Greco "Dry Z" Humbuckers by Maxon, 1970s

I haven't been able to put my mid 70s Greco MR1000 double cutaway carved top down for weeks. Every time I plug her in I am wowed. I knew she had good CTS 500K pots and Sprague branded black shelled caps already, but being a curious guy I unscrewed the pickup rings and took a look... though the MR1000 was speced for Maxon U-3000 pickups, this guitar appears to have factory original "Dry Z" PAF copies that were made exclusively for Greco and Tokai by Maxon for their high-end guitars from the mid 70s until the mid 80s.

These pickups sound fabulous. They have plenty of bass an treble, but no thump and no harsh treble overtones even with tons of distortion. The fundmental has a great vowel-like midrange and the harmonics just jump out. The strongest harmonics start to sound like a magical ghost note over your sound as you push an amp into overdrive. I get what all the hype is about.

They appear to be built exactly like an old Gibson pickup, at least from the outside. mine have very accurate covers with rounded corners that I am unwilling to remove to investigate further. But the screws and baseplate look very right to me. Not that these things affect tone, just commenting on the attention to details.

I've played some old Gibsons with their original PAFs intact. These Japanese pickups have those elusive overtones in spades and the set is much better balanced tonally and output-wise between neck and bridge. They seem a little hotter than the PAFs I've tried, particularly the bridge, but that's subjective so take it with a grain of salt.

These are the best vintage-voiced humbuckers in my collection right now. I recommend anyone get a set if they can find them... unless you need a hot humbucker. These have lower output than the T-Top in my SG. They will drive your amp without a boost in line, but only at ear-splitting unless you have a little 5 watter with plenty of gain on tap. I would say these are slightly hotter than an overwound Strat pickup and even have some of the clarity of a well-made hot single coil like you might find in an early Tele, but with a much more focused response overall.