Members quackystrat Posted April 5, 2015 Members Share Posted April 5, 2015 my current go to guitar is an agile AL3000M i love the feel and the look of it but the pickups are..... just okay. i was looking for a good but cost effective pickup upgrade. i was looking into rose pickups, and GFS what do you guys recommend? i play classic rock and blues jimi, pink floyd, the doors type stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HoobaStunk Posted April 5, 2015 Members Share Posted April 5, 2015 my current go to guitar is an agile AL3000M... The AL3100 is basically a Les Paul clone, correct? To get the Strat clean tones of Hendrix and Gilmour, you're best bet by far is to setup coil splitting for your replacement 4-wire humbuckers so that you can turn off the second coil in either or both humbuckers and use only a single coil instead of the fatter hum cancelling dual coil sound olf the normal humbucker wiring configuration. The easiest way to get coil splitting capability, without drilling holes anywhere on the guitar, will be to replace your 2 tone controls with 500K-ohm push-pull pots, which have the integrated switch for coil splitting. You mention GFS. The best pickup for both stratty coil splitting and maintaining a reasonably hot and fat humbucker sound is probably the VEH model. The GFS Fat PAT is hotter, but probably a bit too hot. http://www.guitarfetish.com/VEH-Vintage-Extra-Hot-Alnico-Zebra-_c_174.html The guy at Rose can build you a similar set for more money and a bit of a wait. Either way, you want a bridge and neck set that's split-able and as far as output goes, something around 10K to 12K-ohms for the bridge and 8K or 9 K-ohms for the neck. Any hotter than this and your single coil sound will be a bit too ice picky nasty and the humbucking sound will be too dark to cover a lot of classic rock, jazz, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted April 5, 2015 Members Share Posted April 5, 2015 I've had good results with the Golden Age Humbuckers from Stewart-MacDonald - excellent value too http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Pickups/Golden_Age_Humbuckers.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gdsmithtx Posted April 5, 2015 Members Share Posted April 5, 2015 As onelife stated, the StewMac Parsons Street pickups get really good notices, particularly since you can buy them with the magnet of your choice. Les Paul types often dig an Alnico V in the neck with Alnico II in the bridge. Other low cost options include the Tonerider humbucker line: the Alnico Classic II, Alnico Classic IV and Rocksong would all be right for your type of music. I have experience with Tonerider Strat pups and their Rebel 90 humbucker-sized P90 and they are all excellent pickups, particularly for the price. If you don't mind ordering from the UK, the Irongear Blues Engine is tremendously good, one of the sweetest sounding vintage type humbuckers (particularly in the neck) I've ever played. As far as GFS goes, I've been disappointed in every humbucker of theirs I've heard (the Fat Pat, Crunchy Pat and Retrotron Hot Liverpool). They all just lacked "depth"; the sound was essentially flat and characterless. That said, the Mean 90 is a truly great pickup, one of the 2 or 3 best humbucker P90s available, and the Alnico Fatbody is an excellent powerful Tele bridge pickup. I've just not liked any of their humbuckers. It could take some scrounging around ebay, but a set of used Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAFs or Air Classics would be an excellent choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted April 5, 2015 Members Share Posted April 5, 2015 Quacky, I am a terrible choice for information about pickups but I've used the StewMac Goldens in my last two LP clones and everyone who has played those guitars have raved about them. I would characterize them as clean and warm, I can make them as aggressive as needed with the amp. Another very interesting choice would be four wire pups and Seymour Duncan's new ring with two little slide switches - you can "connect" the coils in series, parallel, or split out either single coil. http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/accessories/triple-shot-mou/triple_shot_swi/ We put a pair of their Hot Rails along with these rings in a LP Jr clone and you can get about any sound combination you can imagine (ironically, I find that I prefer that standard series connection) Nice thing about these rings is that you don't have to do any other wiring. They are a bit of a hassle to switch and its hard to remember which positions do what. btw - if you use the triple shot rings keep your wires long enough that you can take them to the cavity if you want to use push-pull pots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stormin1155 Posted April 6, 2015 Members Share Posted April 6, 2015 For $60 Guitarheads Alnico Supremes are outstanding. http://guitarheads.net/products/pickups/alnicosupreme.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted April 7, 2015 Members Share Posted April 7, 2015 Long time Seymour Duncan user here, but I'd heard so much online about the PAF thing that I got the itch and started looking for a pair of boutiques that I could afford. I ran across this guy mfeldman4@hvc.rr.com on ebay and decided to make him an offer. Two moves later and they were mine. Absolutely the best humbuckers I've ever used and I paid about the same as I would have paid for some Golden Age from Stewmac (not that those aren't fabulous buckers - never used them). The thing that makes these Sharptones so good IMO, is the warmth and 3D tone you can only get with mismatched coils (or so I've heard). Hand scatterwound, first quality components. Mine were two wire for the vintage thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AJ6stringsting Posted April 7, 2015 Members Share Posted April 7, 2015 I've had good results with the Golden Age Humbuckers from Stewart-MacDonald - excellent value too http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Pickups/Golden_Age_Humbuckers.html I'm thinking of putting a Golden Age Gold covered Overwound ( 12k ohms) in the neck position of an Epiphone LPC. A friend of mine put one in a 1989 Gibson SG, it has modern aggressive drive, but can be tamed by a roll of a knob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MorganB Posted April 7, 2015 Members Share Posted April 7, 2015 Want cheap? Want coil splittable? Want good sound? These sound like a cross between a PAF and a Bill Lawrence are labelled neck but are hotter than many bridge pickups and sound great there too $16 delivered. http://www.ebay.com/itm/371274459991?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted April 7, 2015 Members Share Posted April 7, 2015 No specific recommendations but you might want to look for a set of humbucker size P90s. In fact, if you primarily play with just the bridge pickup, which is typical for playing leads, you only need to replace the one pickup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted April 7, 2015 Members Share Posted April 7, 2015 Look for a set of the Ibanez V7/V8 on eBay. I think they were some of the best pickups Ibanez ever put out, and can be had cheap. Simply wire the white wire to a switch, and boom, single coil goodness! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members quackystrat Posted April 7, 2015 Author Members Share Posted April 7, 2015 i did want cost effective, but still good quality, and something that sounds good, also splittable. also i am a fan of P90s, one of my favorite pickups, but i have a mahogany strat with P90s and i think im going to end up doing some work on that in the near future. also i didnt say this before but i play through an Egnater Tweaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RGfretter Posted April 8, 2015 Members Share Posted April 8, 2015 Good call. Though they can be had cheap and some just need to spend more to hear the tones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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