GFS Pickups "Premium II" Alnico II

GFS "Primium II" Alnico II pickups come in a set of three; a Bridge (~6K), Middle(~5.5K), Neck pickup(~5.3K).
I only have the bridge and neck pickups. The middle pickup is claimed to be non-reversed wound, although they may have changed this in the set (I know that they have in others.)

Installed in a 2005 Fender Standard Stratocaster. I wanted something with clarity and character. I previously had in GFS Lil Killers, but they're much too bland and muddy for me. I intended to drop them in so my Strat would become a metal monster, but it just wasn't so. It didn't feel right and as a result my Strat got neglected. I got something more appropriate (two Jackson Rhoads) for metal, and started searching for something more geared towards blues and classic rock.

I use 250k pots, one volume, one universal tone knob (.022uF cap). I rarely use my tone knob. I'm probably going to put in a lighter cap (.01uF perhaps) or just remove it altogether. For sonic evaluation, I ran straight to a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 410 on the clean channel with the the tone stack at 6 o'clock. I used a Monster 100 Standard cable.

The neck pickup amazes me. The detail in the sound is unbelievable
; exactly what I've been looking for in that position. The response is ungodly, the clarity is great, and the output's not too high or overpowering. I keep the pickup relatively low. Especially considering it's low output to begin with. It seems in this day and age, people are striving for more output and like to jack up their pickups until the strings are bouncing off of them. My neck pickup is flush with the pickguard: ~6mm's between the high and low E pole-pieces. The arched stagger brings the D and G pole-pieces about ~5mm from the strings.

In comparison (output wise), my middle pickup, a stock Fender Mexican Stratocaster pickup, is positioned 1.5mm's <i>below</i> the pickguard to balance the output between the two.

Because of this, my neck pickup has an extremely open high end. I'm not sure if this is what people mean by "shimmering," but it's definately up there. I used to think that perceived clarity depends on the upper base / lower midrange response, however I now realize the significance of treble (more so the greater frequencies.)

If the pickup is raised higher, the output increases decently enough. The bass / midrange also fatten up and the high high end rolls off. Although there's still clarity (especially much more so than most other pickups), it doesn't suit me. I can imagine, however, that this is where most people would position their pickup. It's perfect for blues, and still plenty bright.

The bridge pickup, I don't have much to comment on. I have it raised much higher than the neck (although still low by most people's standards), in an attempt to get enough output for a good lead (in conjunction with an overdrive pedal, although right now I'm using a Boss DS-1 for this purpose), and to tone down the treble. It sounds great pushing a tube, although for clean it's a wee bit too thin for my taste. I'm looking for something chunkier (and silent) to stick in the bridge, although I'm extremely satisfied with the neck pickup. I don't have the middle pickup for this set, although even if I did, I can imagine I wouldn't use it at all (even for noise-cancellation.)

Something else I'll mention is that there is plenty of Strat-quack to these pickups. Surprisingly less so with each other (bridge and neck in parallel), but plenty enough on their own.

For anyone wondering how these compare to Seymour Duncan Alnico II's, let me tell you a story. One fine day I was at my local music shop, and I was trying different Fender Stratocasters (USA, Mexican, Korean, etc.) I was listening to each pickup on each guitar cleanly through an amp and looking to find one I'd like. I eventually got to a beautiful Koa Stratocaster. I plugged it in and was blown away by the clarity and response. I checked the pickups; they said "Seymour Duncan." Further inquiry led a staff member to reveal they were "Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro" single coil pickups, the staggered kind. That stuck with me, and I obsessed about obtaining Alnico II pickups. Several months of research later (not specifically on the pickups, but in general) I learned that the magnet type of pickups supposedly has no bearing on the sound, and also learned that Guitar Fetish has a set of Alnico II pickups. Even more months later, I saw a set pop up on eBay (only the bridge and neck) and won them. I eventually dropped them in my Strat and was once again blown away as I had been before, if not more so.

But this isn't the point of my story. Yesterday I went back to my music store, picked up the same Koa Strat, and critiqued its' pickups. Suffice to say, I like the GFS Alnico II's more than the Seymour Duncan set. The SD's were raised moderately, which probably affected the tone some, so it wasn't a perfect A/B comparison. However, I prefer the GFS pickups. I will note that the SD pickups seemed voiced more appropriately (the neck is warmer, bridge is brighter, both are smooth), yet they weren't as acoustically pleasing to me. Not as clear nor not as responsive.

If you're wanting to get a vintage set, these are the pickups for you. They're noisy, and low output, but that's the nature of the beast, and in my opinion far worth what they have to offer. They still have incredible detail to them.

I recommend these pickups for anyone who plays with feeling, anyone who's touch-sensitive on guitar, and especially anyone with an appropriate amp. I played these through a Fender Mini Twin to see how tone-suckage can affect them. They still sound good, however it would not be noticeable to someone accustomed to that sort of sound quality from an amp.

Do NOT buy these looking for something to drive a tube amp or distortion pedal hard. I recommend some kind of a boost before the amp in conjunction with these pickups, be it from a distortion or overdrive pedal.

Do NOT buy these if you have sloppy playing or even worse do not play with feeling. You will hear everything. My friend played these pickups (he's actually a bass player), and he complained they were "too responsive." No such thing I say!

Good: Responsive, Clear, Balanced, Vintage-Voicing (i.e. "quack")
Bad: Low ouput

3 single coils Strat Replacement pickups
6 ohms, 5.5. and 5 ohms
Actually there were all off
the 5,7 5.76, and 5.9

A mexician Strat
Replaced the Korean made standard Squire pickups
Attempted to upgrade

The output was similar, but made more noise
Tone was bland and slightly muddy
I used a marshall JMP-1 with 9100 Marshall tube amp and 1936 Marshall cabinet with greenbacks
Classic Rock

This GFS line is simply a marketing name given to the entire line of utility grade pickups made with cheap metal and cheap coil wire. This are not close in quality or sound to american made pickups. These are all made somewhere in the far east, most likely contracted for the lowest bid. They have been given fancy names, flashy colorful boxes with fancy logos ,15 to 20 different product descriptions. etc. With all due respect to this GFS company, there is nothing wrong with doing this and this country is based on capatalism. But as a guitarist, these are the bottom of the barrel. If you have a inexpensive Korean made guitar and want to upgrade the pickups, nothing GFS makes would be an upgrade. These are utility pickups. They work, but most are al littel noisy, output is average at best. Tone quality is moderate. They work, but are they really good? No. This is an entry level pickup at best and before you spend $40 to $70 on a set, consider buying American made. I wouldn't buy one for $5.

3 Single coils passive pickups.
White plastic caps.
Really nice finish whatever I could read about GFS products before.
I thought the wire were cloth covered but it isn't quiet right. It's a mix of cloth and plastic material. Not really vintage but good quality nonethless.

I'v instaled the 3 pups on a Fender MIJ Stratocaster.
I've replaced two classic Squier pups + one Seymour Duncan SSL4-(5?)
I've remplaced them because I wanted a more leveled sound between the three pups.
It turned out that the sound between each position is too similar now. Maybe I don't know what I want ;-). It's less versatile than it used to be.
The SD delivered a really warm sound really dark and bassy and I wanted a bit more spark which the Alnico II don't fail to achieve.
It's too bright now!!!

I use a Peavey Classic 30 with a tube Screamer, a Boss Blues Driver and another Tweed overdrive. I play mostly some blues and got into country licks lately.
The sound is now too bright to my taste. Except for country.
I have to roll down the pot to tame the high zing.
With my old pups, I've installed two different pots for more versatility:
-250k Neck
-500K Bridge. (I might change it back for a 250K cause much too bright and not really precise to control even with a CTS pot)
The overal sound is really midrange and bright but sounds really good.
It's got a nice bell sound.
I don't think it really sounds that vintage like mentioned one the GFS's site. It's more of a modern clean sound. I recon it might not be of the taste of every one even if you play a lot of blues like me.
It's really precise and nice especially in clean sound. It gets less precise when played with OD. Really good if you like to play clean blues, country or Knopfler like songs, and some clean funky Chicken picks. For SRV, it's not warm enough except if you want to get the Riviera Paradise sound.
-I prefer the neck position because it brings a fuller sound.

If it was destroy or stollen, I would try another type of pup.
I'd like to try the GFS Premium Texas because they are much cheaper than Texas Special (which are my favorits but I already have them installed on another Strat)
-I've been playing for 17 years and I'm a mod lover. I upgrade or change parts of my guitars (12) as soon as I can. I have to admit I spend more time working on the guitars than playing.
I have four Strats and could compare those pups with some Texas Special, Fender MIA standard, Squier, Seymour Duncan.
I love the clean tonal bell sound of it.
I would have loved a tad more bass.
-GFS are OK if you order on their site, they are pretty fast but don't ask Jay any question or you'll get a poor answer. Don't relly on all the products descriptions because they are not always acurate. GFS products are pretty good in general so check upon reviews like this one on Harmony Central before purchasing.
Well,

Features
Single coil or humbucking? Active or passive? single coil passive
Impedance or other specs/ on there website

What model guitar or bass did you install this in? mexican parts caster
What position is it in? all
What pickup are you replacing? n/a
Other pickups installed on the instrument? n/a
Any artists using this pickup? ???
Reason for changing the pickup n/a

What's the output level like? seems pretty vintage.
What amps and effects are you using it with? I use a hot rod deville 212 with 6v6s and various od boxes.
Tone - Bassy, middy, muddy, trebly, balanced?
balanced sound. They could be a little brighter but they're marketed as being warm so.....I've tried a few fender reissue strat guitars and these pups are comparable but maybe with a little less bite. sweet sounding is really the best way to describe these. I was listening to Vince Gill on crossroads and I'd like to imagine that my guitar sounds a little like his strat.

What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?
I play blues and classic country rock along the lines of allman bros. grateful dead, neil young. I have a few guitars and for stuff thats twangy and quacky these really sound sweet. I played these the other night at a club and the owner thought we were too country. So these have a good clean sound and a sweet lead sound. High gain? probably not.

For which positions is this pickup (un)suitable this pickup is good in all positions the bridge pickup isn't tinny or ice picky so thats good.

If it was destroyed or stolen, would you buy it again or get something else?

I might try thier alnico 5 premium vintage. just to compare.
How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own? Been playing 30+ years as a hobby musician. My band gets paid but not a lot.
What do you love about it? What do you hate? They're growing on me thats why i'm writing this. Thats a good sign. Don't hate anything.

Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one? I've tried numerous other pups, unfortunately it was in an overly bright ash body strat so I don't think I have an accurate picture of those other pups. I do have a set of Van Zant blues pups in my american strat and they are hotter, in the mid 6 range for impedance. They don't sound as sweet or as quacky but they have more mid beef for a more authoritative tone. I'm not sure but I think I actually like the GFS bridge pup better than the Van Zandt. I also briefly compared these to my friend's stock american strat with american strat pups. These are a lot sweeter sounding. The american strat pups can be a little agressive sounding.

Anything you wish it had? Mid boost? There's a couple mid boost products, including a couple from GFS,that look appealing.

Are you satisfied with this pickup or still searching for <b>that</b> sound? I'm really satisfied but every time I turn around there's a new thing I havent tried yet. I've given up on THE sound and now I like exploring new sounds just out of curiosity. I'm certainly not wishing I had something else.
Anything else you'd like to share GFS products really are great for the price. I contacted WCR pickups to enquire about his strat pups and he quoted 400+ dollars. Thats just not in my price range. GFS fits the bill.

Just regular Strat pickups with beveled, staggered poles.

I put these in my Fender MIM Classic 50's Strat. The stock pickups were OK, but they seemed thin to me. Not much low end, more mids and highs. They sounded like they just needed to be fuller sounding.

These are low output, but they really seem to fit the bill for what I wanted. The tones are similar to the vintage sound of the stock pickups, but much much fuller.

These seem to be just the ticket for making my "vintage" replica Strat even more playable. Very pleased!

Single coil, Bridge 6.0, Middle 5.5, Neck 5.3

'06 Standard Stratocaster (MIM), complete set of three, replaced stock ceramic strat pickups

The stock pickups were just ok, fairly high output, but way too brittle in the highs and muddy lows in all positions. Bridge pickup in stock was like shards of glass in my ears....

These are definitely not high output pups, and GFS is pretty clear about that in the description.

These are exactly the pickups I needed to warm the tone. The tone is balanced, the mud is gone from the lows, and I don't grind my teeth anymore when I use the bridge pickup.

Rated as an 8 because of improvement over stocks, I have no experience with other pickups. But the seems to me that at $70 a set these can't be beat.

I would consider buying these again. I've been playing for less than a year, but have a enough of a developed ear to know that these are big improvement over the stock ceramics.

Basic strat pickup set. The impedence is probably somewhere around the 5-6k mark.

Manufacturer claims "vintage" sound and reproduction of classic strat tones.

I installed these in a 1984 Fender Strat. The original pickups were more "modern" sounding than I like so I tried out this GFS version of vintage pickups.

Brilliant! Clear, crisp, and full. Everything a strat pickup should be. The high end is a bit crisp and can be piercing but no complaints. They did have slightly more output than true vintage I play these in two bands. One is a standard rock/hard rock setup. The other is a Pink Floyd tribute. Yup, you read right. I put these in to recreate the Gilmour sound.....done!

Okay, usual junk about me. I have been playing for about 16 years or so. Have played everything from punk, heavy metal, rock, reggae, and blues. These pikups stand up favourably as a true vintage sounding pickup. If you expect high output then don't buy a vintage pickup set! The one thing that could have been done with these is to give the bridge pickup a little more output but, in GFS's defence, they have other sets that serve that setup. And at this price point you'd be hard pressed to find a single pickup of worthy use, let alone a full set.

Set of three single coil pickups, staggered poles.

I put these in a mexican strat, as a set, in all three positions.

The output is about what you would expect from a vintage set. I play through a Marshall JCM 800 model 2205. I was not impressed with the sound,although different than the stock units, these are far from shimmering, or Quacky, or any of the adjectives used in the ad. They just sounded a bit different, kind of thin, kind of trebly, very buzzy. I know this is kind of a cheap guitar, but I would not consider putting these in a good instrument. It would be a real waste of time and money.

I would not buy another set of these, any american made set would be a big improvement. I have played since 1966, and own many guitars, amps, etc. I have been curious about GFS from their ads, and have bought a couple of their products to experement with in my cheaper guitars. They are cheap non-US made look alikes at best. An expierienced player will hear their shortcomings right away. When I e-mailed the customer support, they did'nt care about my concerns.

GFS Premium II Alnico II single coils set of 3.

E series MIJ Squire

neck-middle-bridge

stock ceramic single coils

57 And 62's

I had stock pickups in this guitar for 20 years. Looking for a more vintage tone.

Product literature states low output but they have plenty of gain for me.

AX2

Twang and quack in 2-4 selector position is greatly improved. Bridge pickup is pretty bright. Neck and mid pickup sound great by themselves.

50's to current R&R and its sub-categories

I would replace these pickups if someone removed them from my guitar.

Been playing 30+ years.

I've been searching for that "vintage strat sound" since I got this guitar. Tried a set of 57 and 62's. They cost $120 plus no reverse polarity middle pickup. They were quite muddy to my ears.
These pickups have the shimmer, the quack-the tone I was looking for.
They sound great to me and I've heard a lot of strats over the years.

Single coil,passive, alnico magnet, vintage voiced, non-reversed middle pickupstrat-set

Alder body super-strat. Kahler hybrid tremolo. Maple neck, ebony fretboard. Super strat wiring (3 minitoggles in lieu of 5 way slider) wired middle position off, other positions in or out of phase.
(Mondo tone pallette!)
I built this guitar from scratch - have used GFS pickups before (humbuckers and other strat sets). Always impressed with the bang-for-the-buck)

I teach advanced rock guitar and play a broad range of styles. Have been playing for 39 years.
Too many amps to list. Using a Yamaha DG80 in my studio because it can cover everything well. (If you've never checked one of these out, do yourself a favor - you'll be a convert. The ONLY mmodeling amp I've ever been impressed with. Getting hard to find!

I'm currently building a traditional strat and will be dropping a set of these in it as well. Beautiful vintage tone - snap, sparkle, and spank. Authentic voiced (all 3 in the 5K range)- the real deal in position 2 and 4 (unlike reverse wound middle pickup sets). I played a 61 strat for quite a few years - I know the real thing when I hear it.
GFS pickups are the best bargain out there. Save your money for strings and things!

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.