GFS Pickups "premium II" Alnico II

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.