Guitar Fetish claims that GFS pickups can compete against any boutique brand...

[BeanoBoy]

My Xaviere XV900 came with Fat Pats stock. They weren't horrible, but didn't have the PAF vibe I like. I opened up a fine bourdeaux, sniffed the cork and got a used set of WCR Moore/Greens. More to my liking.

[billybilly]

If you are going to skimp on any part of an electric guitar, it shouldn't be the pickups.

[bsman]

 

If you are going to skimp on any part of an electric guitar, it shouldn't be the pickups.

 

 

Perhaps, but simply paying more $$ is not necessarily a guarantee that you'll be getting better quality...

[tlbonehead]

some that I have/had.

 

Dream 180s-pretty decent, lots of top end, not a high output pickup

Dream 90s-nice clear sounding, not very P90-like though

XL Modern Tele Rail-love this pickup in the bridge, split and HB

Liverpool-high output bridge, regular neck, great set! splits very well too.

Brooklyn-very rude in a good way, somewhere between a P90 and a Tele

Loudmouth- very smooth for a higher output ceramic magnet

Crunchy PAT-not really a fan. Decent HB tones, kinda dull split

[billybilly]

 

Perhaps, but simply paying more $$ is not necessarily a guarantee that you'll be getting better quality...

 

 

It's not necessarily about money but finding something you know is going to be good. Furthermore, there are many tested and tried quality pickups available for a good price other than GFS.

[jedisb]

I'm kinda surprised that Jay hasn't popped into this thread yet.

[Edward]

 

... and is this true?

 

 

What does one pickup need to do to compete with another? Simply this: it needs to work consistently and reliably, and last as log as another one. I have bought a few GFS pups in my time, and have no reason to doubt them in those respects when stacked up against much more expensive stuff. Beyond that they may well sound different, but that's when it becomes purely subjective. To say "These pickups are objectively better because they sound better to me" is a nonsense. Sure, subjective is what it's all about when you buy stuff, and on that scale for many GFS won't measure up to the much more expensive stuff. That doesn't mean they can't compete, however, all other things being equal - all it means is that the buyer prefers one over the other.

 

Of course, when it comes to pups, to some great degree we're all flying blind: you'll never know exactly what it sounds like until it's wired into your guitar and played through your amp, so can any of us ever really say with complete certainty one is better than the other, even per our own subjective tastes? Most of my guitars I've kept stock. Some of the best sounding ones to my ear have had the cheapest, nastiest pups. FWIW, I do consider it easier to find a good sounding sc at a lower price than a hb, but then I'm not really a fan of hbs much these days anyhow.

[wartoxin]

 

It's not necessarily about money but finding something you know is going to be good. Furthermore, there are many tested and tried quality pickups available for a good price other than GFS.

 

 

I don't agree, there is nothing I "Know" is going to be good. GFS is tried and tested enough at this point. And, all companies seem to have their sub-par models, their quality control issues... and if they have equally good prices too then great, by all means don't keep it a secret.

[Steadfastly]

 

pickups are magnets & wire. thats it there's no magic fairy dust that goes into making them.

 

 

 

Quote from billybilly: Advertising is a powerful tool. Everybody makes claims but it is up to you to decide.

 

 

These two posts pretty much sum it all up. There are some minor differences but I would seriously doubt if you put a bunch of pickups together and played them that anyone could get them right, especially if the amp or something else in the chain changed.

 

There are some pros using GFS pickups, so if they are good enough for them, they'll be good enough for you, won't they?

[Help!I'maRock!]

 

There are some pros using ________, so if they are good enough for them, they'll be good enough for you, won't they?

 

 

i dislike this sentiment, regardless of the product it is defending. Everyone has different preferences. Just because a product works for certain people does not mean that it works for others. This is why variation within markets exists. One product, or one small group of products, can never be everything to everybody.

[smorgdonkey]

 

i dislike this sentiment, regardless of the product it is defending. Everyone has different preferences. Just because a product works for certain people does not mean that it works for others. This is why variation within markets exists. One product, or one small group of products, can never be everything to everybody.

 

Exactly...and if it were true in the case of pickups then no boutique brands would exist. Musicians are some of the cheapest people out there and one of the things that you learn at about the 5-10 years of experience zone is that money doesn't always mean more quality and the law of diminishing returns.

 

There is a line that everyone has to establish and the intersecting point of 'quality' and price will vary for most. Some things will surprise on both ends of the spectrum and some things will seem like a waste of money (like a real gold inlaid headstock symbol) and some things will seem like a shortfall for the price (like 'no neck binding').

[Greg.Coal]

I'm impressed by the overall reasonableness of this thread. I own a range of GFS pickups and two in particular, a rails and a mini-HB, normally seem sort of blah to me, but they actually do things my SC's can't do when I remember to adjust my pedals and amp. Yeah, the amp. Maybe you're a great pickup maker but what amp are you testing them in? There are so many out there . . .

 

Having said that, I would spend 3X more on other brand pickups if they will do something for me since pickup price is but a small part of the equation.

 

Greg

[GilmourD]

Honestly, I wouldn't put them up against boutique guys... But I sure as hell would put them up against Duncan and DiMarzio. The quality is there. Actually, I think that (simply by a matter of my own personal tastes) I like more GFS pickups than Duncan or DiMarzio pickups. It sure as hell doesn't hurt that they're a lot less expensive ("less expensive" is very different than "cheap").

 

You know who I would put up against the boutique guys? Our very own Brian at www.BG-Pups.com.

[Steadfastly]

 

i dislike this sentiment, regardless of the product it is defending. Everyone has different preferences. Just because a product works for certain people does not mean that it works for others. This is why variation within markets exists. One product, or one small group of products, can never be everything to everybody.

 

 

True, however the member asking the question admits he has very little experience so to say these would be no good for him would be wrong. Since pros do use them shows that GFS pickups have credence, which is what the OP asked for.

 

If you've ever seen a pickup made or taken one apart, remember they are not rocket science. They are basically a magnet with wire wrapped around them with a pile of marketing usually piled on in many layers over a thin veneer of truth.

[Gumkick]

 

If you were careful, went slow, and had good components, couldn't you hand wind your own pickup that would compete with a "name" or boutique brand?

 

 

The thing I don't understand about pickups is why anyone, particularly companies like Epiphone or "Duncan Designed" would make any pickups that aren't great. Now please correct me where I'm wrong but it seems like everyone uses pretty much the same materials and building a pickup is almost purely a design issue. It shouldn't really be any cheaper to build a dull, bland pickup than a great one. You don't see a lot of "rare earth" and "oxygen free" type of claims even for the expensive stuff, I don't think it's about materials.

 

As far as the hand winding, I don't really know what that's about. I guess lots of parallel wires = more capacitance, yes? But that's measurable, and they have machines that can wind in different patterns, and do it repeatedly. Again, I'd like to be corrected here.

 

And some of this is even more true for real small boutique guys, a company like Gibson or even Lollar can get magnets made for them in exotic formulations if they want but a garage guy is buying his parts from the same small pool of suppliers as everyone else. I have to believe that experience is way more valuable than any amount of care and passion that a noob could offer.

 

All that said, I'm sure there are a lot of cheap pickups that are terrible, and people seem to love their BG and Rose, etc. pickups, and I'm not implying that they're wrong, I just don't understand it.

 

The only GFS pickups I have are Mean 90s; I like my other three real P90 guitars better but that one is pretty good for twangy, Tele-ish sounds if you pick by the bridge. Could be the guitar though.

[ballhawk]

The only GFS pickups I have are Mean 90s; I like my other three real P90 guitars better but that one is pretty good for twangy, Tele-ish sounds if you pick by the bridge. Could be the guitar though.

 

Stop making sense!

[guitarman3001]

 

The thing I don't understand about pickups is why anyone, particularly companies like Epiphone or "Duncan Designed" would make any pickups that aren't great.

 

 

This. As almost everyone has said, making decent pickups ain't rocket science anymore. Pickup makers know what works and what doesn't. I have no idea why stock epiphone duncan-designed pickups suck so bad. If GFS or any other smaller company can make a better pickup on the cheap, then certainly epiphone with its buying power should be able to put some decent, if not excellent, pickups in their guitars. It's downright annoying buying an epi guitar knowing that before it's really playable it'll require a pickup change.

[Steadfastly]

 

As far as the hand winding, I don't really know what that's about. I guess lots of parallel wires = more capacitance, yes? But that's measurable, and they have machines that can wind in different patterns, and do it repeatedly. Again, I'd like to be corrected here.

 

 

There really is no hand winding that I know of except by the odd person doing it for themselves. Hand winding is a misnomer. I called one of the manufacturers on this awhile back that said he hand winds his pickups but then in the same sentence said that they use a winding machine. I never did hear back from them. It's marketing, pure and simple, trying to sound more custom than they really are to inexperienced buyers. Again, it's buyer beware and do a bit of homework.

[GilmourD]

 

There really is no hand winding that I know of except by the odd person doing it for themselves. Hand winding is a misnomer. I called one of the manufacturers on this awhile back that said he hand winds his pickups but then in the same sentence said that they use a winding machine. I never did hear back from them. It's marketing, pure and simple, trying to sound more custom than they really are to inexperienced buyers. Again, it's buyer beware and do a bit of homework.

 

I know some hand guide the wire on older-style winding machines rather than the newfangled set-it-and-forget-it type.

[DavidMgT]

Sure pickups are just wire, guitars are just wood - - nothing matters it is all the same. (note: sarcasm added)

[axegrinder]

 

There really is no hand winding that I know of except by the odd person doing it for themselves. Hand winding is a misnomer. I called one of the manufacturers on this awhile back that said he hand winds his pickups but then in the same sentence said that they use a winding machine. I never did hear back from them. It's marketing, pure and simple, trying to sound more custom than they really are to inexperienced buyers. Again, it's buyer beware and do a bit of homework.

He probably didn't reply because you don't know what hand wound means (or he recognized you just wanted to pick bones instead of doing business). Nobody in their right mind winds pickups for sale without using a machine to spin the bobbin around. When the maker guides the wire by hand, the coil gets built up in a less precise fashion. That is the projected benefit of hand winding (whether or not you agree).

 

This is really irrelevant to the OP. What matters is the end product and how it performs when compared side by side to others. And like all things subjective your mileage may vary.

[Angry Tele]

zhangbucker claims they hand wind 100% with no machines. I thought that was pretty silly but its not like you can disprove it.

 

Kind of turned me off from buying them to be honest.

 

I just checked thier site and they stopped selling thier "pure handwind" option ..its was like a $20 surchage for pure handwound instead of machine hand wound

[DavidMgT]

Indeed. Those evil boutique companies with their incessant marketing I cannot open a guitar magazine without being bombarded with ads from Lollar, Fralin, Harmonic Design etc..Hell, they hardly even employ anyone just a few highly experienced pickup makers. Meanwhile the budget brands employ dozens of Chinese teenage girls.

[Frets99]

Indeed. Those evil boutique companies with their incessant marketing I cannot open a guitar magazine without being bombarded with ads from Lollar, Fralin, Harmonic Design etc..Hell, they hardly even employ anyone just a few highly experienced pickup makers. Meanwhile the budget brands employ dozens of Chinese teenage girls.

 

Apparently those Chinese teenage girls do a hell of a job. Because according to this thread. A fair number of people like their work.

[armycopter]

I love their P-90's. Great sounding pickups especially the neck. Whether or not they can compete I can't answer but they do make a nice pickup.