NBD - 2002 Greco LGB-700 3 pickup Les Paul purple nonsense!

[neepheid]

Well, that's me crashed out of gear abstinence for this year and it's time for my full confession (although I'm 1 in, 1 out for the year so far, so could be worse).  But I have a good excuse - this bass has been living rent-free in my head for nearly 12 years* and I finally snagged one in the finish I wanted.  Black and silver ones pop up more often but I've only seen the purpleburst available two or three times in all these dozen years, so seeing as I'm not getting any younger, I decided a bit of carpe diem was in order.

 

It's a three pickup, Les Paul shaped bass.  It has three Greco T-bird-a-like pickups and three volume controls.  That's it.  Hardware is good quality - a Hipshot B style bridge and Gotoh tuners.  It's had a life, there are some dings and scuffs in it but it's taken a polish well, the pickups have buffed up nicely and the fretboard enjoyed a drink of lemon oil very much.  Lovely, dark rosewood board, yum.

 

S'pose you'll be wanting some pics...

 

 

It sounds great - I had a blast through my TC Electronic BH250 into headphones and it's got a lot of mid poke about it - might have to boost my mids a bit less when I'm playing this guy!  Using the different pickups in different combinations makes noticeable changes to the tone, but it's not quite the same as having a tone knob - I might mod it but I'm not in a hurry.

 

* TWELVE BLOODY YEARS - https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/210350-sorted-greco-3-pickup-les-paul-bass/

 

Edited March 4 by neepheid

[snorkie635]

Go Neeps!

 

Don't mod it - it is what it is and what it is, is different. Enjoy.

[LowB_FTW]

Three pickup basses FTW.

Nice score man.

 

Mark

[ajkula66]

I absolutely love that finish.

 

Play it in good health and enjoy!

[uk_lefty]

That looks special. I admire your patience 

[neepheid]

Well, turns out I have a little more work to do - I think the bridge pickup volume pot is dodgy because I can still kinda hear the bass through the amp when all the volumes are turned down.  Tapping the pickups with a screwdriver revealed that it was the bridge pickup still making noise.  Also, touching the pickup casings causes buzz, so they'll need grounded (noise goes away if you touch the pickup casing and the bridge at the same time).  So I've ordered some pots.  I'm going to completely rewire it - might as well replace all the pots at the same time.  Gonna copper shield the cavities and ground the pickups casings as well.  Not doing any wiring mods at this time, just rewiring it as per stock configuration.

Edited Saturday at 21:54 by neepheid

[velvetkevorkian]

What are the controls, is it just three volumes?

[Shaggy]

Wow, cooler than a very cool thing!. 

 

Needs a Prince tribute band..... 

[neepheid]

2 hours ago, velvetkevorkian said:

What are the controls, is it just three volumes?

 

Yup, VVV.

[velvetkevorkian]

Interesting choice... Looks great though, that purple is lovely.

[W1_Pro]

Thats lovely. Really interesting and unusual bass. Enjoy it!

[neepheid]

Well, I started addressing this old bass's weaknesses last night.  It was going well - Greco very kindly drilled access holes between all the pickup routes so I can connect the pickup shields together and only have to run one wire into the cavity instead of three, that was good of them...

 

 

Gratuitous copper shot for the lovers of shiny things...

 

 

Then... disaster!

 

 

Managed to get two pickup routes done and connected.  They have electrical continuity so I guess I did it right.  More copper tape procured, back to it tonight!