GFS Pickups "Premium II" Alnico II

Single coil, Passive, Bridge 6.25K, Mid 5.7K Neck 5.5K

I replaced the neck and middle (both were Kinman woodstocks) in my Mexican strat. For my bridge pickup I wanted something a little different so I settled on a brass bottom single coil from GFS as well. I've been messing around with different combinations of pickups for what seems like years and have found a winner. The kinmans, albeit deserve all the praise they get, were not my bag. No matter which way you slice it, they are still dual coils. Seeing as how I'm playing through a reissue "vintage" amp (65 deluxe reverb) I figured a more mellow sound was in order. For what its worth, I think pickups should do there job and let your hands and the amp do the talking.

I went on a very circuitous journey when I bought my strat way back when. It was one of those journeys where you end up liking the original sound the best and wasting a ton of money in the process. For me, these pickups let me play what I'm feeling unencumbered. My set-up at the moment is fairly straight forward; strat to a keeley fuzz head to an Ayan Enterprise Smooth and Slim to a 65 deluxe reverb. The output was definitely a drop from the kinmans (big surprise there) but this allowed me to turn my amp up in the process without becoming too muddy (helped out considerably by the Smooth and Slim). I'd say the overall tone was incredibly balanced, but then again tone is incredibly subjective; it is what it is. If y'all like playing soul, funk, blues and some country like I do, then give these a try.

For the money, I was totally taken by surprise here. Being a poor college student, it was nice to save some money and have a kick ass tone to boot. There's so much voodoo going on in gear these days with people talking about if it ain't boutique its crap. Listen, you don't need to pay an arm and a leg for good tone. My only beef, honestly, is the pickup covers. I wanted a freaking vintage cream! Ok, not a big beef at all and not a big pain either to do it myself. I honestly don't see a better deal out there at the moment. I'd have to say the Rio Grande pickups here in Houston come close but you're still paying three times the price.