Okay, so I put the GFS VEH in my alder strat with maple/kingwood neck and wilkinson trem. Bridge position, and it appears to be F-spaced, which is good in my case. I tested it on my multimeter and it read about a 10.2 or so, so a little hotter than my Duncan '59.
The sound - I only spent a little while with it in a relatively low-volume situation. Played it, and Duncan '59, and a super distortion back to back to back through an Epiphone Valve junior head/cab (5 watts) straight in and with a little boost from an MXR Distortion III pedal (which is more like a boost/overdrive anyway).
Output - very similar to the '59, and the Super Distortion was much hotter than both of the others.
Clean tone - a little more mids than the '59, but sounds quite similar. Has a different vibe, though - a little "squishier" than the '59, almost a little bit like a single coil. It's like 93% '59 and 7% tele bridge. Quite nice, actually. Not muddy at all - a little clearer than the '59, probably because of the mids. I like it better for riffier stuff, but not as much as the '59 on open chords. When I turn up the master volume, the '59 growls more and the VEH is a little bit "less deep", kind of like the touch of tele sound I was describing earlier. Can get great harmonics with just a touch of overdrive, but the brand new strings may have helped with that as well.
Distorted tone - sounded very much like EVH's tone on Women and Children First, which most people think is inferior to VH1. The fact that it is close at all means it's probably close enough for most if that is what you are going for, since the classic VH1 tones are probably more from the amp, board, mix, etc. than the pickup. The '59 with the same setup was a little more of an early Rush / Black Sabbath type tone, depending on the tone knob. Once again, this is through a distortion pedal, so take it with a grain of salt. They are both very similar. I'm not a pickup snob by any means, though.
Overall - great PAF sound, great price. I have a Fat PAF which I replaced with the '59, and it was okay, but I have determined that, for me, weaker pickups generally sound better. The VEH sounds nice clean and overdriven. My conclusion - very similar to the Duncan '59, just a little bit "squishier" and slightly less "growly.". I plan on trying them through my Crate V18 (think Marshall) tonight at insane volume levels for a further description. There is nothing like an insanely hot tube to improve tone!
arty07: or :guitarplayer2: or just :confused4: ?
