Johnny N.
Kick Henry Jackassowski
I really have no business reviewing gear but I'm going to anyway.
A while back I bought a Made in Mexico Squier Series Tele. These were made in the 90's during a time when Fender was transitioning production to Asia. They were made with Fender bodies and necks and from what I understand, cheaper pickups and electronics. This is the guitar.
I love the way the guitar feels. I always have. I have tried a bunch of teles since I bought this one and none of them have felt as good to me. It is a basic black guitar but the neck is quite nice looking. Overall, a pretty good guitar, especially considering I paid $100 for it with a hard case.
As much as I love the guitar, the pickups were a little weak. Not terrible clean but not a bunch of power when I add some crunch. So I find a couple of ebay deals on GFS pickups. I got the Fatbody neck and the Hot Alnico Lead bridge. They were both second hand but never installed in a guitar. I think I spent $45 total for the pair. Yep, I am a cheap bastard.
So my buddy helps me install them and then we play it through his vintage Princeton Reverb. I dont remember the year but it is a silver face. I dont notice as much difference in the clips below but with that amp, the GFS pickups had more power and a rounder I guess tone. That said, my original pickups sounded pretty damn good through that amp too. I had never heard them sound that good anyway.
The biggest difference was when we cranked it up. The breakup with the GFS was just so nice. It made the hair stand up on my arm. The neck sounded almost like a humbucker to me. Position was fantastic, especially cleaner, and the bridge was just plain nasty when we pushed the amp.
Overall, I am very happy with the new pups and I am glad we did it. I learned that my old pups were better than I thought, at least clean, they just needed to played through a proper amp. Dirty, there is no contest. Unfortunately, I cant find what I did with the dirty clips from the old pickups to compare.
Below are three clips. Original pickups clean, GFS clean and GFS dirty. All of the clips are neck, middle, bridge. I dont hear a huge differnce in these clips but I definitely did with the Princeton. These are through a preset in GearBox through my Toneport.
Tone is a matter of personal taste but let me know what you think. And pardon the lack of talent.
Original pups clean.
http://hc.bloodyvelvet.com/files/209/Tele Clean.mp3
GFS clean
http://hc.bloodyvelvet.com/files/209/Tele GFS Clean.mp3
GFS Dirty
http://hc.bloodyvelvet.com/files/209/Tele GFS Dirty.mp3
A while back I bought a Made in Mexico Squier Series Tele. These were made in the 90's during a time when Fender was transitioning production to Asia. They were made with Fender bodies and necks and from what I understand, cheaper pickups and electronics. This is the guitar.
I love the way the guitar feels. I always have. I have tried a bunch of teles since I bought this one and none of them have felt as good to me. It is a basic black guitar but the neck is quite nice looking. Overall, a pretty good guitar, especially considering I paid $100 for it with a hard case.
As much as I love the guitar, the pickups were a little weak. Not terrible clean but not a bunch of power when I add some crunch. So I find a couple of ebay deals on GFS pickups. I got the Fatbody neck and the Hot Alnico Lead bridge. They were both second hand but never installed in a guitar. I think I spent $45 total for the pair. Yep, I am a cheap bastard.
So my buddy helps me install them and then we play it through his vintage Princeton Reverb. I dont remember the year but it is a silver face. I dont notice as much difference in the clips below but with that amp, the GFS pickups had more power and a rounder I guess tone. That said, my original pickups sounded pretty damn good through that amp too. I had never heard them sound that good anyway.
The biggest difference was when we cranked it up. The breakup with the GFS was just so nice. It made the hair stand up on my arm. The neck sounded almost like a humbucker to me. Position was fantastic, especially cleaner, and the bridge was just plain nasty when we pushed the amp.
Overall, I am very happy with the new pups and I am glad we did it. I learned that my old pups were better than I thought, at least clean, they just needed to played through a proper amp. Dirty, there is no contest. Unfortunately, I cant find what I did with the dirty clips from the old pickups to compare.
Below are three clips. Original pickups clean, GFS clean and GFS dirty. All of the clips are neck, middle, bridge. I dont hear a huge differnce in these clips but I definitely did with the Princeton. These are through a preset in GearBox through my Toneport.
Tone is a matter of personal taste but let me know what you think. And pardon the lack of talent.
Original pups clean.
http://hc.bloodyvelvet.com/files/209/Tele Clean.mp3
GFS clean
http://hc.bloodyvelvet.com/files/209/Tele GFS Clean.mp3
GFS Dirty
http://hc.bloodyvelvet.com/files/209/Tele GFS Dirty.mp3