Greco Les Pauls

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MIJvintage

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had to snap a pick of my current favorite Greco Lesters, L to R; 1980 EGF-1000, 1989 Mint Collection plain top, 1982 Mint Collection gold top
grecolesters.jpg


the EGF-1000 has recently come of of hibernation so, she's been getting played, a LOT :) still don't care for the DiMarzios & the extra pound of weight but this girl is growing on me, big time
This one likley plays the best & a FAT neck to boot.............

the gold top sounds the best :D

the plain top is still my fave of the bunch..................


.................too many guitars,,,,,,,,,,, so little time..................
 
Those are beauties MIJ. Thanks for sharing. Love the plaintop, I have an '84 plaintop similar to yours and am very enamored of it.
 
villager said:
change those dimarzio's out rich, and u will have a new guitar...
Click to expand...

I swapped the dimarzios out of my LS120 for some Voodoos, the guitar sounds amazing now! I think the Dimarzos are some of the nastiest sounding pickups available!

If you need to raise the funds for some new pickups I'll take that goldtop of your hands :wink:
 
i agree the dimarzio's are muddy and harsh at the same time, which is quite an achievement, in my view, every guitar i have had with dimarzio's sounds better without them..

gibson 57 classics are a good all round tester of a pickup, then i usually try voodoo's, and dry-Z's

seth's work great in some guitars but not others..
same for APH-1's

tom holmes makes exceptional pickups, WCR are great ..

and of course rolphs if u can find them...

etc etc..heh..
 
MIJvintage said:
I usually like to leave things in original condition; just me

If I can't get used to a guitar, I would usually rather sell it than change things :-?
Click to expand...

I generally agree with that approach, but when such an easily reversible change can make such a big difference it makes sense.

My LS120 was just about the perfect player, but let down totally by the pickups, 20 minutes later and like Villager says, a different guitar!
 
if i get a guitar which I am going to keep and play for a while, then if it has dimarzio's, i will normaly swop them out, I really don't think that it affects resale if the PU's have been in and out.

as long as you keep the originals for originalitys sake...

but I always think if a guitar deserves better pickups it shoud get them and as john says 20 mins for a big big improvement usually....
 
The stock Dimarzios that came in the Greco Super Reals are not necessarily like many of the replacements that Dimarzio makes now. Dimarzio has a bunch of nice humbucker flavors on offer.

The Virtual PAF humbuckers are especially nice in one Greco I have. I've got the Norton bridge and Air Norton setup in two of my Mint Collection Greco's and I can tell you that it was a huge upgrade for the better. That setup is intended for Les Pauls. None of the above mentioned sound harsh or shrill in the least, nor are they high output pickups. More of a tweaked overwound PAF if you will. Dimarzio is some of the best bang for the buck I know of in a replacement pickup. My '82 EG57 (like Rich's in the picture) has the Norton setup and it is like having a new guitar compared to the Screamin 82's that came stock. The difference is really like night and day. Another plug.. if your guitar sounds shrill and lacks bass, the Breed bridge model could be your new best friend.
 
villager said:
funny ... I would have screamin any day over the same era dimarzio, tastes differ..
Click to expand...

I would agree. I was really just referencing modern era Dimarzio. I've never heard the Dimarzios that came in a Super Real. Any idea what they were? PAF's of the era? Yeah, Screamin's can often sound pretty darn good too. One set I have sound amazing, but it may be because of the wood in the guitar giving up such a great tone already. :)
 
IMO Screamin's can sound good if you loose the ceramic magnet and swap in a good Alnico mag.

Great looking guitars Rich. 8)
 
Brian, you asked about the '89 plain top, and the one in the above pic is not the one that you asked about BUT I did purchase the guitar you asked about, and then I sold it

Here is the one in the above photo; purchased direct from Japan
It was in relic condition when purchased, just like I prefer; old & beat 8)
The burst gradation on this one also has more color contrast, which I prefer
EG600sat3.jpg


Here is the one that you asked about; purchased from the seller you referenced
Purchased from the seller in mint condition; not my cup of tea :wink: so, that is why I sold it
EG60017.jpg


These two 1989 Mint Collection plain tops are only 25 serial number digits apart, yet the relic condition one that I kept is a much better Les Paul; pickups sound better, guitar plays better, has that relic mojo look, 1/2 pound lighter to boot :D

the buyer of the one you asked about was however extremely happy to get his hands on a MINT condition 1989 Mint Collection Greco :lol: ......
 
MIJvintage said:
Here is the one that you asked about; purchased from the seller you referenced. Purchased from the seller in mint condition; not my cup of tea :wink: so, that is why I sold it
EG60017.jpg

the buyer of the one you asked about was however extremely happy to get his hands on a MINT condition 1989 Mint Collection Greco :lol: ......
Click to expand...

Hey Rich.. ahh ok.. I remembered you had a plain top. The second one is my old MINT one to be sure. I got it straight from Japan and it appeared virtually untouched. Sometimes the MINT ones are unplayed for a reason. :) Almost without exception the cosmetically near perfect ones I've acquired have not been the best playing or sounding ones.

I thought that one was pretty good, but I had others that smoked it anyway. To your point, the best Greco JS model out of 4 that I've had was one that was beat to hell. Darn near falling apart, but the tone was amazing. Very lightweight and full sounding, but unfortunately looked like it had been used as a sledgehammer. And not in a musical sort of way.
 
fiftywatt said:
To your point, the best Greco JS model out of 4 that I've had was one that was beat to hell. Darn near falling apart, but the tone was amazing. Very lightweight and full sounding, but unfortunately looked like it had been used as a sledgehammer. And not in a musical sort of way.
Click to expand...

JS model?

I'm drawing a blank, but it is Monday & I have been at work all day too :lol: ..................
 
Ah sorry Rich..

JS = John Sykes. I've seen lots of them from '84 and '85 when Sykes was working with Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake. JS was basically a Greco Mint Collection EGC model with nickel hardware, mirror pickguard, faux chrome pickup rings. Cosmetically looked like Sykes customized '78, but these Grecos had a long neck tenon too.

JS-55 came with Screamin 82's, JS-65 was same guitar with Dry 82's. Pretty cool guitars but all the ones I had weighed 10+ lbs, except for the beat up
one which was around 8.5 lbs. So far I've been having better look with the MintColl LP Standards, although I am in possession of an '82 3 pickup EGC57-60 "black beauty" that is all mahog and sounds really good. Bound jumbo frets and a big ol neck too.
 
they also did a white RR rhandy rhoads, 65 with screamin, and the 98k with DRY-1982 and a kahler locking trem, which actually works very well, but oh god the beast weighs in at 11b odd..

still its fun for the occasional divebomb-fest,
 
Sorry Mark, the RR 65 and the RR95k had the "dry 1982's" I have the catalogue with the specs and i own a RR 65 with dry 1982's... :wink: The RR 55 had the screamin pickups.
tmc_61.jpg


Mick
 

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