Coming in June: GFS NeoVin Noiseless

[elicross]

Saw an ad for these in the latest Guitar Player and checked out the site. Doesn't say much except that they're Neodymium-Alnico noise-canceling Strat pups.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/coju20nepino.html

I wonder how they'll compare to other noiseless pups. GFS makes some mean single-coils.

Who volunteers to get some and review 'em?

[121064]

Just what we need, more humbuckers.

[elicross]

They're not standard humbuckers. They're obviously more like the SCNs and Vintage Noiseless from Fender; noise-canceling, but intended to sound more like single coils than humbuckers. Like those Fender pups, they look exactly like any single-coil from the outside.

But then, I suspect you knew that.

[hippiebob01]

But then, I suspect you knew that.

[spud1950]

I emailed Jay at GFS about these pickups.Here's what he said.

" Been over two years in development for these-

The concept is they are a side by side humbucker using very narrow
aperture coils. One of the side effects of narrow aperture coils a
pronounced midrange and diminished low end- so the polepices you see are
actually a molded ground plane that is used as a notch filter. The coils
are also wrapped in copper foil which is grounded and the whole assembly
epoxied into a strat pickup case. We've gone to great lengths to
magnetically and acoustically tune the components to produce a certain
sound, rather than just monkeying with magnets and wire the way most
pickup makers do. The result is a pickup that looks 100% vintage, has
almost zero handling noise or squealing, and is very quiet. Of course
all of this means nothing if the sound isn't right, and we think the
balanced sets we will be offering are the best sounding noiseless sets
on the market. We mix neodymium, alnico and ceramic magnets of different
physical size and different magnetic gauss- really each single pickup is
fine tuned for the exact response we want. We do not mix magnets
together- tried it in protos but I think we produced a better sounding
set with individual magnets of one particular type.

We should be selling the separates for $34 and the sets for around
$89 for three. We'll also have special taper 1Meg pots for the hotter
sets- We'll offer a range from 50's vintage to pretty aggressive
"humbucker" type sounds.

We're incredibly excited and hope these will be received well- I can't
stop playing the protos!!

First shipment should be here around June 20.

Jay"

[elicross]

I don't know enough about the other noiseless Strat pups to know if GFS's approach is very different from, say, Fender's or SD's. Looks interesting, though.

[curtisstetka]

Sounds interesting. Fender's approach is stacked coils, not side by side.

[JM3]

Made in China

but good prices I must say

I have a set oh overwounds in an American strat that sound pretty good

[NeoFauve]

So, is this a very narrow HB, like a Seymour Duncan would be?

Or is it a 3 x 3 HB?
I forget who made them that way.
It was kind of like the old "Wide Range" humbucker design, of G&L's "Z" p'ups, but the coils were alligned so they fit in the space of a single coil Tele or Strat cover.

[elicross]

I'll bet it's the latter, Neo.

[NeoFauve]

Oh, and BTW, I am not affiliated with the NeoVin.

[elicross]

Coming in July from GFS: NeoFauve Vintage Pros!

[refin]

Made in China

but good prices I must say

I have a set oh overwounds in an American strat that sound pretty good

I recently dug out my MIJ '50s strat ('96) that has the Hot Alnico Staggers----good grief,incredible tone!
Lots of clarity and gobs of personality,all for $48 for the trio!

[spud1950]

Made in China

GFS pickups are made in Korea.

[JM3]

The company I work for sells the magnets to many pickup builders,

The GFS guys told me direct that they are made in China, So maybe they are lying, I dont know, but good pickups for the $$
FWIW thier explanation on thow the pickup works makes little sense. But if they can sell them, good for business I guess.

[spud1950]

The GFS guys told me direct that they are made in China, So maybe they are lying

No,they're not lying. The pickups are made by the Korean company Artec,so I assumed the factory is in Korea. I was wrong. I just found some new info that although the company is Korean owned,the actual factory is in China. By the way,what company do you work for in Portland? I live in Beaverton and would like to know where I could get some magnets locally if possible.

[JM3]

I thought so as we do market research on pickups

The company is located in Eastern Vancouver, Check Allstar on the web. as in magnetics. The magnetics biz is sure strange

[elicross]

Yeah, if they use two coils to buck hum, they're humbuckers, no matter how the magnets and coils are arranged. But for what it's worth, it doesn't look like GFS or anyone in this thread has called these pups single coils...so far, anyway.