The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Me neither. Good eye. I totally missed that!

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"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

I've had really good luck with GFS pick-ups myself, though I have never tried the mini-humbuckers. I'd be interested in your opinion on these as well. My old Epiphone Riviera has mini's on it and it sounds fantastic. I don't know why you don't see them on more guitars. An inspired choice and well done, your guitar looks terrific!

Hey Gribb, do you know the models of your GFS?...

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

First, thanks to everyone for the compliments on the guitar. In answer to some of the specifics:



I was never a big fan of Bigsby's in general. However, I've got a new blues/jazz band project starting and we'll be playing some Beck and Johnny A, so I'll be needing a trem. I happened to like the look of the Bigsby on the Gibson Johnny A Signature, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It's a solid unit and I like using it.



Regarding the GFS pickups, I've been using them for a number of years now and like them. I have a Lil Killer strat pickup (Vintage 6k version) installed in my Douglas Pisces bass.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/Lil-Kille ... p_461.html

I've installed three Pure Vintage Neovin neck pickups in three tele style guitars for friends of mine, including my own SX STL Ash.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/Neovin-ne ... c_142.html

In all cases, I found the pickups to be warm, clear, and totally noise free. GFS' price point makes it easy on the wallet to experiment with and IMO, a decent investment relative to the cost of the instruments. I've been lucky that they've all worked for me. That being said, here are my initial impressions:

1) I chose the 59's first and foremost for the size. They were the closest to the stock pickups.
2) I had to improvise a bit when installing them for the mounting hardware is not designed for a hollow body guitar without a center block. I managed to get small screws and nuts from Home Depot and used the stock springs. It worked out fine but I have to remove the pickups to adjust their height.
3) They are super quiet (which I like) and the output is low..... which is what they're supposed to be. I have them wired to 250k CTS pots with .047 orange drop caps. They're warm but not muddy. GFS doesn't recommend any pot/cap values for the 59's. 500k pots with .022 caps would certainly make them brighter. They would probably be too bright for my taste.

I have a jazz trio rehearsal tomorrow night, so that will be the first crack at how they sound at volume. I'm going to do up a video with more specifics on Friday.

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Mr. Lawrie Mann
Toronto, Canada

Thanks for that information on the GFS pups Fajah. Many of us here are interested in this brand for mods and replacements.
A few of us have already made the replacement and others, like me, are waiting on a happier financial situation to try them. I haven't really heard any negative comments on the GFS pups, either here or elsewhere.
Looking forward to hearing them!

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"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

Of course!

In the recently aquired "Cat" I have a pr of the Alnico "Fat Pats". Made a HUGE difference in this guitar, and even with the coils split there are a lot of good usable tones there.

The Skylark project has one each of the Dream and Mean p-90's. Sounds great and they're pretty quiet for single coils. ( I wasn't trying for anything speacial by mixing the Mean and Dream PUPS. It was a back order situation and I didn't want to wait !)

My PE-450 has 2 of the "Filtertron" copies, a Nashville and a Liverpool. Again not going for anything in paticular with the mixing, it was just getting what they had available at the time. Impatiant, aren't I ? These were probably the nicest surprise and as advertised nail that Gr*tsch and Ric sound repectively. The PE-450 is definately a go-to axe when I'm looking for something a little different.

In general have had really easy dealings with the folks at GFS. For bang for the buck it's hard to imagine a better deal out there, at least stateside. I'm sure the higher-end boutique pups add yet another level tonaly, but I'm not about to drop a $300 pick-up into a $200 guitar! Call me cheap, that's ok!

I'm a little less enthralled with their hardware, but you get what you pay for in most cases.

Some day I'll get around to posting some sound clips of these. It's on my to-do list, but my "honey-do" list keeps getting in the way.

_G

Exactly! It's great to have this option eh?

addendum
I was thinking as I wrote the above that I had purchased my chrome pup mounting rings for my Urchin resto from these folks. I checked, and I did!
They were top quality and the price was unbeatable at $10 for the pair. So in that instance at least, the hardware exceeded expectations.
http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6058&hilit=u60t&start=140#p42176

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"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

I would like to thank Fajah

He was generous enough to send me his pick ups without asking anything in return.... Just got them in...

I will be able to advance on this little project of mine:



Again, Thank you....

Pierre

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

Great....you got them! Again, my pleasure. Looking forward to seeing your project completed.

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Mr. Lawrie Mann
Toronto, Canada

Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqAfGHZVcPA

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Mr. Lawrie Mann
Toronto, Canada