GFS Pickups Boutique Alnico Fat PAF

Humbucker, with chrome cover, and plastic ring.

I installed this in a prs santana se, in the bridge position. It replaced the stock one.
I read the info on the website, and got curious.

The output is higher than the stock pickup. I play through a Marshall JCM 800 2205,pod xt. This replacement sounds different, but not better. On this guitar I play anything from blues to grindcore. the advetisement said that the pickup would remind me of Eddie's brown sound, or Duane Alman's old Fillmore East sound, not close.
When my father told me that "you get what you pay for" it definately pertained to this product. If you are experienced enough to know the difference between "brown sound" and "brown smell" this pickup is not for you.

I have been playing daily since 1966, I have owned well over 100 guitars in my lifetime, and have been repairing them for over 30 years. This pickup does not compare favorably with any of the major brands U.S. made products. If you are the kind of person that buys a product from the dollar store, and are satisfied with it because it looks like a real product, but was cheaper,regardless of quality. This pickup is for you. Don't bargain hunt with your sound, spend good money on your good sound...sound advise..GFS.."Garbage For Sure"

GFS Boutique Fat Pat Humbucker set.
Neck Resistance = 10K
Bridge Resistance = 14K
Wax potted
4 conductor wire for various wiring schemes.
Alnico V magnets

Installed a set of GFS Fat Pat's in a Samick Paul Reed Smith copy guitar with Wilkinson tremolo. One in the Bridge and one in the neck positions. These were put in as the final step to a complete modification to this guitar.
mods are CTS 500K pots, upgraded switches and wiring, fret leveling-polish and crown, custom bone nut, 18:1 tuning machines. These replaced the stock pups which were thin and muddy with low grade magnets. Stock bridge was 9.25K and Neck was 8.5K.

The sound is TERRIFIC!! Have the Gibson PAF sound with high output and punch. Very fat and sonic. Huge range from low's, mid's and high's balanced and tight. I Play through a Line6 Spider 100 watt amp. also use a digitech RP 100 pedal processor. I play Rock, Classic
rock, Metal, 80's HAIR, country, Jazz, Pop, Blues and on and on.....

Would replace if destroyed or stolen.
Also play a Peavey Predator with Seymour Duncans
Aria Pro2 Wildcat w/ Seymour Duncans.

I've been playing 26 years.
A truely great value for the price. compares to and exceeds many
big name pup manufactures. Of course with any pup you must be sure you've wired and grounded everything CORRECTLY or you may end up with a real crappy thin/muddy sound no matter what brand and type pup you put in. I picked GFS after visiting ther site and hearing some sound bites of there products. I've had MANY big name pups
and belive me these rate right up there without crushing your wallet.
A few years back the big names had the pickup market locked. These days with technology the availability of materials and competition from new companies it is worth shopping around for affrodable quality pups! Between the tone control on the guitar and amp tone and EQ these pups are BLISTERING!!! Screaming leads with nice harmonics and sweet, clear, fat, balanced and articulate tones when played clean in both positions. You won't be sorry for purchasing a pair of these babies:->

Passive, humbucking pickups designed to sound like authentic '59 Seth Lover "Patent Applied For" humbuckers, but a little hotter/fatter.

I installed these in a 2006 Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plain Top, a really well made guitar for just $400 and my "beater" guitar for gigs. The stock Epi pickups were really bad - and with a Vox AC30 or any good tube amp, there's just nowhere to hide if you've got crappy tone. So I got a set of Gibson Burstbucker Pros and played them for a year ... they sounded good, and I was actually happy with them. But I read so many good reviews about GFS and the price is so much less that I had to give them a try. Now I'm selling the Burstbuckers on FleaBay and I'll pocket about $100!

Output is slightly hotter than the Gibson pickups, which were around 7.8 for the neck and 8.4 for the bridge.

I use a Vox AC30 and an M-Audio Black Box for rehearsal/live/home studio work. The tone is very balanced and pleasing for both the neck and the bridge.

I play classic rock, 80s alternative, 90s alternative, pop, and modern rock. These pickups are a great match and sound good both clean and overdriven.

I'd buy these again and I've already recommended them to friends. I've been playing since 1986, so let's see ... that's a long time. I've owned a LOT of gear - not all at once but constant wanderlust has driven me to many guitars and amps. Currently, I've got a USA Fender 50th Anniversary Strat with Custom Shop '54 pickups, a Taylor 310 acoustic/electric, my beater Les Paul with GFS pickups, and a Fender Geddy Lee Jazz Bass/Ampeg 200w combo for bass work as well. All in all, this gear has pro tone from top to bottom and for that I'm very ahppy.

Humbucker, passive pickup. Forget the specs, but was right in as advertised.

This pickup was installed in the neck position of an '87 Squier Telecaster, replacing the stock tele neck pickup. The bridge pickup is the stock factory tele bridge. 500 k pots, .047 orange drop cap. I replaced the neck from stock because I liked the "Fat Tele" look, and for my ear the neck pickup was always the weaker link on the telecaster, many sound too muddy for me. I'm generally happy even with the cheaper Fender or Squier tele bridge pickups, since aftermarket makers seem to roll off some of the nasal twang, I love.

The output of this pickup is about half over that of the stock, increasing the volume noticeably when you switch from rear to front. I play through Fender Princeton Chorus, Crate G60 with JBL speakered cabinet, an old Univox solid state, and a little Fender Frontman 25R, series II. I have digitech effects, but don't use them much for this pickup. Humbuckers have not generally been the pickup of choice, for my ear. A lot of what I hear sounds too dark. I love the brightness and clarity of fender single coils. So for me, when GFS say "Fat" PAF, they mean it. If I had it on a seven band EQ it would probably be: 10,9,8,7,6,5,5. (imagine a graph). I play mostly blues, classic rock, rock and roll, old and new pop, and with a tele you have to fiddle around with some country pickin'. This pickup is very fat on the bottom, so if you have a thin sounding guitar, this will in fact fatten up your tone. The lows are big and boomy, breaking up a little through 10 inchers. Through 12's and 15's I don't have a problem. The mids are big, and the top does not bite and is clear. It works fine for what I do, but this pickup would not be well suited for anything where you want a lot of bite. This pickup is as advertised, warm and fat.

Way too boomy for my tastes at first. But after about a year of playing it, (and I have other instruments so it wasn't a big deal to remove it) both loud and soft, with and without effects, I have to say this pickup continues to grow on me. It's changed my interpretation of my bridge pickup. I now find myself thinking when switching from neck or neck/bridge to bridge alone that sometimes the bridge does sound just a bit too thin. Playing lead, this pickup sounds very rich and jazzy. On the tele it complements the bridge pickup well with the selector in the center position! You get big bottom, big top, and somewhat dished mid. Back bite, with more of a rich tone than what you normally get with the standard tele setup. I bought it for experimental purposes, since I heard good reviews. I still like the sound of the original Patent Applied For Gibsons better, and this GFS Fat PAF is not as articulate as some of the higher buck pickups that I have played, relative to maintaining distinct note/sound separation when playing chords, but I have to say for the money, this is a great value in a new pickup. I've been playing since the 70's, so my tastes have changed too over time. This particular pickup for me is not "that" sound, and I would not buy this particular model again, it's still a little too fat right out of the box for me, but overall looking at product, price, and service, I would not hesitate to continue searching for "that" sound in a GFS pickups. For someone who wants an upgrade and has a thinner sounding guitar or amp, this would likely be a good choice. Oh yeah, the GFS, must be wired like a Seymour Duncan, which means you need to reverse wire it in your Fender. Wired it as instructed at first, it was low ouput and thin sounding in the middle position. Reversed + and -, and bingo, front and back sound beautiful together.

Pickup features: Humbucker
Impedence or other specs: 13.6K

Model of guitar or bass: Squier Affinity
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: stock gingle
Other pickups on guitar: Premium Texas Strat Set
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s):
Reason for pickup change: stock is s...t!

Perceived output level: Super HOT and FAT
Tone: very FATTTT!
Sonic evaluation: Homemade amp-JTM45+Fender Twin type

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: blues,hard rock,heavy

Comments: Very full, very round, very warm sound!For 30$ this is SUPER upgrade for cheap guitar!