Guitar Fetish Surf 180 humbucker.

[bagman67]

Hey, boys and girls -

I'm now the proud owner of a basswood paint-grade Warmoth Strat body with a universal rout. I'm contemplating a cheapy-cheap super-basic strat, with a single HB in the bridge position and the OFR trem I just bought from our brother LushTone. I really dig P90's, but not the buzz. I dug the sound of the Guitar Fetish GFS Dream 90 I had in the neck of my GoM/GoY winner; so I'm considering an experiment with the Surf 180. Any thoughts, or recommendations for a budget low-to-moderate output humbucker instead of the Surf 180?

Yrs.,

Ian

 

[Spud]

I think the new Epiphone pro buckers sound really good.

 

[ragamuffin]

No experience with the Surf 90s /180s though they look really cool! I'm a p90 fan and l'm loving the Vineham Vivids low wind p.a.f. set that I have in my single cut build.

If you're willing to spend a little extra, Fralin has a hum-canceling humbucker-sized p90 as well as a "p92" humbucker with staggered poles like the 180

 

[stratamania]

I thought you had just bought a Schaller Vintage tremolo from Lushtone which is not an OFR though it will retrofit an OFR set of posts.

With regard to the pickup(s)
You could try something like a Phat Cat or P90 Stack

P90 Pickups - Guitar Pickups, Bass Pickups, Pedals

P90 Pickups. Position Some pickups have multiple options. Shown are the available positions for this pickup. Nighthawk is intended for Gibson® Nighthawk routed guitars.

www.seymourduncan.com

There are also noiseless P90 options from other makers.

 

[PFDarkside]

Off topic, are you doing the DIY paint prep or starting from raw wood? If raw wood, does Basswood require grain fill or straight to primer?

 

[bagman67]

Off topic, are you doing the DIY paint prep or starting from raw wood? If raw wood, does Basswood require grain fill or straight to primer?

Paint will be 100% DIY. Starting from raw wood. Basswood is very fine-grained, so no grain fill required. I'll sand it and go straight to primer.

 

[Spud]

Paint will be 100% DIY. Starting from raw wood. Basswood is very fine-grained, so no grain fill required. I'll sand it and go straight to primer.

Also, most sand is FYI.

 

[PFDarkside]

Paint will be 100% DIY. Starting from raw wood. Basswood is very fine-grained, so no grain fill required. I'll sand it and go straight to primer.

Well my friend, we will be Basswood buddies, I just ordered the other three piece, paint grade Strat body from the showcase, mine will be routed OFR as well.

I will be watching along and comparing notes with your process.

 

[Markdude]

Lindy Fralin pickups are my go-to for noiseless P90 varieties.

 

[bonesofwrath]

Probably late to the party, and they're in the same price range as DiMarzio and SD. I just got a set of Planet Tone Pasedena and Sheminith. My low output bridge pickup was sort of driven by wanting a low output neck pickup, but I'm really digging the pair. I've never met a neck humbucker i liked clean until now, and the Pasedena has plenty of bark and snarl like you'd expect from a low output humbucker.

 

[triple jim]

One of my guitars has a pair of Musiclily humbuckers with alnico 5 magnets and 7-8 kohm resistances. They do a good job of sounding PAF-like. Any of the Asian made buckers with that range of resistance and alnico magnets are probably the same or nearly so, but you have to watch out because most of the ones listed for the bridge position are around 15 kohms. The pair of Musiclily pickups were about $20 delivered, from eBay.

This eBay listing might be of interest to you:

G.M. 59'er Alnico 5 Black Humbucker Bridge (52mm) (4-wire) for Gibson Epiphone® | eBay

Alnico 5 Magnet. They are not Gibson's. dark and muddy, not shrill like ceramic magnets. And at this price you cant beat them! YOU GET MUCH. --- Black Bobbins. --- (4-wire) + Ground. MORE VALUE FOR YOUR MONEY HERE.

www.ebay.com

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

GFS’ Filtertron interpretations are very nice pickups, lots of detail.

 

[bonesofwrath]

I have GFS Memphis is a couple guitars and love em but my main guitar the H-gate has statted buzzing. Its driving me crazy even though it doesn't seem to be audible electrically. I'm debating cutting it back to the edges like the dream 180 does, I think the wings are pretty much decorative since they don't make any sort of a loop