Guitar Fetish

[Acousticraft]

Im building some Strat type guitars with students and want to know if anyone has used some of their pickups. Im looking for a set for blues/rock and also no doubt some of these kids probably want extreme metal type sounds that will probably make me cringe. Any suggestions what people have used or can suggest? Are these pickups noisy as I am a humbucker fan and dont know much about them?

Thanks in advance.

Edited May 6, 2007 by Acousticraft

[AprilEthereal777]

I have tried 2 types of Humbuckers from GFS and been very happy with both for METAL sounds and also rock, blues...you name it. I have used the FAT PAF's and the CRUNCHY PAF's.....my favourites are the CRUNCHY'S with a really nice distortion tone from the bridge bucker and great acoustic tones from the Neck bucker.......although you will need a single coil in there for a Strat....can't help you with single coils I'm sorry, but I recommend the humbuckers for sure.

[GregP]

Single-coils always have substantially higher potential for noise. In an ideal recording environment with a well-shielded guitar, this can be significantly reduced. But the potential will always be there. I can't use single-coils in my apartment, for example, because it's a rat's nest of EMI and RFI.

Greg

[Quarter]

I've used their Fat PAF, Liverpool, Mean 90, and P90. All have been very good and sound great.

Sorry, can't help on the Strat sets, but I do hear good things about them.

[CrazyManAndy]

I've heard a lot of good things about them. Some say they're hit and miss, but I don't know. GFS makes about as cheap a pickup as you can get that still sounds good. As far as noise goes, a good shielding and wiring job will help significantly. Or, since you like humbuckers, you could get some of those single-coil sized humbuckers for strats (the GFS ones are called "Lil' Killers").

CMA

Edited May 6, 2007 by CrazyManAndy

[uglogirl]

Sorry I cannot help with the single coils they sell, I'll be trying some soon myself, either the brass plate or greybottom overwounds. But I have been using a overwound PAF boutique in the bridge (13.5k) and a dream 180 (12k) on the neck of a guitar I put together and they are very nice. The dream 180 has a very nice articulated chimey sound that I especially like. I have them set up to do split coils as well and they sound surprisingly good. They were about $25 each I think.

Uglogirl

[CrazyManAndy]

You could build some pickups, which would also add to the learning experience. I think there is a thread on the subject right now in the "Electronics" section.

CMA

[coolio49085]

I bought a set of their over wound vintage strat PU's that are allows on clearance for $17.00. I put them in my parts-o-caster and I was very pleased. They are probably the best cheap pickups I've played and one was reverse wound so they would reduce the hum. Anyways I've got nothing but good things to say about the single coils. They're great if you're on a budget.

[Acousticraft]

Ive always been a bit weary about buying real cheap pickups as I think you probably get what you pay for. I guess these would be the sort of thing a Squire strat would have.

Those single coil premium alnico pickup set for $60.00 sound awesome on the sound clips. Has anyone used them?

Edited May 7, 2007 by Acousticraft

[CrazyManAndy]

Ive always been a bit weary about buying real cheap pickups as I think you probably get what you pay for. I guess these would be the sort of thing a Squire strat would have

I'd say they're better than what you would expect in a squire Strat. But, in general, that is a good principle. IMHO, I think all these "boutique" pickups are overpriced anyway. I know that Tonerider pickups rival those high-end $90/$100 a pop pickups (such as lollar's and fralin's) for half the price.

CMA

[jer7440]

Guitar fetish sells the prewired strat pickguards as well. They have them in several configurations (s/s/s, H/s/s or h/h). They seemed to be pretty economical as well.

[MCH]

I just put in a P-90 and Vintage 50's single coil from GuitarFetish in my Strelevarius. They are very quiet in my playing area. I did shielding with aluminum tape. In addition to shielding the cavities I also wrapped aluminum tape around the pickups (don't know if that helped). I am very surprised how quiet the pickups are. They are as quiet as my humbuckers.

In my current 3 builds I've used GuitarFetish pickups and have been very pleased.

my experience. YEMV

Edited May 7, 2007 by MCH

[Logical Frank]

I've had two sets of GFH humbuckers and were pleased w/ both. Very nice pickups and it's nice that there's so many tonal options. I've found the descriptions of them on the site to be quite accurate as well.

[Acousticraft]

Thanks guys. Ive only heard good things about GFS pickups on several sites Ive been on. When you think of it, what is the difference between a cheap and botique pickup.? After all they use much the same wire, magnets, bobbins,potting etc, so yeah I will leave it to others to argue about why big prices are justified for name brands.

[rjhalsey]

Try a set of Toneriders! Great pickups for the money.

[Muffy]

I like P-90's a lot. They seem to be an excellent middle ground. High output single coils.

[IbanezFreak666]

apparently EMG singles are quite low noise. dave gilmore used them live because they cut out the interference from the lighting rigs, but they stopped the hollow stratty feel.

[strat91]

Im building some Strat type guitars with students and want to know if anyone has used some of their pickups. Im looking for a set for blues/rock and also no doubt some of these kids probably want extreme metal type sounds that will probably make me cringe. Any suggestions what people have used or can suggest? Are these pickups noisy as I am a humbucker fan and dont know much about them?

Thanks in advance.

[strat91]

My son and I just completed our first home made guitar project, a strat copy.

we installed the Guitar Fetish Boston Blue Texas Overwound with Alnico magnets.

They are really good if you're looking for a killer swamp blues and or SRV sound.

It was the sound I was looking for and I got it with these pick-ups, at a price that's

is much cheaper than brand name or boutique pick-up. I also installed them

with some high output electronics, which might have been a slight overkill.

Next time I'll try the Boston Blue Vintage set. Good Luck.

[MiKro]

while I am a person that trys to help those that are trying to help us with better and reducsed prices, I have no knowledge on GFs pickups but I do have 4 sets of tuners and It wouldve been nice to have the specs on these listed on the web site. As now I am looking for a .390 to .385 taper reamer within a 1/2" so that I can Mount these tuners, thats with starting at 3/8" mounting hole which is to tight. and 7/16" is waayyyyyy to loose. if you go fractional you will need a 25/64 bit which is impossible to get as a bradpoint. A 10mm is still to large and 9mm is too small. so a 9.7 or 9.8 mm will work (try and find one of those). Otherwise I have been very pleased with GFs parts and am pleased with the tuners as well just makes for more work. Now I'm having to seek out a tool and die company to make the reamer .

This will offset the cost of the savings so I might as well have bought the the more expensive brand. and been able to use a bit that was available to buy or one I had.

I'm not trying to diss GF but, if standards are not the norm with the product please identify it so the consumer knows this. I sent an email to the GF.com and no response( at least send something back saying ,'drill a 3/8" hole and beat it in with a hammer you dummy' . Now I either have to PLUG HOLES!!!!!! (WHich I have done)On a neck to make it right.

Oh well guess I'm just too damn picky about somethings.LOL:))

MIke

Edited May 27, 2007 by MiKro

[Alac Luin]

I recently did my first upgrade, mostly just to have some soldering experience, to a cheap Baja strat clone.

I used the GFS Lil' Killer rails, they are on the higher price for strat sets but find they were worth as they sound nice, at least to me.

These may be more of an option for a more metal like sound in a strat. (only so much can come from a strat).

One word of warning, both the mid and bridge are oversized, so the pickguard would need to be trimmed.

I did mine with a dremel, used the grinding tip (or whatever that tip is that looks like 80 grit sandpaper) at first and almost made a horrible mistake.

Switched to a finer tip and went better, but would actually suggest useing a template or something.

Edited June 3, 2007 by Alac Luin