GFS mini humbuckers.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:42 am

Has anyone tried these. I thought since I am gonna have an extra duo more than likely that making one with 2 mini humbuckers might be cool. One stock (with the neck tinted) and one with mini HB's (again with neck tinted)

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:59 am

good luck tinting those necks. have you seen the amount of finish on them? i'd be cautious to add anymore.

sorry, i have nothing on the minibucks, but i'm sure they're a pure delight.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 4:02 am

hotrodperlmutter wrote:good luck tinting those necks. have you seen the amount of finish on them? i'd be cautious to add anymore.

sorry, i have nothing on the minibucks, but i'm sure they're a pure delight.

I Know there is alot of finish on them. I will probably steel wool them down a bit and then use a amber tinted gloss. As ong as I steel wool it a bit it should be OK. It think those guitars will look 10x better with the better finished necks (like the CV tele I had)

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 5:29 pm

Oh I've got one of these. It's okay, sounds like a cheap mini humbucker.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 4:48 pm

I will start this post by saying I love GFS and am a regular customer of theirs.

NOW THEN

GFS pickups are like what's in import guitars. They're fine, if you stick 'em in a crap guitar they're not going to save it and if you replace really nice american Fender pickups or SD/DiMarzio premium models with them they're going to seem a bit thin by comparison, even if they do have more output and loads of balls.
I like GFS more for the oppoutunities they afford me during a project/modification than the actual stuff itself. While I can get something perfectly usable using their pickups that I won't change down the line, it's not like they're even close to the best sounding units around.

DO NOT pay attention to the names/product descriptions. Sometimes it's ballpark accurate, sometimes they're bending the truth, and sometimes it's straight LIES, but it's never dead-on. How a wax potted ceramic bucker is ever going to sound like a '59 PAF Alnico II is beyond me, but evidently they've sorted it out.
I think GFS shines with the unusual artec pickups like loudmouth/fatbody etc... because you don't know what they're supposed to sound like before you hear them, basically. It's hard to be let down by something new and different, but a "62 alnico tele bridge pickup" that sounds like it came out of a Squier affinity is another story.

The minihums are called "little crunchies" and have no mention of alnico magnets (GFS avoid mentioning a pickup has ceramic when it does), so I'm sure they're ceramic. They'll rawk but not in a classic minihum sense.
With humbuckers the difference between ceramic and alnico is one of crunch vs. bass (respectively). Ceramics sound a bit more biting and Alnicos are deeper and cleaner. Through a dirty amp, alnicos always end up sounding more clear and powerful due to a cleaner base sound and pronounced low-end for the amp to work with; ceramics tend to mush up very quickly when you raise the gain, and yield a fizzier dirty tone (though I've heard some people say ceramic deals with higher gain better, it's not my experience and I think that's a personal taste issue... there's all kinds of distortion out there now).

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:07 pm

paul nye the science guy makes me regret my dream 90 purchase for some reason.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:09 pm

hotrodperlmutter wrote:paul nye the science guy makes me regret my dream 90 purchase for some reason.

I have a dream 90 in my SG and it's brilliant. I'm not saying all GFS pickups are mediocre, just that some of them are very generic stuff dressed up as something better, which is mickie's concern with the minihums I think.
You will not regret the dream 90, I'd certainly never pay $100 for a Gibson P94 and feel I'd done much better.

And Bill Nye was the man. When people bring up Beakman's World I'm like "bahhhhhhh you were one of THOSE kids".

Post by **dots** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:39 pm

hotrodperlmutter wrote:paul nye the science guy makes me regret my dream 90 purchase for some reason.

REGRET NOTHING.

dream 90's are brilliant, and i'm going to snag one for myself when i finally have the scratch to upgrade the hh jag. mean/dream combo is the perfect 1-2 punch for my money, i tells ya.

purplehaze19x · Post by **purplehaze19x** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:44 pm

I have one of the GFS Hotrails in one of my Mustangs, sounds pretty good for the price.
or you could even try out one of those Dragonfire pickups, you can buy them all day long for about $15

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:50 pm

Yep, I had Dream 90s in my old SG, and am really starting to think about trying some Mean 90s out in my new SG. Also, the Memphis humbucker and hot 60's style bridge in my tele are great.

euan · Post by **euan** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:54 pm

The problem is once you play reallllllly good pickups, like Bareknuckles. It is hard for anything else to sound decent. :S

Post by **Mike** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:57 pm

Bareknuckles are very nice, but he doesn't make any for the Jaguar, so he can just fuck off.

euan · Post by **euan** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:59 pm

He made some for Johnny Marr didn't he? I'm pretty sure I read that in the latest Guitarist.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 7:01 pm

Mike wrote:Bareknuckles are very nice, but he doesn't make any for the Jaguar, so he can just fuck off.

i was annoyed by this as well. not that i could afford them if he did.

Post by **Mike** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 7:05 pm

I'm sure Johnny Marr gets a lot of shit we don't.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 7:11 pm

I think the fella does custom work handy enough. You could always email him and see.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 7:14 pm

Like boot polish to colour his baldy head in black. I bought Guitarist this month due to the high Jag and Jazzmaster content.

What. A. Bag. Of. Shite.

Post by **Mike** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 7:16 pm

You missed the edition where they reviewed the Classic Player Jags and

1. Decided the shortscale of the Jag was some form of factory accident
2. Didn't work out that the rhythm switch on the HH was in fact a kill switch and said the rhythm circuit was broken.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 7:24 pm

Nope, I bought that one too. And, bizarrely, the one with Dereck (I love the belt and braces approach to spelling Derek his parents had) Trucks on the cover. My favourite Jazzmaster assassination piece was in Guitar (or whatever sack of cuntery) where in a feature about the Jazzmaster, they started harping on about how Clapton almost bought a Jazzmaster once, and what a near miss it was for old slowhand. Cunts.

Post by **Mike** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 7:27 pm

To think I once entertained becoming a journalist of that sort. All my friends at work all wonder how I ended up an Engineer when I come out with long words they don't understand.

Surely everyone knows what Misanthrope means, right?

FYI I said "I love Cats, they're my fellow furry Misathropes". Blank stares.