"Boomerang" L-Shaped Pickup's on Late 60's Greco 950 Shrike

[wguitar]

Hi,

Recently acquired a late 60's Greco 950 Shrike with very cool L/V shaped "boomerang" pickups and 4 slider switches to get different pickup combinations. One of the pickups appear to be dead. Will have tech check wiring, etc. Would appreciate your thoughts/experiences with these pickups (and this guitar generally). Hope tech can revive dead pickup and any technical or other guidance would be appreciated. For example, wiring diagrams. Lastly, any suggestions for replacements if can't be revived. I'm not a tech but rather someone with a modest collection of 60's and early 70's Made in Japan semi-hollow body guitars. Love the style and the sound! This Greco sounds very good with only 1 pickup and I have to believe sound is amazing with all electronics working!

Thanks!!

Rick

[Mark Hammer]

From all outward appearances, they would seem to be a pair of 3-string coils within each "pickup". In theory, they ought to be configurable as humbuckers. Is the functioning one quiet or hummy?

[wguitar]

The functioning pickup could be described as "hummy". The other is very quiet and only audible with amp volume very high.

[Mark Hammer]

Odds are pretty good that the two coils are each sitting atop a ceramic magnet. In theory, they could be wired up to be hum-rejecting, but I guess the question comes up as to whether one could flip a magnet on the same (likely) soft iron base that old Japanese ceramic pickups were often mounted on. In other words, the same L-shaped hunk of steel would be expected to accommodate opposite magnetic polarities.

In retrospect, I gather this could simply not be. IF the two coils were each mounted on separate bases, the way that many split pickups from the Teisco family tree often were, then a hum-rejecting configuration could be achieved. But from all outward appearances the two coils in each pickup structure are likely sharing the same iron base, such that overall pickup height can be adjusted for both coils.

A shame, really.