# GFS Pickups



## LaRSin (Nov 27, 2006)

GFS Pickups

Wanted to get some opinion on these pickups , anybody try them ??

:rockon:


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

I have installed a few pairs of these pickups and find them an awesome value for the buck. I installed the Retrotrons and they are a great sounding pup, very close to the Filtertron sound & the Dream 180's in a 335 type Tokai with awesome results. Also installed the crunchy pafs in a SG type and fat pafs in a LP, both sounded great. The latest were a pair of lipstick tube HB's and I was very happy with the outcome. In single coil mode they do sound close to the old danelectro tubes and in HB mode they sound a whole lot fatter. Again great value for the dollar, how can you lose....


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## LaRSin (Nov 27, 2006)

PaulS said:


> I have installed a few pairs of these pickups and find them an awesome value for the buck. I installed the Retrotrons and they are a great sounding pup, very close to the Filtertron sound & the Dream 180's in a 335 type Tokai with awesome results. Also installed the crunchy pafs in a SG type and fat pafs in a LP, both sounded great. The latest were a pair of lipstick tube HB's and I was very happy with the outcome. In single coil mode they do sound close to the old danelectro tubes and in HB mode they sound a whole lot fatter. Again great value for the dollar, how can you lose....


How did you find ordering them from GuitatFetish if thats were you got them 
Thx larry


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

No problem ordering them direct, so far no extra's at the border either. Shipping is reasonable fast, approx a week. I have ordered a fair bit from them and customer service has been great.


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## LaRSin (Nov 27, 2006)

PaulS said:


> No problem ordering them direct, so far no extra's at the border either. Shipping is reasonable fast, approx a week. I have ordered a fair bit from them and customer service has been great.


Thx for quick answer Larry


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

I'm still a bit ticked off with GFS. I bought one of their Tele bridge pickups - a dual blade pickup similar to a Barden. On the early models, the blade wasn't made wide enough to reach all the way to the high E string, so the volume of the high E was significantly reduced - enough to make the pickup useless. They acknowledged this in newer versions of the pickup, but didnt bother to reimburse of those of us who had the earlier useless versions. Probably just sour grapes on my part but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

But, other than the useless pickup part, everything else about the transaction was good.


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

I've got a Fat Paf and a set of the boutique vintage strat pickups, and they have been great. Really good sounding pickups, you can't beat the price, Jeff is a good guy to deal with and very fast shipping and I haven't been nailed at the border either.


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## LaRSin (Nov 27, 2006)

Ripper said:


> I've got a Fat Paf and a set of the boutique vintage strat pickups, and they have been great. Really good sounding pickups, you can't beat the price, Jeff is a good guy to deal with and very fast shipping and I haven't been nailed at the border either.


what shipping did you take ??
It asks when ordering.


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## Kapo_Polenton (Jun 20, 2007)

Fast shipping especially to Canada.. they know how to get stuff across the border. My lil killer pickups i found sucked though.. people rave about them and maybe i messed something up but i think the neck is muddy and the bridge is far to thin... almost like a wah pressed down. Atleast they are quiet...


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## Rumble_b (Feb 14, 2006)

I have a Lil killer and it's ok. Better than the pickup it replaced but nothing great. I also have a set of the Mean 90's. Those pickups are great. I would buy them again.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Kapo_Polenton said:


> Fast shipping especially to Canada.. they know how to get stuff across the border. My lil killer pickups i found sucked though.. people rave about them and maybe i messed something up but i think the neck is muddy and the bridge is far to thin... almost like a wah pressed down. Atleast they are quiet...



When I first got the Dream 180's and installed them they left me wondering whay all the fuss was about... they didn't impress me at all. Then after further investigation I found something funky going on with my pickup selector. I replaced the selector switch and the next time I plugged it in WOW what a difference, they totally blew me away. They fit the description on the website. You might want to check your wiring and components out to see if there is a problem.


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

LaRSin said:


> what shipping did you take ??
> It asks when ordering.


I bought them off him from an ebay auction, the strat set cost me 8 or 9 bucks via mail and the fat paf cost me somewhere around the same. Strangely enough, they seem to come faster than anything else I have mailed up. I plan on buying some more GFS pickups. I just stuck a set of the lil'killers in a buddy strat and they sound really good. Very comparable to the duncan hotrails in one of his other strats.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Just choose USPS regular, it's cheaper and they don't take that long to come.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...the good news is their pricing, which allows for experimentation without selling the farm.

but, i think once you have discovered the style and flavour you prefer, you're going to want to spend a bit more for some real quality.

no question they give great "bang for your buck", though.

i bought a set of three dual rails (li'l puncher neck/bridge, li'l killer middle) for a nashville style tele. tried them and sold them - just way too dark and muddy for my tastes.

-dh


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## Kapo_Polenton (Jun 20, 2007)

Yeah, my point exactly on the neck pu's, I also found mine dark and muddy. I think it might depend on the body. With an ASH body, I just don't dig them.. The bridge being a bit thin might be because of the value cap I used but definitely, I noticed the muddiness.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Haven't tried the single coils but I do like what they offer in HB and Retro's. 
I had one guitar that I had picked up cheap and was modding it and no matter what pickup you put in it it didn't sound good. I know it was the guitar because when I put the pups in a different one they came alive. As has been said in this post they are a good bang for the buck but I'm sure if a/b'd against lollars or wcr's there would be a difference.


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## LaRSin (Nov 27, 2006)

Just order a neck pup , Vintage 59" Nickel Classic Alnico PAF- Humbucker H55

just have to see how it's sounds, got some other smaller parts to finish my partscastor project , thx for input.


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

The hot paf I have in the bridge is very comparable to my Duncan JB. In some ways it is nicer as it doesn't get as muddy when the gain goes up.


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## Kapo_Polenton (Jun 20, 2007)

Ripper, I am going to be putting together an ultimate 80's guitar hero super strat for myself..was thinking of the JB in bridge because I always was a huge Warren Demartinni fan.. is the detail good with that pickup? Is it too trebly at all in some circumstances?


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## stratovani (Jul 1, 2007)

A couple of years ago I bought myself an Epi LP Junior, which came with a single weak, dark-sounding humbucker. So, since I wanted a Gibby LP Jr "on the cheap", I went ahead and ordered GFS's Dream 90, which is a P-90 that fits into a bucker space. It changed my guitar's character immediately. It's now a nasty little bugger, full of spit and vinegar, perfect for those heavily-driven electric overdrive blues that I love so much.

In a word, GFS makes great pickups for not a whole lot of money. I recommend them.:smile:


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

The black guitar in the back row on the left is one I made many years ago with an old Dano neck. Last summer I put in that pickup, which is a GFS Pro-Tubes HB. It's basically a humbucking pair of lipsticks that fit into an HB slot. I hooked it up with a mini toggle for series/parallel, and I love the sound of it! Price was right, and service from Jay has been excellent as well-very quick on the replies for wiring info!








-Mikey


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## kirk1701 (Sep 14, 2007)

PaulS said:


> Also installed the crunchy pafs in a SG type and fat pafs in a LP, both sounded great.
> 
> I bought that particular SG from PaulS :food-smiley-004:. I love it. Value for money is a great thing. These deliver great paf tones for very little money. The quality keeps getting better as well. In fact, I'd like to see them installed in a few more high end axes to see how they fare. Any takers?


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## LaRSin (Nov 27, 2006)

the one I put in my partscaster sounds great . I don't have any complaints.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Spikezone, love the beauty with the lipstick HB in it, I have a pair of them sitting around just looking for a project guitar to put them in.


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

Kapo_Polenton said:


> Ripper, I am going to be putting together an ultimate 80's guitar hero super strat for myself..was thinking of the JB in bridge because I always was a huge Warren Demartinni fan.. is the detail good with that pickup? Is it too trebly at all in some circumstances?


It can be a little trebly depending on what your settings are etc, but I have found the same thing with the Duncan JB. The detail is really good on these, no complaints at all that way, and the bottom end stays tight.


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## YJMUJRSRV (Jul 17, 2007)

I have never heard a GFS pickup I liked.

Lots of hype on the net. But lets face it. When you get hype and you buy you really try to like it.

I've installed several sets of these for customers who thought they were saving money. Each time the guitar sounded harsh and very "square" to my ears.
Twice the RW/RP pickup was not RW/RP but simply a reversed lead which is NOT the same thing.

To top it off the guy who runs GFS and Guitar Fetish is not known for being freindly or honest. 

This is just my opinion of course. GFS are made in Korea as far as I know by the same factory that makes almost all the entry level product. From experience thats about what I'd say you can expect. If you ever played a $500 Samick for instance that would likely have the same quality pickups.

As I said I've had guys bring them to me and each time they ended up buying real pickups and the GFS ended up being an expensive experiment. 

Gotoh and GFS are pretty much neck in neck for sound. Also neck in neck for price. Gotoh is more consistent. I wouldnt use their pickups either but having installed 100's over the years I though I'd chime in.

There are decent cost effective pickups out there like Kent Armstrong and Bill Lawrence. A set of Duncan's is still relatively cheap and IMO smokes GFS. Lollars may be overkill for some in $ value. Anyway there are dozens of better choices than GFS. The Fender Custom Shop pickups for instance are very nice. $200 a set.

The best analogy I can think of is tube vs solid state amps. A GFS sounds very "square" and harsh like a solid state amp. Try a set of Fender '69 CS pickups for instance and the sound is "round" like a tube tone.

I installed the GFS lil killer in a Charvel and is was the worst thing I've heard in quite some time. Total fizz cackle with zero warmth. It was like taking a grinder to metal overtones. Annoying and thin/weak sounding all around.

Installed a few of their humbuckers - crap to my ears. Very thin and weak even though they are wound very hot. Just no tone. Installed many different sets of the singel coils. Some I think had to be defective they were so bad.

Today I refuse to install them. After the exprience and hearing the horrors stories from customers who tried to return them (Jay gets really nasty I hear) I'd rather turn people away and have them come back thanking me when they find out I was trying to do them a favor.

Just my 2 cents. When reading reviews you need to take them with a grain of salt. Lots of people eat at McDonalds but that doesnt make it good for you. GFS seems to be the same sort of thing. If you are undiserning they may just fit the bill. However ignorance doesnt make big macs taste like a nice steak. It wont make GFS pickups sound good either.


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## Perkinsfan (Oct 17, 2007)

YJMUJRSRV said:


> I have never heard a GFS pickup I liked.
> 
> Lots of hype on the net. But lets face it. When you get hype and you buy you really try to like it.
> 
> ...


Thanks for that rundown.
I've been thinking of getting a set of GFS telecaster pickups,but after reading your post and thinking about it further I think I'll just get the Fender vintage set instead.


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## GuitaristZ (Jan 26, 2007)

I disagree strongly. I really like the single coils I put into my guitar. There were the premium vintage alnicos. Really organic sounding and very clear. And yeah, Im not playing them through some crappy SS amp. I have used them through a lot of tube amps, and even my own marshall tube amp. They sound really clear and with the right wiring, the tonal options are amazing.


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## LaRSin (Nov 27, 2006)

YJMUJRSRV said:


> I have never heard a GFS pickup I liked.
> 
> .


just out of curiousity have you ever taken them apart and compared them ??


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## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

i bought gfs crunchy PAF 's for the neck and bridge i really like them i also own several strats one with gfs overwound alnico staggers i love the mid and neck pickup i didnot like the bridge pickup it was way too thin i replaced it with a gfs lil killer i also have a tele with a lil puncher set in the bridge and neck they sound really good but im not much of a tele player mostly rock good bang for the buck


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## torndownunit (May 14, 2006)

I don't know if this will help, but I did a recording recently using my Tele which has GFS Hot 60's Alnico's in it. It's just me screwing around with Garageband so it's not fantastic quality. I have a rockin' track I am uploading using the same guitar, but with some dirt, this weekend.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=768012&content=music

I also have to strongly disagree with YJMUJRSRV. I have been through at least 15 different types of Tele pickups, and these are my dream tone. I love them.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

torndownunit- indeed thats epitomical tele twang your getting there- i love it.
and thats a great sounding tune for "just screwing around"- and i really like the song. if i could make recordings that sound like that id consider myself a success and die happy.
ive installed some gfs pickups for customers, didnt have any issues with them, but i never had to order them myself, customers did it- from the brief test playing i did with them they are certainly improvements over stock squier pups, and many of the mij fenders- mim pups are usually pretty good but i think the gfs ones were better by a bit. but everybodies mileage varies when it comes to tone-any pickups i test or use go straight into a smallish to real small tube combo and cranked- others will get a different response with other amp types and pedals n stuff.
the guy who runs gfs gets bad press for bieng a jerk- i dunno if he is, but i saw him get chased off of an american forum- some of his bad press likely comes from there, american guitar forums are sorta like internet street gangs, your either with em or against em.
at any rate looks like im getting a set of gfs strat pups for one of my personal guitars from a forum member here- ill post my thoughts when i install them


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## torndownunit (May 14, 2006)

fraser thank you very much. I am just learning to use Garageband. Considering all I am using is it and my Toneport (not even using amps because I have no good mics), I am pretty happy with what I am getting so far. The vocals were done with a Radio Shack PA mic.

The issue people have with GFS in a lot of cases is the product descriptions. EG "they sound better than this and that". I will fully admit some of the descriptions are ridiculous. But I have used 3 different types of GFS pickups and been extremely happy. As mentioned, with my current Tele I went through a ridiculous amount of pickups. The GFS ones I have now are the exact Tele sound I always wanted. And I got them used for about $30 + shipping.

I'll have that other rocking track up this weekend. You can hear the pickups with some grit. They sound fantastic for rocking out.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

torndownunit said:


> fraser thank you very much. I am just learning to use Garageband. Considering all I am using is it and my Toneport (not even using amps because I have no good mics), I am pretty happy with what I am getting so far. The vocals were done with a Radio Shack PA mic.
> 
> The issue people have with GFS in a lot of cases is the product descriptions. EG "they sound better than this and that". I will fully admit some of the descriptions are ridiculous. But I have used 3 different types of GFS pickups and been extremely happy. As mentioned, with my current Tele I went through a ridiculous amount of pickups. The GFS ones I have now are the exact Tele sound I always wanted. And I got them used for about $30 + shipping.
> 
> I'll have that other rocking track up this weekend. You can hear the pickups with some grit. They sound fantastic for rocking out.


yah lol- his descriptions are pretty overdone- the guys a salesman for sure.
i imagine those descriptions of his sell a lot of pups. id love to check out our own j.s moores stuff- his website is much more down to earth lol- and his pups are undoubtably better as he makes em himself. too bad i need to live cheap these days or id be on them.

btw- is garageband pretty simple to use? id get a mac if it would solve my problem lol.
im having a terrible time with drum tracks, dragging and dropping, or cutting pasting bars into tracks just never seem to work out for me- i always botch something, and it never works- ive been playing drum parts live with a midi keyboard thru the reason nn-xt sampler, but then it doesnt work- i can keep time but im no drummer, so it ends up sounding very amatuer. 
ive tried reams of software- youd shit yurself if yu saw the programs i have installed. cant make it work for drum tracks. maybe ill just buy a kit and learn to play it. bah

checked out your myspace page- love your tunes, sounds great.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

well i got a set of these-
http://store.guitarfetish.com/19repralstpi.html
from forum member blue apple-
put them in my messed up black strat and spent hours plugging it into all my different amps, then doing comparisons with other guitars- 
id stop short of giving it the overblown description that gfs gives them,
but they are good. they replaced a late seventies fender set and are noticably better- lots of character, good grainy kinda strat sound, lots of quack- kind of brings out the stratness of the strat.
the guitars tone is more in your face now, a definite improvement.
certainly these would be a good cheap upgrade to any strat with mediocre pickups, my cij strat pickups definately sound lifeless beside these. and i like them better than a set of texas specials that cost a whole lot more.
i want them in all my guitars- will definately buy more- great value in my opinion
:smile:


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

A week of so ago I did a comparison. PaulS and I have identical Tokai hollow body guitars. He has changed out the pickups for the Dream 180's. I spent the night switching the guitars back and forth. I like them and probably change them out soon.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

cool shoretyus, let us know how it works- these are maybe a real good deal. its real stupid, i installed three sets of gfs pups for other people, never even considered that id like them myself- never even was interested enough to test drive them. i guess due to the low price. theyre are loads of better pups out there- but not at this price.
i guess cheap no longer automatically equals crap.

edit- btw shoretyus- did i ever tell you how much i dig your tele? if not, i really dig your tele.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

What this ol' thing?


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

yassir thats the one- now thats a real guitar.
thanks for showing the pic again
:food-smiley-004:


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

fraser said:


> yassir thats the one- now thats a real guitar.
> thanks for showing the pic again
> :food-smiley-004:


Humm yup it's real.... Weekly Thursday Jam in Bancroft ...you can touch it :smile:


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

shoretyus said:


> Humm yup it's real.... Weekly Thursday Jam in Bancroft ...you can touch it :smile:



lol- now your messin with me, of course its real, i can smell it from here
havent been to bancroft in years- tis a nice place, been a few times-
stayed in a little house there over xmas one year, for about 2 weeks- beautiful.
i dont get around much these days- and thats real far


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

fraser said:


> lol-
> i dont get around much these days- and thats real far


Isn't there a song about that?


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

if not- well there oughta be:smile:


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