the gfs repro 60's vs the 64's.

[chuckocaster]

for the new to me MIM. bread and butter has the alnico 3 low wounds, the 70's has some hot A5 flat poles. so i'm looking at getting something sort of in the middle. so i was thinking the grey bottoms because they are just a touch hotter, cause my hamel A3's are wound about the same as the 60's repros. but i'm not ruling those out.

so which would you guys choose, since i know a lot of you on here have tried the gfs offerings. thanks guys.

[pseudocat]

I like the 60's Repros a lot, but I haven't tried the others, so I have no basis for comparison.

[hippiebob01]

i have the grey bottoms in a MIM strat and they sound pretty dang good. a bit trebley, but i like them.

[chuckocaster]

i went with the 64's, since they were a touch hotter than the 60's repros. my hamels are awesome, and are wound to about with the 60's repros are, granted they have A3's.

if these work out, i should have a nice selection of strat tones, sparkly 50's, nice 60's standard tone, and then ballsy flat poles.

i'll post a review when i get them in.

[pseudocat]

Excellent! I look forward to your reviews.

I've been itching to put 3 GFS lipstick tubes in one of my strats. I've got one of them in another guitar and it sounds great. Three would be fantastic.

[Sage]

i went with the 64's, since they were a touch hotter than the 60's repros. my hamels are awesome, and are wound to about with the 60's repros are, granted they have A3's.

if these work out, i should have a nice selection of strat tones, sparkly 50's, nice 60's standard tone, and then ballsy flat poles.

i'll post a review when i get them in.

I'm curious to know how the 64s compare to the 70s flat-poles that you have. I've narrowed my own search down to those two. Is there much difference between them?

[chuckocaster]

sage,

i did a quick play through the POD tonight after buttoning up the new strat. the 64's are definitely bright, hard to tell how bright since i'm using the POD and really don't use it for critical listening. the EQ doesn't hit the same frequencies that a normal amp does if that makes sense. but then again i'm listening to it on nice studio headphones and not a guitar speaker.

as for a comparison, i went and pulled out the 70's mim with reed james pups (the flat poles). the flats absolutely have more balls, but i've come to expect this with this type of pup. i've done some shoot outs with same spec pups (stag vs flat) and i've always found the flats to seem a little "tougher" sounding if that makes sense. the notch positions sound WAY different beings the flat set are non rwrp, not too surprising to me.

i'll give them a good run through tomorrow night at the gig and report more. this is just a first impression.

[Sage]

Interesting... I ended up pulling the trigger on a set of 64s this afternoon, so I'll be joining you soon. Definitely interested in hearing what you think after the gig.

Couple of questions:

1. Don't you have a set of GFS 70's flat poles somewhere? I'm curious how the 64's compare to them; I asked Jay and it sounds like they're the same pickup, just with staggered vs. non-staggered magnets.

2. Do the 64's have a RW/RP middle? I was under the impression that they did not.

Thanks for the info!

[chuckocaster]

1. no, my flat poles are by my buddy www.reedjamescustom.com don't mind the typos, jim makes some really nice stuff. most of all, he'll wind just about anything you want. my flat poles are built on grey bottom bobbins, with flat A5 mags. the bridge is 7.8k or so, and the others are low 6k's.

2. mine do, i think in the past they weren't. i personally like the non rwrp, but sometimes you have to have it, circumstances you know.

[exactopposite]

interesting. I have a set of 64's on my MIM strat and i would never call them bright. This strat is a brighter sounding guitar than my other too (i have swapped the pups between them). Maybe they sound different to me because I use a .1 tone cap.

[yankeerob]

Excellent! I look forward to your reviews.

I've been itching to put 3 GFS lipstick tubes in one of my strats. I've got one of them in another guitar and it sounds great. Three would be fantastic.

I've got a SSH setup with the 8K bridge in the neck, 6K middle and 12K HB in the bridge... it's killer... the 8K - believe it or not - is still sparkling clean but with more power and warmth (the 4.9K neck - which I did try - for me - was a bit weedy sounding) - the 6K middle works great on it's own and in the in-betweens and the 12K bridge doesn't sound like you'd expect - it's just as it's described in that it's got a very clear and distinct voice that'll give a nice 'brr-ang' if you push it... you really have to get 'em up near the strings because of the way they're constructed and I've had to compromise the push/pull vol pot with a straight 250K as the 500K I had in it sounded awful (until I get a 250K PP for it) but it works great as it is and gets a lot of interest from the gear spotters... YRMV...