Strat Pickups Question

mongooz

mongooz

.
ok, this may not belong in this forum, but the "review" forum doesn't get much traffic and i actually wanted some opinions.......this year.

has anyone bought or tried the GFS pickups? specifically the "overwound" models. they look very nice and the descriptions are nice. i'm not out of love with my Jimmie Vaughans, but the GFS pups are only $68 per set and so i thought.....hmmmm maybe.....

but the low price has me concerned a bit. my O.C. Duff pickups (in the turquoise strat) cost $300.....in 2004.

anyone have any info, thoughts or opinions??
 
I've tried a few things from them over the years... pickups, some plates/hardware... and a body.

Everything was sub-par in quality. The cheapest stuff I kept and either used it until I could find something better to replace it, or wrote off the hassle of replacing it. The body I sent back immediately. It was complete garbage in finish and the styrofoam/balsa wood that it was made from.

They're not interested in quality components... they make different cheap hardware for people to swap out with the already cheap hardware on their imports.
 
baimun said:
I've tried a few things from them over the years... pickups, some plates/hardware... and a body.

Everything was sub-par in quality. The cheapest stuff I kept and either used it until I could find something better to replace it, or wrote off the hassle of replacing it. The body I sent back immediately. It was complete garbage in finish and the styrofoam/balsa wood that it was made from.

They're not interested in quality components... they make different cheap hardware for people to swap out with the already cheap hardware on their imports.
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i was also thinking of swapping out the trem block with a brass/steel one, and GFS has them also.
maybe i'll look at a few other places, but i haven't found any as yet. amazon doesn't have them, nor does GC.
 
You could try making pickups out of Lady Fingers. Be sure to heat them up first. Then take your Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster out into the middle of the street and smash it into a million pieces. Then sacrifice a duck and swear a blood oath never to touch anything with Jimmie Vaughan's name on it ever again.
 
I've used a few of their pickups; they're ok. I think I had the overwound greybottoms? I've used other pickups from gfs as well. My opinion? You DO get what you pay for. I'd look at rose pickups or bgpups instead.

I've used their trem blocks, good value IMO.
 
I bought a couple guitars from them (with their pups) many moons ago. And a set of pickups. The pickups were decent. Probably the same level as Duncan Designed.
 
wagdog said:
You DO get what you pay for.
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Aren't Rose Pickups like the same price?

I've owned GFS tele pickups and they were nice. Played some of the HBs, which weren't bad, and the Dream 90s...which I didn't like at all.
w/r/t the rest of GFS, their pin-lock tuners are identical to the ones Reverend uses. Have a pickguard and some misc hardware that are fine. Customer service has been hit or miss for me.
 
I had a alnico fatbody neck pickup and a rail pickup in a tele build, and they sounded just fine. In fact, the alnico fatbody was one of the better tele neck PUs I've heard.
 
The fatbody tele pickups are (or were) really good sounding pickups.

I do like the Rose pickups Hermosa set, don't know if they still have them. My green strat shown here is still sporting a set. That's a gfs body and heavy trem as well.



my favorite strat pickups are bgpups v60s though - that is what's in my roadworn.
 
mongooz said:
i was also thinking of swapping out the trem block with a brass/steel one, and GFS has them also.
maybe i'll look at a few other places, but i haven't found any as yet. amazon doesn't have them, nor does GC.
Click to expand...

A brass trem block was one of the things I got from them. Three of the block screw holes were fine.... the fourth one was crooked and cross threaded.
 
baimun said:
A brass trem block was one of the things I got from them. Three of the block screw holes were fine.... the fourth one was crooked and cross threaded.
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sorry to hear that. maybe i won't be changing it so soon. i'm not paying $80 for one from big blocks or the rest. i've listened to a half dozen youtube vids of before and after and there is a small change, but not worth a hundred bucks after tax and shipping.
 
Lerxst said:
Aren't Rose Pickups like the same price?
Click to expand...

Some of them. I think there are (or were) import rose pickups and American made ones. Not sure what the situation is now. I have a set of their belle pickups in my 74 strat.

mongooz said:
sorry to hear that. maybe i won't be changing it so soon. i'm not paying $80 for one from big blocks or the rest. i've listened to a half dozen youtube vids of before and after and there is a small change, but not worth a hundred bucks after tax and shipping.
Click to expand...

I can't say that switching to a heavy block changed the sound much. It does change the feel though, and definitely the sustain. I've never had an issue with gfs trems or blocks, but it wouldn't surprise me if people did; they are mass produced cheap import goods.
 
Something a bit odd - I like the sort of specced built in pickups on the strat I got recently. They have a sort of character to them none of my other guitars have.
 
aliensporebomb said:
Something a bit odd - I like the sort of specced built in pickups on the strat I got recently. They have a sort of character to them none of my other guitars have.
Click to expand...

care to elaborate? who made the pups? where'd you get them? what is it that you like about them?
 
wagdog said:
The fatbody tele pickups are (or were) really good sounding pickups.

I do like the Rose pickups Hermosa set, don't know if they still have them. My green strat shown here is still sporting a set. That's a gfs body and heavy trem as well.



my favorite strat pickups are bgpups v60s though - that is what's in my roadworn.
Click to expand...


I bought a set of the Rose Hermosas as well. Great sounding pickups. Great price too.
 
i'll look into the Rose pups. they appear to be quite affordable.
i'm reading the decscriptions of the sets, but i don't see anything about a "texas" sound.
anyone familiar with the Rose pups enough to point me in the right direction?
or do i need to contact them?
 
Contact Ken at Rose pickups. He's a member here. But he usually hangs out at the Squier forum. He'll wind whatever you want wound. He's a good guy and will answer all of your questions.
 
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