I am looking to replace the pickups in my Ibanez AS-73 (335 copy), and my first thought was to go with the Classic 57's by Gibson. But those are quite expensive, so I remembered everyone raving about the GFS pickups in here and I wondered if anyone has experience with the GFS Humbuckers. Anyone tried the Vintage 59 Nickel Classic Alnico PAF? Thanks for the replies and sorry to be creating one more GFS thread.
I have a GFS humbucker in the neck postion on my Squire Tele. Not the vintage '59, but it sounds good. I wanted the '59 but it was out of stock and I didnt feel like waiting. Good sounding pup, but I think I'd actually prefer the vintage '59 if it was going in my AS-73. (I have one). I spent a fair amount of time messing with the stock pups on the AS-73 and found that with the pups fairly low, but the polepieces up it got a much better sound. pc put some gibson (57s I believe - there's a thread here), and it does sound better, but it's a PITA to change on these guitars. If you dont mind the hassle, I'm sure the GFS Vintage '59 would be a big improvement though.
I've read the thread when pc put the 57s into his AS-73. I remember he posted sound files and I thought the Gibsons sound pretty good. They are more than twice the price of the GFS Vintage 59, so that's what got me thinking that maybe the GFS might be a good investment. I don't get one part of your post, what do you mean by setting the pickups low but with the polepieces up?
A set of 57s cost not much less than what I paid for the AS-73.Originally Posted by agalamba
On the stock p'ups; I lowered the entire pup and than raised the polepieces. Someone on this board once posted this as a way to reduce some of the bassiness of a pickup. It does help, but the stock pups are bass heavy compared to a good humbucker.
How do you raise the polepieces in a humbucker pickup like the ones in the AS-73?
Just use a flat blade screwdriver. Turning them counter-clockwise will raise them.
It's the 6 screw heads that are under the strings.... Just "loosen" them to raise them.
The StewMac Golden Era humbuckers are pretty affordable too. I've never tried them or the GFS ones to compare. I do have a friend w/ a 335 copy that has the GFS pickups and he likes it a lot. I have not heard it personally. If you go to the trouble of changing the pickups I would recommend putting CTS pots and some better tone capacitors in the guitar too. Make sure you wire it up using a real GIBSON schematic, as some of the copy guitars are wired slightly different and the subtle wiring changes can make the tone a lot different (worse)
Greg
It's all about Tone!!
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