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Don't buy GFS Surf 90 pickups!


schoolie1

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You will lose your job and your wife will leave you because you won't be able to stop playing. They are amazing, amazing pickups! I installed them last night in my XV-550 because the crunchy PATs were just wrong for that guitar.

 

- Pick dynamics are incredible. Dig in, and you get a nice, cutting tone. Lay off the pick and it's a nice, mellow, jazzy feel.

 

- Complex sound with nice overtones. The high end is nice and sparkly, and never shrill.

 

- Great articulation. I rolled off the tone, and got great, percussive rhythm tone

 

- Takes overdrive like a champ. I got a great Gretschy, Billy Zoom tone (but I'll never play as well as Mr Zoom).

 

I tried these through an RP-500 to a Blackheart L'il Giant combo. These have replaced the Mean 90 as my favorite GFS pickup. For a cheapskate like me, they are perfect.

 

Has anybody else tried them?

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Yep.

 

I put a set in a friends Strat... he'd been looking for that sparkly-clean 'surf' sound for a while when showed him the Surf 90's.

 

They are now his FAVORITE pickup :thu:

 

I thought that they fared favorably to the original DeArmonds in my old Silvertone, btw.

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What pot and cap values did you use?

 

 

I believe 500KOhm and .047 uF, whatever it shipped with. This is a semi-hollow, and I didn't want to go fishing for pots and switch, so I just spliced the new Pickup leaded to the leads from the old pickups. I'm lazy that way:cool:

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I believe 500KOhm and .047 uF, whatever it shipped with. This is a semi-hollow, and I didn't want to go fishing for pots and switch, so I just spliced the new Pickup leaded to the leads from the old pickups. I'm lazy that way:cool:

 

Thanks! With a semi-hollow, I would be too! :thu:

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I believe 500KOhm and .047 uF, whatever it shipped with. This is a semi-hollow, and I didn't want to go fishing for pots and switch, so I just spliced the new Pickup leaded to the leads from the old pickups. I'm lazy that way:cool:

 

I was hoping that particular Xavier model would have an access panel on the back like a normal LP style, but then looked at the pics on the GFS site...:(

 

pics of your Xavier with the new pickups??

 

I'm going to use that set in a frankenstrat I am refinishing/rebuilding...

 

TestMonster1.jpg

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Holy {censored}, I was gonna make a post asking about these....

 

I have the xv900 and want to make the neck pickup more single coil-y... for surfy bloozy overdrive, these'll work then?

 

Bridge model..... what's it like, lets say you need fat, full bodied crunch, somewhere in between mesa marks and marshall jcms.... can it do it?

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That's high praise in my book, I'm a huge fan of the Mean 90s, at least insofar as they sound in my FA Lola - damn.

 

But from the name and description it sounds like the Surf 90s scratch a different itch and there's plenty of room for both.

 

Which is unfortunate, because it means that I'll probably end up bringing some in for yet another guitar. Crap.

 

[stop. Hold on. Stay in control...]

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After reading this and some other threads I was ready to pull the trigger on the Surf 90's for my new Gretsch 5120 Limited but I see that one of the black versions is out of stock. Has anyone mixed this pickup with another and had good results?

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Personally, I don't see how they could be much surfier than a Standard single coil Strat.

 

That said, I do have a pair I am putting in this:

 

1003077x.jpg

 

I was just replacing the standard humbuckers with some Artec Giovanni "Gretsch-buckers" when the Surf '90's hit the radar. Thank god I didn't have the install finished. I decided to do them the hard way this time too! Should be a hollowbody twang-fest when done.

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Personally, I don't see how they could be much surfier than a Standard single coil Strat.


That said, I do have a pair I am putting in this:


1003077x.jpg

I was just replacing the standard humbuckers with some Artec Giovanni "Gretsch-buckers" when the Surf '90's hit the radar. Thank god I didn't have the install finished. I decided to do them the hard way this time too! Should be a hollowbody twang-fest when done.

 

Geez, that ALL looks good...:love:

 

Want...WANT...WANT!!!:mad:

http://store.guitarfetish.com/gfssu90aliir.html

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