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

[Angry Tele]

so I guess Bill Lawrence has tin ears then. He makes cheap pickups, thinks hand winding is a sham, and scatter wind is nonsense. Thats the holy trinity of booteek pickups. (money-hands-scatter)

[raymeedc]

Wow -- nine pages of unsubstantiated, anecdotal drivel. Amazing!

 

Without which, forums like this would probably cease to exist, at least on such an active level.

[smorgdonkey]

Wow -- nine pages of unsubstantiated, anecdotal drivel. Amazing!

 

Well, not including my posts.

[Angry Tele]

 

anecdotal drivel

 

 

thats the best kind of drivel. systematic drivel tastes funny.

[bsman]

[Steadfastly]

 

Steadfast - while pickups themselves aren't a complicate formula, getting it right takes some skill - and while many pickups sound similar, lots stand out as exceptional. It's very similar to cooking. Take a cookbook, follow the directions, 45 minutes later you have a meal. How good is it? Compare it to a slightly different recipe for the same dish. Now compare that sane dish you made to a $2 microwave meal of the same dish. Now go to a top chef restaurant and pay $90 for the same dish. I think you'll find they all taste similar but some stand out as much better than others. Now you may not appreciate spending $90 for a slight difference than a $15 dish at a local place. That's fine. Some people have a more developed palate. Or in the case of pickups, a more critical ear.

 

 

Thank you for your polite post. However, the illustration you use doesn't quite fit. In a food plant where the same dishes are made by the thousand, you can buy them over and over and they taste the same. The reason for this is they follow the same recipe over and over again. In a restaurant, it's not the same as the ingredients are not measured exactly the same for each meal. They may be close but not exact.

 

With pickups, it's similar to the food plant; the same ingredients or parts are used with the same specs over and over. Any difference in sound is due to something different like a different guitar, amp, strings, settings, etc.

[Steadfastly]

All of my electric guitars have pickups.

 

Frets: That is very reassuring.

[Steadfastly]

But it is about refinement. My company creates websites (among other media such as video and print) and we constantly hear clients complaining that "their 16 year old could put up a website, so why are we charging so much?" and the answer is quite simply TIME. We have an hourly rate - which is set in stone because of our GSA, and the answer is if you want ME to do your website or video or print piece...there is a rate for that. If you want your 16 year old to do it...then go ahead. If everything is truly "about the same" then why bother? Just buy GFS or Artec pickups and be done, but they aren't the same...and even if the end product is the same, if you want one created by Duncan, Fralin, or Lollar - they have a rate for that.

 

Bryan: This is very true in most cases. Sometimes it differs because some companies have found a quicker/easier way of doing the job. This is the case in my company. We are faster than other companies providing the same service and much faster than many. The other difference is in the "rate" price. Because of labour costs the "rate" per hour can be drastically different providing the same quality for often times, substantially less. If all parameters remain the same, though, pricing should remain essentially the same.

[billybilly]

 

The truth is that if you gave 99% of guitar players a guitar with GFS pickups and told them they were Fralins, they couldn't tell the difference and they would rave about the tone and complexity. Give them Fralins and say they are GFS and 99% would say they were decent.

 

 

I have not seen a bow drawn that long in a long time. Having owned over 100 different pickups of all sorts, Fralins stand out like almost no others.

[jrockbridge]

I'm not a pickup expert. I've tried and owned pickups made by Fender, Gibson, Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, Lindy Fralin, Bryan Gunsher, Mighty Mite and GFS.

 

IMO some of the GFS pups are decent. It depends on the model. A lot of this stuff is subjective and comes down to personal preference though.

 

I'm not a fan of the few GFS Humbucker pups I've tried. I think they do better with the SC stuff. For example, I had a GFS lipstick pup that was decent. But, I have a Danelectro lipstick from 1965 that's much sturdier and sounds much more complex. That's probably not a big surprise to anybody including Jay.

 

I know some people will never believe this, but a lot of times the limit to what a pickup can do is based on the guitar. Guitars range from lousy, to average, to amazing for sound. Some guitars will kill the complexity of the best pickups. I've had a few dead plank guitars that fall into this category. The pickups can only do so much. But, some guitars sound so rich in complexity that even cheap pups sound great in them.

 

[video=youtube;tgbgUMqUMns]

[Bro Blue]

 

I have not seen a bow drawn that long in a long time. Having owned over 100 different pickups of all sorts, Fralins stand out like almost no others.

 

 

And owning both GFS and Fralin pickups, having also owned more pickups than I can remember, and in 30 years of playing and being around (and building guitars for those players), I feel I am qualified to draw that bow.

 

Just call me Odysseus.

[Angry Tele]

ive got a Stock Fralin Tele set and a GFS 50s tele and the neck pickups sound very similar. The Fralin doesnt stand out as better.

[raymeedc]

 

And owning both GFS and Fralin pickups, having also owned more pickups than I can remember, and in 30 years of playing and being around (and building guitars for those players), I feel I am qualified to draw that bow.

 

 

..... +1 (& I'd like to add another 47 years of guitar playing/modifying experience)

[raymeedc]

 

Having owned over 100 different pickups of all sorts, Fralins stand out like almost no others.

 

 

To YOU, not necessarily to me. Why is this so difficult to understand or accept? Your subjective tastes do not translate into objective facts in sound preferences for anyone other than you.

[dwerlin]

 

 

 

+1 to this!

 

I bought the DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary pups based on this exact video! I had them put into an Epiphone Les Paul Studio Deluxe that was just a total dud (I thought the pickups were just dull, but turned out to be the guitar). The guitar sounded so dead, even with these pickups in it (just as Paul says, the pickups really react to how the guitar itself sounds...I was kind of hoping that wouldn't have been the case, but it truly is). I was even using a VOX AC15 at the time too (granted not the handwired version), the Epiphone with the DiMarzio's sounded nothing like either of the two LP's in this video.

[smorgdonkey]

I wish that people would send me the good cheap pickups that they find and I'd sell my expensive ones.

 

 

For the most part, this is a useless discussion. It reminds me of people talking about something that sounded great & when I heard it, it sounded like crap.

 

 

the Epiphone with the DiMarzio's sounded nothing like either of the two LP's in this video).

 

 

...but, everyone says that the Epis are just as good as the Gibsons.

 

I had a set of the 36th Anni from DiMarzio in a mahogany Tele with maple cap. They sounded excellent...markedly better than the stock Fender Atomic II & Black Canyon that were in it.

[jelloman]

For the most part, this is a useless discussion.

 

well...YEAH...

 

But...seeing as I'm here...

 

I had for a time 2 strats...1 parts-strat with GFS Vintage singles, the other a MiM Fender with BG V60s...both sets are very close specs...the V60s sounded significantly better to me, with more overall body and output and a more pleasing "strat" tone, while the GFS were somewhat thinner and lower output...I attest absolutely no expertise in the manufacture of pickups, but I can attest that there was a difference to my ears...

 

...thus spaketh the jelloman...

[BryanMichael]

 

Bryan: This is very true in most cases. Sometimes it differs because some companies have found a quicker/easier way of doing the job. This is the case in my company. We are faster than other companies providing the same service and much faster than many. The other difference is in the "rate" price. Because of labour costs the "rate" per hour can be drastically different providing the same quality for often times, substantially less. If all parameters remain the same, though, pricing should remain essentially the same.

 

 

Sure - I used to outsource closed captioning, now I do it myself because my editing software supports it. I can charge less to the client because I'm not outsourcing or marking it up, quality = same, but cost = lower...but MY hourly rate is still MY hourly rate, it's just that sometimes you can do more in less time than someone else, or new tools make new things possible.

 

AS for the cheap pickups vs. boutique, I know that there can be two pickups that sound the exact same, and can have a vast price difference - which is what I was saying about end products. It's often NOT the end product that determines the price. like my website example, a 16 year old might be able to build just as good of a website as my company for less money...then that's when I say "go for it!" but if you want ME to do the work you have to pay MY rate. If you want Fralin's Humbucker, you pay Fralin's going rate. You want Duncan's humbucker, you pay Duncan's going rate, you want GFS's? You pay GFS's rate. "Quality" may not be inherent in the wire, plastic, and magnets, but in general you are going to hear some differences. Some may be subtle, others not so much. It could just come down to the "chef" as someone else put it. Why is grandma's chicken soup the "best"? Because grandma doesn't follow the recipe exactly, she just "knows"...

[BryanMichael]

 

To YOU, not necessarily to me. Why is this so difficult to understand or accept? Your subjective tastes do not translate into objective facts in sound preferences for anyone other than you.

 

 

 

I would second the Fralin support though. It's not so much that they are "better" it's just that Lindy's "take" on things seems to really hit a sweet spot with A LOT of people and for good reason. He just has a knack for finding nice tone recipes in his pickups.

[Belva]

 

All I know is that I really like the Liverpool, Nashville and Dream 180 pickups . Great no matter the price.

 

 

This adds it all up. One person's pleasure is another person's pain. When you find something you like, don't sweat the price. Many cork sniffers won't even give any GFS pup a try. Funny how these same cork shiffers quite often sound like {censored}.

[DavidMgT]

 

I wish that people would send me the good cheap pickups that they find and I'd sell my expensive ones. For the most part, this is a useless discussion. It reminds me of people talking about something that sounded great & when I heard it, it sounded like crap. ...but, everyone says that the Epis are just as good as the Gibsons. I had a set of the 36th Anni from DiMarzio in a mahogany Tele with maple cap. They sounded excellent...markedly better than the stock Fender Atomic II & Black Canyon that were in it.

 

 

Funny how that is the case with me as well. People say CVs and MIM Fenders are great guitars, I have found them to be not so great. People here think Gibson makes an inferior product - the Gibsons I have played and own tell me otherwise. I wonder where all these miracle cheapies are - I go to music stores and play as much gear as anyone and have yet to come across them.

[Ratbatblues]

...thought this thread would be dead by now, but nooooooooooooooooooo

[smorgdonkey]

 

Funny how that is the case with me as well. People say CVs and MIM Fenders are great guitars, I have found them to be not so great. People here think Gibson makes an inferior product - the Gibsons I have played and own tell me otherwise. I wonder where all these miracle cheapies are - I go to music stores and play as much gear as anyone and have yet to come across them.

 

 

I'll tell you why David...it's because you and I are in touch with reality - THAT's why!!

[Doctor Morbius]

Funny how that is the case with me as well. People say CVs and MIM Fenders are great guitars, I have found them to be not so great. People here think Gibson makes an inferior product - the Gibsons I have played and own tell me otherwise. I wonder where all these miracle cheapies are - I go to music stores and play as much gear as anyone and have yet to come across them.

You have to figure on THIS forum one must take into consideration all of the reverse corksniffery that somehow equates cheap with moral superiority.

[mistersully]

 

You have to figure on THIS forum one must take into consideration all of the reverse corksniffery that somehow equates cheap with moral superiority.

 

 

you know, it does exist here... but not to the extent you seem to think.... if you focus on it, it's what you'll notice

 

there's both sides of that coin here... and then there's a whole lot of us that sit in the middle.... i own a guitar that cost 4k... i own a guitar that cost $300... i enjoy them both... i can make music with them both

 

if someone says "my classic vibe is as good as an american standard" ... why does that bother you?... you might not agree with it... but why does it bother you?... to the person making the statement it's probably the experience they've had with the guitars... and they're perception might be different than yours... big deal