I just orderd a set for my strat from GF. I sure hope they live up to the claims...
I just orderd a set for my strat from GF. I sure hope they live up to the claims...
I sure like mine!
If you're looking for chimey, snappy, bell-like strat tone, and for really outstanding quack in positions 2 and 4, you should be pleased.
If you're looking for hair-metal-shredmeister, rip-'em-up pickups, you probably won't be pleased.
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness".
-Dave Barry
I got the pups yesterday but can't install then my soldering iron took a shit...
Are these the CS 69s that are wound by Abigail Yabbaro?
I finaly got them installed, I must say they are all they claim to be.Good fat lows clear highs the mids jump out at ya just overall improvement in the sound of my strat I'm very happy you can't beat them for the price.. I did think the stock pups sounded good this set blowes them clean out..Thanks GFS your making some killer pups!!
Yup, did a jam last night these babies sing I'm telling ya what they did a great job I was cutting through like never before.I was freaking out at first I've been busy as hell at work not getting much playing in when I plugged in man was it ever in my face that I needed some practice! A few songs in I started waming up to the fact that there much clearer. The GFS pups are way more articulate than the stock Mexican pickups and I'm diggen em big time!
Sweet! I've been thinking about getting some for my Squier and see if I like 'em good enough to move 'em to my MIM Fender with the VNs in it.
"I haven't slept for ten days...because that would be too long." -- Mitch Hedberg
I'm a chicken, that's why. I was going to sell my Squier when I got the Fender, but I decided to keep it as a test bed for mods I'm considering for the MIM.
I was thinking I'd do that "Quieting the Beast" mod from the Guitarnuts site on the Squier and slap in some good, cheap single coils. And if (or when?) the Squier sounds better than the Fender, and if it's reasonably quiet, I'll do the same to the MIM. And I'll have had practice before I try those mods on my "expensive" Fender!
(And if all that works out well, maybe I'll keep the Squier and put the VNs in it just so I have a noiseless Strat for emergencies.)
"I haven't slept for ten days...because that would be too long." -- Mitch Hedberg
Well, I hate to hear that. My Squier's so damn noisy with single coils, even without a lot of gain. It drove me nuts, to the point that I never used anything but positions 2 and 4. Which sucks, because the neck by itself is my absolute favorite sound on a Strat.
Is there anything that can be done to reduce the buzz without hurting the tone? Maybe something in between no shielding at all and that "Quieting the Beast" thing?
"I haven't slept for ten days...because that would be too long." -- Mitch Hedberg
Hm. This is where the Squier-as-test-bed strategy might help. I could put in the GFS pups, play with them a while, then try shielding the Squier and see if/how much I dislike what that does to the sound, and decide based on that what I want to do with the MIM, if anything.
Worst-case scenario, if I don't like what the shielding does but can't stand the buzz, I've got a custom-shielded Squier with nice GFS pups that somebody on eBay would probably love to have.
"I haven't slept for ten days...because that would be too long." -- Mitch Hedberg
Patent nonsense. Everyone knows (or should know) "Sparkle is in the fingers".
But more seriously, the reason why you lose some brightness with the shielding is that it add some parasitic capacitance to the circuit. Basically, you are putting the equivalent of a "treble bleed" cap into the circuit.
One way to possibly mitigate the effects of this, at least in principle, is to reduce the value of the main tone cap. I'd try to halve it's value if the sparkle goes out of your fingers after shielding, to see what happens.
No-one ever seems to suggest this approach... I don't know why. Maybe it's been tried and it doesn't work for some reason. But I can't see why it wouldn't.
-Mark
Dude, I only spent $200 on it new. I'd be ecstatic if I got that much on eBay after putting nothing more into it than some copper foil and a set of $60 GFS pups.And a custom shielded late model Squier with GFS pickups will still be worth $200 on eBay. If that.
Okay...not ecstatic, but pleasantly surprised.
"I haven't slept for ten days...because that would be too long." -- Mitch Hedberg
The buzz is part of the fun...
Eli Get them you will not be disapointed..If you are I'll take em off your hands.
Thanks for the recco, Mel. You do add to the temptation. Sorry if I monopolized your thread for a bit; I tend to do this sort of thinking out loud, trying to decide what to do and how to do it in a place where I can get some feedback.
I have to say, though: as tempting as a set of $60 pups everybody seems to rave about is, I picked up my MIM Strat with the VNs shortly after I made my last post, played it a while thru the Screamer Clone and the Micro Vibe, and found myself thinking I should seriously consider leaving it alone.
I do really like the way it sounds right now. It's just that it's hard to read all the posts from the single-coil-vs.-noiseless camp, then look at the prices on everything in the GFS line, and not be tempted to monkey with the formula -- even when the formula's working for me.
Hell, if all I did was buy some GFS pups, put them in the Squier, and leave the Deluxe Player alone, at least the Squier might become a guitar I actually play and enjoy occasionally, instead of sitting in my bedroom closet in its gig bag and the box it came from MF in.
"I haven't slept for ten days...because that would be too long." -- Mitch Hedberg
I jam pretty regularly with a guy who plays a VN-equipped strat through a TRRI. He always comments on how he thinks his guitar sounds pretty good -- until he hears mine. If I work at it, I can wrestle a decent tone out of his guitar, but playing music shouldn't be like wrestling, IMO.
I've offered to install '60s Repros for him, if he buys a set, but he's insistent on leaving the guitar stock.
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness".
-Dave Barry
I think these are wise words. If it ain't broke...
Seriously, if _you_ dig a guitars sound, and _you_ enjoy playing it, then s'all goof.
In reality, all this stuffing about regarding "tone" is for the player's benefit anyway, not the audience's... I'm convinced the audience won't notice the tonal difference between brand A pups and brand B -- really.
What they _are_ likely to notice, however, is whether you are digging your playing or not, and that is the only practical argument for futzing about with the seemingly endless "tone quest"... but once you're happy, stop! You're there already... now just play!
-Mark
Yeah, yeah, yeah...we all agree on that, but the accepted canonical example of crap in this example would be "Indonesion Squier and HRDx". There are only two possible reasons why a person would arbitrarily substitute "Valvetronix" for "HRDx": a) Their taste is in their butt, or b) they're trying to annoy ol' plugger.
So: you're trying to annoy me, aren't you?
-Mark
Hey Fez, your not trying to be a butthead are ya?
My other guitar is an Indonesian Squier!
"I haven't slept for ten days...because that would be too long." -- Mitch Hedberg
fezz, which do you like better the GFS 60 Repros or the Fender 57/62s? I've seen you give kudos to both so which are better?
Yup sure do! Give em the BOOT!
I just picked up a MIJ 62 strat great guitar... Try and guess what pups I have on order for it....
Toneriders, right?!
"I haven't slept for ten days...because that would be too long." -- Mitch Hedberg