chennik Posted August 24, 2007 Report Share Posted August 24, 2007 I've been wanting to try GFS pickups out for awhile now, and I think I'm going to try them in an ash body/ maple neck/fb strat that I have which has 2 humbuckers. I generally use this guitar for playing classic rock in the vein of early Van Halen (first 2-3 albums). Right now I've got a dimarzio PAF pro and a no name pickup in it, both of which sound okay, but they strike me as being a little too low output and without enough presence. I'm thinking of replacing them with a set of GFS's, but I'm not sure which ones would be the best match for early VH tone. I'm thinking the "Crunchy PAF" or the "Fat Alnico", since they both seem to be a bit more ballsy than what I have in there, but does anyone have a clue which would be the better match? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksound Posted August 24, 2007 Report Share Posted August 24, 2007 Pretty sure Ed's original tone was with an old PAF through a script Phase 90 and a dimed plexi Marshall. The tone on records is going to be hard to duplicate because of all the EQ and other signal processing. Changing to a hotter pickup most likely isn't the way to go. BTW, moving from DiMarzio to GFS is a huge step down, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted August 24, 2007 Report Share Posted August 24, 2007 What I read, he nabbed the pickup from a Gibson hollowbody, probably ES335. 8.5k resistance, alnico II magnet. AHA! Found the article: http://www.legendarytones.com/evh%20pickup.html ::EDIT:: BTW, Dim'z PAF Pro is 8.4K. Just what you're looking for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chennik Posted August 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2007 What I read, he nabbed the pickup from a Gibson hollowbody, probably ES335. 8.5k resistance, alnico II magnet. AHA! Found the article: http://www.legendarytones.com/evh%20pickup.html ::EDIT:: BTW, Dim'z PAF Pro is 8.4K. Just what you're looking for Yeah, the problem with that dimarzio is that it's old and I think it has some breaks in the wire or something, since it makes pop and creak noises despite all my attempts to fix it. It doesnt ever seem to read the same resistance on the multimeter either. I've checked all the rest of the wiring, and it's good... the other pickup doesnt have the same problem. I'm just looking for a reasonably suitable pickup, and figured with the GFS I could replace both pickups for the price of one, and at least have working pickups in the thing. As far as the Dimarzios being a good match, they usually are, and to be honest, if cost were no factor, I'd probably put them in all of my guitars... but, i've had pretty good luck finding the tone I want in cheaper pickups, and even swapping out stock pickups from different guitars (jackson pickups sound great in my yamaha!), so I want to give the GFS ones a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted August 27, 2007 Report Share Posted August 27, 2007 Um, with those problems you're describing with the PAF Pro you have, it sounds like you might be closer to Ed's tone than you think! His original pickup is famous for confusing multimeters and being quite a pain in the ass to replicate. The key to the brown sound is the amp, effects, and most of all, fingers. Might try a warmer pickup like the Dimarzio PAF, PAF Classic, or Duncan '59 or Seth Lover. GFS pickups are okay for what they are, but nobody's saying they're better than the big guys yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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