GFS Pickups 60's-70's Grey Bottom Non Stagger Overwound

Single-coil, roughly 10k, 8k, 7k for bridge, mid, neck, respectively. Nice long cloth-like leads. Seem pretty nicely built.

I replaced the stock Fender alnico3 pickups in my 2007 Highway 1 Strat. The difference is huge. The stock alnico3's are not bad sounding pickups, but they tend to emphasize mids; especially the neck one, which is aiming a little too much at "buttery". The GFS non-staggers have WAY more punch, which is exactly what I was looking for.

These pickups have HUGE dynamics. Way more high end that the stock pickups in the H-1, but also I think good bottom end thump. They have vastly more punch than the stock fenders, even though they're not a whole lot louder.

I'm playing blues/jazz with a rock edge through a Fender tube amp, and I'm really very pleased with what these pickups give me; it's a terrific sound, and the dynamics they provide allow leads to pop right out of the mix effortlessly.

I'm least impressed with the bridge, but I prefer a humbucker there anyway (am trying out a Duncan 59 there currently).

I would absolutely replace these. They're a steal for $65 or $70 or whatever. I'm tempted to try out GFS' vintage-wound pickups, just to see how much sound you can get for this pricepoint. For my style, though, these overwounds are terrific.

This review is for a single coil set for Strat type guitars. Without looking at the website, I think I remember that the bridge is 10k, the mid is 8k and the neck is 7.2k. Something like that. GFS is very good about listing the impedance of all their pickups on their website.

These pickups were installed in all three positions of an Aria Pro II Fullerton with a scalloped neck. It is replacing a Fender Tex-Mex in the neck, a Duncan Designed Scorcher in the bridge and a stock whatever in the middle.
I'm not aware of any major label artists using GFS pickups. I'm sure there are some, but they probably don't want to lose their Seymour Duncan sponsorships.
I changed pickups because I was looking for an excuse to try out GFS. I wanted a lot of power without having single-coil sized humbuckers. The Scorcher was too high output and unbalanced with the other pickups, making me either use it all the time, or never at all. The Tex Mex came out of another guitar and to me, was nothing special at all.

The output is high for single coils, but not so that it would dirty a clean channel. I believe they are the highest output single coil pickups I've ever used. They certainly sound like it.

So far I've used these pickups through a Roland Cube 30 for practice or a Boss DS-1 or Behringer V-AMP Pro going into a Peavey Renown for band practice. I also use the V-AMP for direct recording.

The tone of these pickups is very, very full. They don't really have the vintage sound of strat pickups. Instead, they sound more like a amplification of the resonance of the guitar with each position being very distinctive, especially the "quack" 2 and 4 positions. I would say they mostly register in the mid-range, but the bass is very tight.

Harmonics, especially artificial harmonics do come easily in all positions, or at least, much better than any single coils I've played so far.

Because of the 60-cycle hum of single coils, high gain distortion just isn't appropriate, but they will remain articulate. I tried all kind of distortions and experimented heavily with the amount distance between the pickups and strings, and I just couldn't make them muddy. Thus far, I've found it impossible to find a bad or non useful sound using this set.

These style of music I play is not important. I like to experiment with my playing and try to find new sounds. These pickups have given me a lot to go through and discover. If I had to pick a style of music these pickups would be best for, I would say any 70's or 80's hard or heavy rock. With the proper effects, a David Gilmour type tone is all too easy. They might be too powerful for a proper blues sound, but they do manage to put SRV's sound a bit more within reach.

A country styled twang is easy with these, but then again, so is the solo to "Beat It".

The only style I would say these pickups would be unsuitable for, would be metal rhythm playing. They could do it, and do it well, but it would be waste and be missing the point entirely. If you aren't a lead guitarist and you install these pickups, it would be a bit like having Mad Max's V8 Interceptor and just using it to carpool.

I'm giving these pickups a ten because they left my expectations, which were high, far behind. And because they are the best single coils I've ever been made aware of. I suspect that their only competition in my world, would be other GFS Pickups.

If these pickups were destroyed or lost to me, I would buy more GFS Pickups. No question.

I've been playing for 12 years. I started out with grunge, went to metal, then to multi-genre pop, a short spell in rockabilly, back to metal, and now I'm off into jazz. All the while I've been working on my SRV and George Lycnh licks. I play a lot of different styles and I pride myself on doing each one well, despite being in my mind, an intermediate player.

Besides this Aria, which is basically a slightly better than a squier Strat copy, I own a Fender Jagstang, BC Rich Evil Edge Mockingbird, a Halo BH 7-string, a MIJ '57 Squier and a few other random acoustics, basses, and a half dozen unassembled unremarkable guitars. Each of my guitars have random wiring schemes, mods, and after market pickups. Too many to mention and it's not important. I've tried about four dozen pickups from most of the major companies.

I love these pickups so much that I will only be buying GFS pickups from here until they run out of things to try. If I had to pick a particular thing I'm in love with, it would be how much they add to your basic sound. I firmly believe that tone comes from your hands, but pickups like this make it easier. They perfectly capture and amplify what is already there.

What I hate about these pickups is that they immediately made all my other guitars either sound like crap or like a cliche'. Screw GFS for making me want to buy all their stuff.

I would have also liked to have heard these pickups without the reverse wound middle pickup, but that's just a personal thing and the next set I order from them, probably the 60's Repros, won't have the hum canceling middle.

I compared this pickups with many of the other sets available on the Guitar Fetish website. I carefully read and reread every page on that site and every review here on Harmony Central. Then, in the end , I just picked the one with the combination of coolest name and highest power.

I am very happy with the sound and sound possibilities of these pickups, but I wouldn't say I have a particular "sound" that I'm looking for. I'm not searching for anything and I'd rather be surprised by something I wasn't looking for than pleased with what I was. If that makes any sense...


I never talked to Jay at GFS about these pickups, but I've since bothered him a half dozen times with questions about many of his other products and he is always helpful and quick to respond. I'm trying to work up to asking him for a job.

Hot alnico single coil Strat replacement pickups. 7.2K- 6.0k-10k.

Killer Ash and Maple Strat copy from 1975.

I give it a 10 and I am very picky. The reason it gets a 10 is because it does EXACTLY what it is supposed to do. High output Strat sound with just the right ammount of extra low mid's. I bought them to drive my 15 watt Class A tube amp harder and it does wonderfully. I can now attain eye watering shred and sustain bliss. sounds like Fenders Rare Super Fat Super Strat pickups from their deluxe Series Strats but has evrn MORE output to drive the amp.

Great product and price. I have had dozens of pickup sets on a dozen Stats and these are fantastic if you want less twang and pop and more crunch, chug, and sustain. Would purchase again for sure.

This is a set of passive single coils for a Strat. Bridge Pickup 10K, Middle Pickup 8.0K, Neck Pickup 7.2K.
Alnico 5 magnets, cloth wiring, waxpotted

I put these in a swamp ash Part-o-caster with rosewood neck. As I build it with all new parts so this guitar has had no other pickups before.

These pickups have a huge output but can be played clean. Nice full Strat tones with lots of bass and crystal clear hi's. Nice quack in the 2 and 4 position. Sounds extremely nice with overdrive or distortion. Lots of harmonics but never muddy (unless you go extreme of course).

I never give 10's so this is a 9. I rated a set of Fender Texas Specials 8 (for comparison). For the money you can't do better.

I am very happy with these. I also have a set of GFS humbuckers in a Les Paul copy and because they were very good I decided to try a set of single coils for this project guitar.

This is one of the most expensive s/c sets GFS makes and they are very well built. Cloth wires, authentic grey bottoms, waxpotted... You can feel the quality.

I'm very tempted to give this a 10. These pups are built like others that cost 3-4 times as much as these.