New GFS pickups

[tfarny]

I've just been jammin' with these some more, and got my strat fully back set up, and they're actually not half bad. After messing with the pickup height I was able to do a lot more with them, and yeah they're pretty convincing with a nice vintagey chime. The 2 and 4 positions were seriously lacking 'quack', though, and that's a big issue. I may still swap them out one day but I'll allow them to live in my goldtop strat for a while longer.

 

[tfarny]

Oh, and BP, these are totally unlike the lil killers. These actually sound like strat pickups, while the lil killers sounded like ceramic bar humbuckers with more treble. I don't know, you may get a bit of quack splitting those things, but they're just so not like a real strat pickup I wouldn't expect too much. Depends on what you're after - I want this thing to sound like a great old strat, with no noise, no BS. I don't think the lil killers have the same vibe at all.

 

[GDL06292]

I have a guitar set up with the GFS Vintage Staggered, and the tones are VERY sweet!

They still have that glassiness when cranked up full, yet get that SRV-ish tone when you back down the tone knob to about 4-5.
Quack was evident on the 2 and 4 settings, but a tad less than F****er pups, but I actually like it that way.

I played them through my beloved VOX AVT 50, and got some great, sweet, and some glassy plus piercing (but not shrill) tones!

I can understand those who prefer "vintage" tone precisely would not be 100% happy, but these sound great to me.

 

[tfarny]

Final update on the GFS noiseless single coil sets:
Following some advice on the telecaster forum, I swapped out the bridge version for the hotter "nal9" 'thicker' sounding GFS neovin in the bridge. Then I replaced my pots with a 1meg for volume, and no-load Fender pots (replacement for the USA Deluxe) for the tones. The no-load pots completely take the pot out of the circuit at "10". Finallly, I moved the pickups ridiculously close to the strings (they have very little string pull).
Result: Holy Sarah Palin on a stick, these things sound great!  They actually have a great single-coil sound in this guitar (my goldie), and the more middy bridge version is actually usable now for lead stuff. Very quiet. They sound like nice Alnico II vintage pickups with no noise at all. I always found myself switching to 2 and 4 because of 60hz hum, but with these, the neck pickup alone sounds really sweet.
At $35 a pop, I now highly recommend them as long as you take these measures to preserve the treble.

 

[bpmorton777]

interesting. What are GFS's recomendations on wireing?

Brian