Re: I'm thinking about modding the pickups in my Greco.

Stereordinary · Post by **Stereordinary** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:06 pm

As much as I love this guitar, I don't like the pickups in it.

They are so dark that they sound muffled and dull. So I'm thinking about taking them apart, removing the bar magnets and swapping the slugs and screws for some AlNiCo V rod magnets. What do you guys think?

Kilgore Trout · Post by **Kilgore Trout** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 7:18 pm

I think the alnico won't make much of a difference without a rewind. It's probably easier to just buy new pups.

Slow-Pop · Post by **Slow-Pop** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:18 pm

if you're not happy with the sound, I say go for it!

Post by **Jay** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:23 pm

What year and what pickups are in it? There are some Greco pickups that are pretty valuable on their own and I wouldn't recommend modding those (if they are Dry-Zs...) for obvious reasons.

Stereordinary · Post by **Stereordinary** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:29 pm

I think it's an '84, made in Korea, and I have no idea what the name of the pickups are. They have plastic leads if that helps.

Snake Hips · Post by **Snake Hips** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:15 pm

well I would say if it is made in Korea try to mod them worst that happens that suck more

If it was from the 70s early 80s and Japan I would say sell them.

what style of music are you playing and what would you want them to sound more like.

Stereordinary · Post by **Stereordinary** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:50 pm

I play a lot of different styles - I'm just lokking to breathe a little bit more life into them. As it is right now I can't imagine playing anything on this guitar besides some very bland jazz. We're talking no high end here.

djetz · Post by **djetz** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:31 pm

Remove the covers from the pickups first, and check what's inside them now. You can try different bar magnets, for instance - a decent AlNiCo bar magnet will improve the sound over a cheap and crappy ceramic bar magnet, which is probably what's in there now.

A rewind of the coils would no doubt improve things a lot, too, though it's more difficult.

But I know you, Paul, and I suspect you're looking for someone to encourage you to try to convert these pups into something a little more WRHP-like. If that's what you want to do, go for it. You know me and you know I'll be very interested in how they turn out.

I'd say that even if you do swap the screws for magnetic rods, you'd probably still need to rewind the coils for really good results.

Stereordinary · Post by **Stereordinary** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:19 am

Yeah, you know me alright.

I guess when I think about humbucker construction, in my mind they should be built like WRHBs with rod magnets, despite tradition.

Kilgore Trout · Post by **Kilgore Trout** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:42 am

Well, Lindy Fralin makes a Widerange like humbucker that fits in a regular humbucker slot... They're expensive, and I've never played one, but I've heard good things about them.

http://www.fralinpickups.com/humbuckers.asp

garyptaszek · Post by **garyptaszek** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:36 am

i think... you should just give me that guitar

OffsetGuitars.com