GFS Pickups

mhuxtable · Post by **mhuxtable** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:52 am

Hey guys, anyone have experience with the GFS Pups?

I wish I could afford Duncans but I just cant right now. I saw the GFS stuff and figured I would come here and ask around.

I think I want the 60s-70s non staggerd strat set (my fernandes strat has an incredibly flat radius, and those are the only non staggered pole peices GFS makes, that I could find)

anyway, I also play a Sheraton II, which of course has buckers, and I dont want the huge volume drop when I switch guitars. I DO NOT want minibuckers in my strat...Just hotter Pups.

The standard Pups of the model I am looking at have ratings of 6.8K, 6.3K & 5.8K (bridge to neck). The same Pups but the overwound set have a 10K, 8K, 7.2K rating. Is the second rating about on par with the ratings for average buckers?

So basically, 2 questions: 1. Anyone used GFS Pups? Howd they do for you? 2. At those values which I mentioned, would I get a decent volume match while still having 2 separate sounds (buckers and single coils).

kojdogg · Post by **kojdogg** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:55 am

I had a guitar with GFS P-90's in it and I was really surprised how good they sounded. I preferred them to the sound of some Rio Grande P-90's I had in another guitar (YMMV of course). You'll find plenty of fans of the GFS pickups on other more guitar-oriented sites/mb's
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Homemade vaporizers

Corey Y · Post by **Corey Y** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 9:55 am

They're good pickups, at least the ones I've heard. Surprisingly so for the money. I have a humbucker sized Mean 90 and it sounds great in the neck position of my SG.

lysander · Post by **lysander** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:36 pm

Switching to hotter pups in the strat will give more than just a volume change -- it will pretty fundamentally affect how the guitar sounds through the amp, tonewise.

A lot of people like the sound hotter pickups give -- certainly seems to work for higher gain stuff. For non-higher gain stuff the sound has a bit less character to it, I find.

But, yeah, GFS seems to be a good source. Winding pickups is not rocket science, although the boutique makers would like us to believe that.

ashcat_lt · Post by **ashcat_lt** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:03 pm

I love my L'il Killers. I know that's not what you're asking about, but my experience with GFS and guitarfetish in general has been all positive.

The only thing that the DC resistance value of a pickup tells you for sure is the DC resistance of the pickup. The ones with the bigger value will probably be louder, but there's no way to be sure. If everything else is the same - except for more wire wrapped around the thing - then, yes, it will probably be louder, but it will also change the internal capacitance and inductance of the coil, which in this case will likely make it a bit darker sounding.

One option for a tiny (somewhat questionable) bit more output with a single-coil sound would be a single sized humbucker (like the Killers I mentioned) wired in internal parallel configuration. This has the benefit of maintaining the noise cancelling characteristics.

lancebug · Post by **lancebug** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:56 am

Excellent value for the money. I recently put Fat Paf's in my flying V and got exactly what I was looking for.

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 1:00 pm

I just installed a GFS Texas Hot set in my 1999 Mexican-made Strat. I paid $40 for the set (brand new) on ebay. That's $13.33 per pup.

Some background...

I've had this Strat since early January 2000 and it's gone through a lot of changes since then. Replaced the stock bridge in 2000 with a Wilkison Vintage Strat bridge (amazing bridge people!) and added Sperzel locking tuners at the same time. Sanded the finish off of the back of the neck at the same time, and added a Duncan JB Jr. in the bridge and two Dimarzio Vitual Vintage (Blues in neck and normal in middle) a month or two later. This was my main guitar and only electric for years. Seems like a lot to add to a guitar that I originally paid $200 for new (I used to work for a music store), however, I can assure you that IMHO this strat has THE BEST Fender neck that I have ever played.

I toyed with selling it after I picked up an American Tele and CIJ Jaguar and a few others, however the neck is the best of the bunch. My problem with the guitar was the pups that I added, which were all stacked humbuckers that I feel didn't sound very strat-like. And, cosmetically, the guitar had a wine red body, which I hated the color of. Just a personal preference thing. So last fall I bought a replacement body in white from a 1998 MIM Strat.

I put this guitar together in the last few weeks, and finally added the GFS pickups last week. All I have to say is that this guitar is, aside from a total player that I can beat on... well, it just sounds great now. I'm amazed at what $40 in pups can do. I have no idea how they make their pups, but they sound great. I wish that they made a Jaguar set! Played this guitar for hours through my 1977 Super Reverb yesterday and it sounds really great. Next step is star grounding it, replacing the pots and stuff with top of the line parts, and that'll be it. I'm planning on redoing all of the electronics in my Strat, Tele, Jaguar, and Sheraton II this year, and the Sheraton is going to get a set of GFS pups in there once I decide if I am going to go with singles or humbuckers.

As a side note, the first time that I heard GFS pups was in 2006 when my friend installed them in an Agile Les Paul copy. I played through his 1950's Fender Tweed Deluxe clone and that guitar, which he paid under $300 for, sounded amazing. He recorded a lot of stuff for his band's last record with that rig.

I give GFS two thumbs up! Hearing is believing!

Jeff

riantide · Post by **riantide** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:44 pm

I have a pair of Mean 90s and love em. They're not QUITE in the same league as the Lindy Fralin p-90s I used to have, but they sound awesome and you can't beat the price. I really want to try out some of their filtertron copies, they look cool as hell.

TNO · Post by **TNO** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:23 pm

The GFS stuff is good but Tonerider has gone the extra step-pure nickel covers, scatter-winding, etc for a very fair price. Toneriders are as good as anything out there.

bradb · Post by **bradb** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:01 pm

i have a tele with a GFS 50's bridge and a P90 in the neck, baddest ass guitar there is.

3 guitars in one. the pickups are great

mhuxtable · Post by **mhuxtable** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:10 pm

i checked out the tonerider pups. definitely cool...only sucky thing is they are all staggered poles....due to my neck radius of the fernandes, i need flat poles. like i said, if i could afford it right now, id get duncans cos you can get all their pups with flat poles. but the gfs pups have the series with flat poles...so i gotta go that rout.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:36 pm

another vote for GFS pickups.

the ones i put in my '73 Tele sound great.

Joe P. · Post by **Joe P.** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:15 am

I'd say try them with confidence. I've used them in my guitars as well as those of my friends with no complaints.

FrugalGuitarist.com · Post by **FrugalGuitarist.com** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:14 pm

I've heard a bunch of good things about them. I currently have a loudmouth for a project but am waiting on some other parts.

mikeyc · Post by **mikeyc** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:34 pm

Big ups for GFS.
I had a "Texas" set on the Strat I just traded and I liked them a lot. I wouldn't hesitate to grab another set if I needed pickups.
I've also heard a mean 90 and was impressed.

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