Pickups for semi-hollow: GFS '59 vs SD seth lover

[inkwachemis]

Its for my cheapie Oscar Schmidt OE30.

 

GFS vintage '59 or SD seth lover set

 

 

 

Of course the GFSs are much cheaper, but how do the compare to the SD seth lovers (which i've read great things about)??

 

 

ps- is it worth it to change out the pots and electronics too? they work fine now, would there be a tonal change for the better too?

[Ancient Mariner]

Seth Lovers have a great rep, but that's about twice the value of the guitar in PUs isn't it?

 

Never tried the 2 side by side. The '59s are quite smooth, balanced and vintagey, although not desperately complex. If the pots all work fine then don't change them unless you really feel they're lacking in some way. Might be worth changing the tone cap(s) though. I quite 0.015uF caps with those PUs.

[the new guy]

 

Seth Lovers have a great rep, but that's about twice the value of the guitar in PUs isn't it? Never tried the 2 side by side. The '59s are quite smooth, balanced and vintagey, although not desperately complex. If the pots all work fine then don't change them unless you really feel they're lacking in some way. Might be worth changing the tone cap(s) though. I quite 0.015uF caps with those PUs.

 

 

 

Why did you choose .015 caps?

[bgmacaw]

I have a GFS '59 on the bridge and a Seth Lover on the neck of my Ibanez Artcore TM-71. The Seth Lover is better, probably because the lack of potting gives it a more vintagy sound, but the '59 is no slouch.

 

You can hear both of them on my track for HCEG Jam #2, Ringing Reversal. The first part, up until about the 2 minute mark is the Seth Lover and the I switch to the '59.

[Attila]

Between those two choices, I'd go with the Seth Lovers.

[Burningleaves]

I put a set of seth lovers in a late 70's Guild S300. The guitar is solid mahog body and neck with an ebony board. Gibby short scale neck type. The Seth's sounded very cold and trebly in that guitar. Lifeless really. I took them out. At the time I was running the guitar into an early 60's Guild J66 and an Ampeg Reverberocket amp. I was pretty bummed about those results.

 

GFS's in my experience seem like a step above stock pup's that come in cheaper "import" guitars.

 

 

For the electronics...if they work fine then keep them in. You may want to add better caps to the tone knobs or mabye do a treble bleed mod to the volume knobs. Those mods are cheap / easy enough and you can really hear the dif'. I used the treble bleed mod found at Stew-Macs website.

 

Oh ya...this is just IMO and YMMV...etc,etc,etc.