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I'm tired of my vintage output pickups in my mustang,but I don't want to sacrifice that crispness that single coils have, so ima put some GFS vintage split humbuckers in her. My only question is, should I change the pots? What I have now is 250k.
Also,where can I get a guard on the cheaps?

what mustang have you got? in most mustangs if they're full sized humbuckers you will need to rerout the body otherwise they won't fit. hopefully someone will recommend you a pickguard maker, but judging by peoples' experience on this forum i would say AVOID pickguardian and jeanie pickguards.

as far as crispiness goes, i think a lot of that mustang clang comes from the bridge anyway. if you do decide to go for humbuckers then definitely move to 500k pots, otherwise they will sound very muddy with 250k.

i would consider getting something drop-in to be honest. higher output single coils can still sound beastly and keep twang, which i think would be best to keep the overall mustang vibe and sound. and even single coil sized humbuckers offer a bit more snap than normal width humbuckers because of the narrower range. the only option GFS offer in single coil sized humbuckers are rails though, which i personally hate the look of.

George wrote:what mustang have you got? in most mustangs if they're full sized humbuckers you will need to rerout the body otherwise they won't fit. hopefully someone will recommend you a pickguard maker, but judging by peoples' experience on this forum i would say AVOID pickguardian and jeanie pickguards.

as far as crispiness goes, i think a lot of that mustang clang comes from the bridge anyway. if you do decide to go for humbuckers then definitely move to 500k pots, otherwise they will sound very muddy with 250k.

i would consider getting something drop-in to be honest. higher output single coils can still sound beastly and keep twang, which i think would be best to keep the overall mustang vibe and sound. and even single coil sized humbuckers offer a bit more snap than normal width humbuckers because of the narrower range. the only option GFS offer in single coil sized humbuckers are rails though, which i personally hate the look of.

It's a warmoth mustang body,wich is routed for humbuckers. The gfs vintage split humbuckers are a vintage accurate wideranger, so it should be plenty crispy.

are wrhbs really that bright and twangy? virtually every one of them i hear sounds kind of flat and broad sounding. not in a bad way necessarily, but not what i would think you're after either. they seem to have a lot of mythos and hype attached to them in every which direction, that's for sure.

in fact, if it's a wrhb design i think a lot of people have preferred them with 1 meg pots. maybe something to consider

George wrote:are wrhbs really that bright and twangy? virtually every one of them i hear sounds kind of flat and broad sounding. not in a bad way necessarily, but not what i would think you're after either. they seem to have a lot of mythos and hype attached to them in every which direction, that's for sure.

in fact, if it's a wrhb design i think a lot of people have preferred them with 1 meg pots. maybe something to consider

Thanks. Most WRHB these days are a standard humbucker under a 3x3 cover,but the gfs ones have all the twang of the originals.

i'll try and find a video, but yeah, i think pat did a demo with an original wrhb in a bronco with 1meg pots and it sounded fantastic. really what you're looking for i think.

edit: here we go
[youtube][/youtube]

GFS vintage split humbuckers are not vintage accurate WRHBs. They're generic versions of some boutique bucker that had the poles that way. They also posess none of the "crispiness" of a single coil.

paul_ wrote:GFS vintage split humbuckers are not vintage accurate WRHBs. They're generic versions of some boutique bucker that had the poles that way. They also posess none of the "crispiness" of a single coil.

hmmm,from what I've heard they sound good

"sounds good" doesn't mean an accurate representation though

and like i said, i don't think any wrhb is particularly twangy. i think its misconception and hype that they're the middle ground between an single coil and a humbucker. a p90 would do that better

George wrote:"sounds good" doesn't mean an accurate representation though

and like i said, i don't think any wrhb is particularly twangy. i think its misconception and hype that they're the middle ground between an single coil and a humbucker. a p90 would do that better

hmmm, p90s it is then.

don't take my word for what will work best for you though. a lot of people don't even like p90s. have a good check of reviews and see what you like.

i think more hefty single coils or SC sized humbuckers may be a great fit.

If you just want more output there's countless Strat replacement pickups that can do that for you, though certain Lace Sensors might be worth looking into as they'd enable you to go high-gain without extra buzz/hum.

If you go with p90s in there I would definitely step up to 500k pots, otherwise you'll be far from any twang.

The Vintage Splits are good, but they're not:

bluesngrunge wrote:a vintage accurate wideranger

I haven't ever had a problem with Pickguardian. I have also had Cooterfinger make me a few pickguards that were very good.

pretty certain warmoth pg only fit their bodies..... anybody can make the guard if they have the template or you send them your pg to use as a template

^ that!

Joey wrote:pretty certain warmoth pg only fit their bodies..... anybody can make the guard if they have the template or you send them your pg to use as a template

I have an allparts on mine

mkt3000 wrote:The Vintage Splits are good, but they're not:

bluesngrunge wrote:a vintage accurate wideranger

Then they need to fire the guy that writes their descriptions.

Haha, his descriptions are the stuff dreams are made of (not in a good way). He gets pickups from Artec and then spins a web about sitting around with Seth Lover's son's mate's former jack russell who had access to the blueprints or something.

Incidentally there was some boutique pickup manufacturer like Fralin or whatever (I consistently forget the manufacturer and pickup name every damn time) who were making those PAF-sized split pole buckers wayyy before the whole WRHB hype got ridiculous, and those are what were copied in the "vintage split" buckers, not WRHBs. Obviously the poles are similarly configured and maybe that inspired the original boutiquey buckers, but they aren't remotely similar in sound or construction to original WRHBs, which used CuNiFe magnet polepieces versus the more typical bar magnet base construction. The GFS vintage splits are offbrand asian buckers and any similarities to existing pickups is purely coincidental and/or cheeky.

Also I know this is subjective and that but I had a GFS vintage split in my Epi SG and I thought it was bloody awful... overly harsh (not in a "twangy" way) and nowhere near as good as the stock bucker, GFS Alnico II, Super Distortion or Dream/Mean 90s I also had in there over the years. I had them pegged as ceramic magnet cheapobuckers but I'm not sure, I've heard people say they are alnico. Maybe they suit Fender-style guitars a little better, I still have it lying around somewhere so I'll probably try it in my parts-strat sometime. Of all the GFS humbuckers I've tried so far, Vintage Splits were my least favourite... and I prefer single coils to humbuckers most of the time.

send telenator a pm if you want a real deal wrhb