and are bright and chirpy and verging on ceramic in lots of ways but still have Alnico characteristics and U-2000 have the Alnico 5 thing going on, standard sort of thing and not as bright as Alnico 8.
 
Japanstrat that's exactly what I hear! My U-1000 pups are bright and airy and probably a little higher in output. The PU-2 are much "middier" to my ears. Also the neck pup on this guitar is WAY louder than the bridge. I even ajusted the bridge up as far as possible but it's still a lot weaker than the neck....Gonna keep tweaking and see how I go.


Dave
 
japanstrat said:
I have some U-1000 pickups and I've also had Super 70s and they are just about the same.
The Alnico 8 magnet produces a distinctive brightish sound in the old Maxon pickups plus Maxon have said they used Alnico 3, 5 and 8 in the old pickups and Dry Z are Alnico 3 and therefore sound vintage like and U-1000 have the Alnico 8 thing going on and are bright and chirpy and verging on ceramic in lots of ways but still have Alnico characteristics and U-2000 have the Alnico 5 thing going on, standard sort of thing and not as bright as Alnico 8.


japanstrat, do you know, or do you have any idea what grade Alnico is in the PU-2?

thanks
 
It would only be a guess because I havn't heard them but I'd say probably Alnico 5.
It wouldn't be Alnico 8.
Alnico 3 might have been used but I don't think so because the Dry Z's have Alnico 3.
 
let me first say, this forum is awesome! I have basically discovered the greatness of greco here and am so happy I did. I am in love with mine as it seems you guys are too!!

so I recently purchased a nice 1979 EG900 burst. It came stock with the Dimarzio PAFs, which truthfully sounded really nice. They broke up very easily and sort of reminded me of the Page-burstbucker sound.

But I gave in to what the forums were saying about pu2's and dry z's. so when a set of pu2's came up on ebay, I bit. 300 smackers! :eek: painful price!

But I will tell you, these are very very nice pickups...but choose your amplifier wisely, test them in your rig. Thru my mid 60s vox student tube amp cranked, what a beautiful tone! just on the edge of crunch but still clear. That is the best way I can describe pu2's is clean and clear. with my main amp, a mid 60s vox cambridge tube amp no matter how much I cranked, the guitar just sounded loud and clean with just a touch of overdrive. Actually more of a thick clean tone than overdrive. I had a similar issue at a local blues jam thru the house modern fender deluxe, clean but thick tone, even as I turned up the gain. Whereas the dimarzios reached that overdrive sounds really easily.

And by the way, before I swapped the dimarzios out, my guitar teacher freaked out saying my $600 greco sounded every bit as good as his r8 or r9!!(is there any r9? I don't know haha)

So...

dimarzios = bustbucker
pu2's = underwound paf?

Maybe people will disagree with me. But this is what I found. pu2 are very nice, and a unique tone. You will be happy with them most likely. But a clean tone they are. And just gorgeous in the neck position!

As for me, I pulled the trigger on a set of dry z's on ebay a couple weeks ago. I felt crazy spending that kind of cash on two pickups :(

I just installed them, and let me say, I AM IMPRESSED. Very warm, clear, but nice breakup! I have only tested in the vox student tonight. tomorrow will be thru the blues jam's fender deluxe!! I really don't feel like I'm being biased because I spent a load on the dry z's...they do sounds really really good so far. Just inspired me, I wanted to keep playing and playing! If the tone wasn't so good, I would feel like chump paying $500 on pickups...maybe I still am haha. But a happy chump at least!

bmarsh

p.s. If anyone wants to see pics of my baby, let me know how to upload pix and i'll post. I'm just not sure how to :/[/img]
 
bmarsh said:
p.s. If anyone wants to see pics of my baby, let me know how to upload pix and i'll post. I'm just not sure how to :/[/img]
I want! :lol:

Upload your pictures on photobucket or imagehack and then write
.
 
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