GFS Pickups Big Mouth

Humbucker with big 'ol pole pieces. Really looks kind of cool. Not knowing anything about it, I bought it for the looks, hoping it would sound o.k. too. Lucked out, I guess. Supposed to be coil tappable (tappible?) but I am just using it straight.

I put this humbucker in an Indonesian made Squire HSS strat (not an Affinity, not Chinese). This guitar always seemed to be put together well, but it also always sounded like $hit. Played pretty poorly too. Found a website with good info on milling the frets, so I did a fret job and installed this Bigmouth in the bridge position and a couple of GFS Boutique single coils in the mid and neck positions. I gotta say, this has really transformed this inexpensive guitar ($120.00 on Overstock.com) into a wonderful playing and really excellent sounding Strat. I recently sold a Strat that cost new nearly five times what I paid for this Squire, and it did not sound HALF as good as this thing does now.

One thing I really like about this PU is that it is NOT overwound. This makes it much closer in volume to the fairly hot mid and neck single coils I installed. The Bigmouth is bright, but not too bright and I quite like the sound of it. Can't understand the people who have bashed this PU. Compared to what came in the guitar, the Big Mouth is truly transformative. Cheap too.

This pickup is a bargain, as is all the stuff from GFS. I was jamming with this guitar just this evening, with a friend. He was playing my brand new Michael Kelly Patriot Ltd. and I was playing my cheap old Indonesian Strat and I did not feel a bit outclassed in either the volume or sound quality department.

Oh yeah, it indeed does look really cool too.

OK- others have given the "specs" - Coil-tappable (huh?) Humbucker, to repeat BAD-ASS looking with MUNGO-LARGE pole pieces. Four-wire with ground for super wiring flexibility. Did i mention BAD-ASS LOOKING?
Bridge postion model H61(?)

I put this on a Jay Turser JT-133 (ES335 clone) semi-hollow that I've been modifiying for 4 years. It's the bridge position model and I wanted something I could tap the coils on. The other PU is an Epiphone Les Paul Neck "hot" taken from my Epi LP Limited Edition (on which i put a GFS Dream 180).

I wired this with a Stew Mac "ON/ON/ON" mini switch for "Humbucker/Single Coil South/Parallel" and left the stock 3-way selector alone.

The sound is friggin' GREAT! It's not overwound as others have said, so it doesn't drive my Valve Junior to distortion, but just enough crunch there to make it sound good. The Humbucker position is full and warm, the single coil position is crisp, clean, trebly and thin (hey, it's a SC)- perfect for adding pedal on top of. The parallel position was a positive epiphany for me!. The "quack" was UNREAL. It really is amazing. I love this pickup, plain and simple.

I have purchased 4 pickups from Jay at GFS and all are GREAT! I've been 30-plus years in the Consumer Electronics Industry, so i know HOW he does it- the stuff coming out of China CAN BE awesome. These pickups are the best bang for the buck I've heard in a loooong time. GFS claims on the website that they sound as good as pickups costing double the price, and IMO, they absolutely are!
I have an eclectic assortment of stuff, an Epi Les Paul, Epi Dot Deluxe,the Turser this pickup went on, a Home made "Tele" with GFS pups,a 1980's Japanese Strat, and a few others. Amps- Valve Junior, Peavey, pedals galore and I've been playing since 1965.

Humbucker
See guitarfetish.com for impedance

Installed in bridge & neck of a Johnson Strat copy
Replaced the insipid stock pickups

OP is nice & hot, but not so "overwound"
Used thru a Carvin 1-10" practice amp with surprisingly good tone
I'm a hack, but I built this as a teaser for my buddy, who's a smokin' blues player. He plays a Rick with Carvin HB's & is quite frustrated with his sound. He loved these & really went to town on them (and bought the guitar)!!

I liked them - I would consider getting them again, though as a builder I appreciate Jay's accessebility in discussing PUPs.

The pickups did exactly what I wanted - gave my friend the tone he wanted. It's unusual, but really cool. I give 'em an A+, and I'm looking forward to my next set of GFSs - whichever they may be!!

Bad-ass looking humbucker. Passive. Huge non-adjustable pole pieces (not that you'd need them)

I installed these in a tele-type body with an all-parts tele neck, both positions. I was looking for something tele-like from humbucker (I must be daft!)

The output level is medium to high (depending on the proximity to strings of course). Put it this way--a Fender-style tube amp will break up quite nicely on the clean channel when you dig in. They have a rockabilly-steroid-overdose heft to them. Definitely not wimpy or muddy. Well balanced, with a nice low and high-mid boost.

The bridge position sounds smooth and full on the lead channel, with a nice amount of tele-like bite. The neck position gives you a throaty single coil sound, with the sustain and fullness of a good PAF. The in-between position sounds nice and clear--the pickups are really well matched. (You may have to back down on the volume for the clean funk though)

Of course they won't give you all the sparkle of a nice single coil--but then you wouldn't be looking at humbuckers would you? They do capture the vibe quite nicely though.

I actually can't think of a guitar style to which these wouldn't be well suited. Versatile and ballsy.

These do what I expected them to do. I'm glad I have these in my arsenal. Pretty cool. Blow the roof off the mutha!

Pickup features: Humbucker- Large 1/4" polepieces
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Custom Tele Body from Warmoth
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced:
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s):
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level:
Tone: FAT FAT FAT- Big fat sound!
Sonic evaluation: Just to rebutt the knucklehead below- who, it seems, hooked up the coil tap wire instead of the full humbucker wire- There's nothing thin or weak about these- They're intensely fat and big- My third set- Great on Strats and teles that need some beefing up

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:

Comments: These are great- All the GFS pickups I've bought have been extremely good- The guys at Guitarfetish are excellent- fixing whatever problems I've had instantly- and they've got the coolest array of PUPs around.

Pickup features: Passive Humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Gibson Les Paul
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: just wanted to try something different
Other pickups on guitar: True tone technologies bridge PAF model
Artists using this pickup: hopefully none
You musical style(s): classic rock, country, jazz, some harder rock
Reason for pickup change: wanted to try something different, always looking for different sounds.

Perceived output level: about what it should be for the impeadence that it is, maybe weaker
Tone: TREBLY, TREBLY, TREBLY, get the point now!!
Sonic evaluation: Gibson les paul through a fender princeton, same guitar through a mesa and a marshall, tube and solid state. This has to be the worst pickup i have evr owned, i can not get any useful tone from it, other than treble, when played clean this thing will split your ear drums. When using distortion, it is not smooth at all, very harsh, imagine what the sound would be if you had the distortion on and the reverb started going out, or like when you bump the amp and you get that crashing sound from the spring, not quite that bad but it is not good either, this is a neck pickup, it should be a little warmer than it is, i tried it in the bridge just for shits and giggles and OMG!!! it was so bright it actually hurt my ears. This thing is history. Im going back to my true tone neck pickup, which by the way is warm and clear.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: this pickup is not suitable for any style music

Comments: I would not ever purchase a GFS pickup again. I am not happy with it at all, good thing i didnt pay a lot for it. I may sell it on ebay but i dont think i ever will because if i said it sounded good in the ad i would be lyeing, i will probably get it rewound so i can keep it, GFS should be ashamed of selling such crap, either that or they just dont have a clue as to what tone really is, they need to go back to the drawing board and try again. They are selling tons of them on ebay, i just hope people see this reveiw before they waste their hard earned money, they have great descriptions of what i guess they wished they sounded like, but wishing wont make them sound any better. Thanks for letting me ramble

Pickup features: Humbucker
Impedence or other specs: 6.8k

Model of guitar or bass: Fernandes Decade
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Dimarzio Air Norton
Other pickups on guitar: Dimarzio Humbucker from Hell soon to be replaced
Artists using this pickup: Nobody yet
You musical style(s): Guitar
Reason for pickup change: The Air Norton had a nasty nasal rasp in the treble frequencies almost like a wah full open. I did have good definition though. It didn't have the greatest dynamics either.

Perceived output level: Loud, fat, full and twangy. Not a distortion pickup but much more than vintage.
Tone: The pickups sounds like an impossibly fat single coil. Lots of bass and snappy high end.
Sonic evaluation: The amp isn't important. The pickup is true to its advertisement a sonic relative of the Seymore Duncan Quarter Pounder single coil. Except the Bigmouth scoops out some of the midrange and rounds off the treble. Very wide open frequency range. The pickup produces some real power when pushed and doesn't turn to mud. There is plenty of single coil style attack while having the smoothness of a humbucker. Way better than the Dimarzio Humbucker from hell! Plenty of punch.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: If you are a rootsy rocker like AC/DC, Zeppelin, or Thin Lizzy this pickup is for you.

Comments: If you are looking for a super fat wide frequency powerfull single coil sound the BigMouth is a great pickup. Instead of buying over priced P90 wanabees try one of these. This would be a good pickup for rootsy rcok, blues and yes even country. Thats because there is plenty of twang. I have a neck BigMouth in another guitar and it is a perfect match for the Quarter Pounders I have in the bridge and middle position.