GFS Pickups Boutique Texas Premium Alnico

Single coil passive
Bridge 9.4k
Middle 5.5k
Neck 5.3k
Alnico 5 Magnets

I put these in a Strat that I built. Ash body, Birdseye maple neck, Tusq nut, Fender Vintage trem, Fender locking tuners. These pickups are in all three positions. I replaced a set of Fender Hot Noiseless pickups that I had in the guitar, previously were a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless. I changed the pickups out because the Fenders had no sustain and just did not have the sound I was looking for.

Bridge output is definitely hot. It has a very good sound when distorted but a little to bright when clean, but that is why you have a middle and neck pickup. Middle is very nice sounding, and the neck is great. The neck has a very nice rich tone that cleans up great. I run a Line 6 Pod XT Live through a Crate 5212VFX for distortion with the bridge and this is one of the best sounding I have heard. I have played Seymour Duncan, Gibson, Dimarzio and Fender pickups and these GFS's are GOOD! When I want a good clean sound or vintage sound I just run straight into the amps clean channel or the lead channel for a really nice bluesy tone and even a really good jazz tone if tweaked right. Depending on how you set your amp you can get a very bassy tone to a very bright almost ear piercing treble tone.

If these were destroyed or stolen I would definitely buy another set. I have been playing off and for about 15 years and have been modifying and experimenting with my guitars for the last three years to find the sound that I like best. The best thing about these pickups is you can play just about everything on them with the right set up. Not sure I would use them for all out metal though, they are not that type of pickup. I have compared these to Fender and Dimarzio single coils and these just have a great sound overall. I am definitely happy with these.

Single coil alnico texas hot lead.

I recently built a strat from ebay using an 3 tone alder body a licenced replacement neck all gold hardware some srv water slides I found on another site an SRV pick guard.

Played through a Line 6 flextone 3 and a pre CBS fender twin reverb. They sound awsome. I have a Road house strat with texas specials which sounds great but thes are a little more midrangy that the texas specails and the lead tones for my stievies tones cut through very nicely. both guitars sound great on most of the SRV songs but the GFS pickups sound more like the Lenny pickups when I play Riviera Paradice. A lot of tone. they are punchy yet glassy. I am glad on this guitar I chose GFS instead of the texas specials.

These are some of the best sounding pickups I have ever bought. I will do more bussness with GFS in the future. I have bought SD's Dimarzios fender pickups and thes pickups are definatly the same quality and a better value. I say give them a try. For the price what do you have to lose.

set of 3 single coil Strat pickups (5.2, 5.2, 10.0 ohms)

Project American made Strat (unknown year... it's a collection of parts), all three positions. I hesitated changing the existing pickups (unknown make) because they sounded pretty good... smooth and mellow, but I've been wanting to try these GFS Texas specials and wanted something with a little more sparkle.

Good output in neck and bridge position, a little weak in the middle position.... I wish it was wound to about 6-7 ohms. Very responsive, nice sparkle, respond well to tone rollback. Good squak in 2 & 4 positions. Acceptably quiet.

I play classic rock/blues. Amps are a '64 Princeton and a Kustom 6V. I'm quite happy with the tone.

These are very nice pickups for a great price. They'll go head-to-head with stock American Fender, and are a great upgrade for any imported Strats.

Single Coil Passive 3 set... 9.4k, 5.5k, 5.35

I have hotrodded an inexpensive Rondo SX 57 Vintage. I replaced all the electronics in the guitar with those purchased from guitarfetish.com, including the GFS pickups.

In a word... this guitar now ROCKS. The clear sounds now are smooth and really glassy. When pushed, the dirty sounds are very crunchy and meaty. I play everything from classic rock to blues to christian contemporary. With this pickup set, the guitar now covers all those styles well. I cannot believe the sound... it is above ANY of the strats I have tried at local music stores, mexican or american. Try these pickups, you'll like them.

If my guitar was stolen, I'd rebuild it with these again, absolutely. I have played for 30+ years, have owned many guitars, and can honestly say these are the best single coils I have heard or played. A bonus is also that they are quiet. I had thought about buying some higher end Fenders, but after listening to the sound samples on the guitarfetish site, decided to go with these. The sound for the price is an incredible value. I paid $65 (including shipping) for the WHOLE SET! There may be other pickups that sound as good, but you'd be hard pressed to convince me of any that sound better for the music I play. If you are looking for a voice that will not disappoint, put a set of these in and find a new reason to pick up your guitar over and over!

Pickup features: Passive SC Hot bridge
Impedence or other specs: Bridge Pickup 9.4K, Middle 5.5k, Neck 5.3k

Model of guitar or bass: 2003 Fender MIM Standard Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Fender 62RI neck, 60's MIJ RI mid & bridge
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Rock, country, blues fusion
Reason for pickup change: Guitar has poplar body. Very generic sounding. Stock PUPs did nothing to help. Wanted something hotter & more sparkley.
62 RI neck PUP was OK. But 60's RI PUPs were harsh and obnoxious. Wanted to try Texas Specials. But at this price, I couldn't resist. Sound Bytes on site were just what I was looking for. At 1/2 the price of Texas Specials.

Perceived output level: All 3 definatley louder than stock. Bridge has just enough kick to stand out. Very responsive.
Tone: Bridge is very bright, not screachy or tizzy, though. Would benefit from tone control mod when used alone. Mellows out nicely in combined settings. Overall tone is very ballanced and musical. Really sweet sounding.
Sonic evaluation: The afore metioned MIM Fender Standard Strat directly into an Allen Multi Tube 16 watt class A tube head and 1 12" Rolla in a Custom closed back cabinet. No need for any pedals here. This rig covers clean to nasty.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play all types of rock except hard core metal, country, funk, fusion & blues. They work for me across the board.

Comments: I would absolutley buy these again in a heartbeat. I'm also going to try a set in my daughter's Squire Strat, as well as GFS' Tele PUPs and Liverpoole and Hot Nashvilles in some of my other guitars.
I've been playing since 1969 (Summer Of Love). I currently own a 57 RI Strat,Guild S300-D,Standard Tele,Custom ash Tele,Ibanez hollowbody,Kent Les Paul copy, Kramer Focus, Takamine Sante Fe, Ibanez TCY15, Sigma,and several project guitars, and probably some I can't remember at the moment.
My amps include the aforementioned Allen rig, a Crate GT80, Fender Princeton 65 and an old Peavy.
I don't use many pedals, But I do own several: Boss compressor sustainer, Tube screamer, DigiTech Genesis 1,Dan O Wha,Boss Wha,and a few Danelectro pedals.
I Hated the sterile generic sound of the stock PUPs. I changed to a Fender '62RI MIJ neck and '60's RI MIJ mid & bridge PUPs I bought on E Bay. The neck was alright, though nothing special. The other 2 were horrible, harsh unmusical... The exact oposite of these. They were in the guitar about as long as it took to order & recieve these, maybe a week.
I'm totally satisfied with these Pickups.Especially since they cost half of what I was going to spend on Texas Specials.
They nail every sound I need from them.
I'll probably mod my tone controls so I can cut back the treble on the bridge a bit when I use the 1 position. But even the brightness is not harsh or unpleasant sounding. I'd just like a little control over it.
Also, Jay, from Guitar Fetish Store is an awesome guy to work with. He's very helpful and knollagable and stands behind what he sells. I e mailed him with some questions and he got back to me the same day. And he followed up to make sure I was satisfied.

Pickup features: vintage syle w/ hot bridge
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: My custom ebaycaster
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Lace Sensors
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Rock, blues etc.
Reason for pickup change: Seeking that Jimi/Eric/Stevie sound (like everybody else!)

Perceived output level: Hot bridge, middle & neck average
Tone: The highs are smooth, sparkly and very glassy. The lows are warm & punchy.
Sonic evaluation: Just using my homemade strat w/ Mightymite neck (very nice) through a Vox Pathfinder R15 and a Tubulator - a very low budget setup. Had to sell off all my good stuff.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I like a sound that lies inthe territory of Hendrix, Clapton and SRV, along with cleaner funk & blues sounds. Also dig the guitar sounds of Tom Petty, REM and the Smithereens. Al these folks use guitars with vintage style pickups, and achieve their sounds with different amps & playing styles. A guy who used to live in the apt. above me would would hear me practicing and comment that I sounded like Jimi Hendrix. I was just playing some basic blues with my amp cooking just right. I never have, and never will, try to be the next Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn, but if I canget a similar sounds from my rig, that makes me happy. e

Comments: I've never played though "boutique" pickups such as Fralins etc. Have tried various stock Fenders, including Tex Mex and aftermaket pups by DiMarzio, Duncan, Lace, & Bill Lawrence. The GFS are pretty typical alnico single coils in some respects. However they have just the right output to suit me - and that smooth, glassy vintage sound with an accentuation on the G string like most vintage staggered pickups. I especially like the way the bridge is overwound. Not overly hot, not thin & wimpy - just right. Solid & powerful, yet glassy & twangy. The sound of the 2 & 4 positions is very nice. The middle pickup sounds good by itself. I use it a lot. Of course, the neck pickup is very bluesy. I can't see why you couldn't use these for nearly any style of music. They sound good clean or overdriven. They can rock out or twang or get funky. In other words, the GFS do what strat pickups are supposed to do. When other manufacturers want $50 each for similar pups and don't even give you a break on a set of three, buying GFS makes a lot of sense. I don't know if they're the ultimate or if they're really as good as the super expensive boutique stuff but GFS is very good. I'm giving them a 10 based on price/performance.

Pickup features: Single Coil calibrated set
Impedence or other specs: Bridge Pickup 9.4K, Middle 5.5k, Neck 5.3k - Alnico V

Model of guitar or bass: ESP Series 400 - Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Stock ESPs
Other pickups on guitar: None
Artists using this pickup: NA
You musical style(s): Prog Rock, Country, Worship, Rock, Blues, R&B etc etc
Reason for pickup change: The stock pups, although a massive improvement over Fender pups, were on the harsh side. They could really cut through playing live but I play more in the studio now and fancied a change.

Perceived output level: Hot overwound bridge, vintage middle and neck circa late 50s
Tone: Two words - lush and present. And in all positions on the 5 way. The set is balanced and nails that vintage strat sound and then some. Real grunt in the bass end and snap and pop at the top when you dig in. Glassy and sparkling with real character but with that complexity in the mid range (woodiness?) thats hard to describe that you only get from good single coil pups. Articulate but not unforgiving.
Sonic evaluation: I use a Line 6 Rack exclusively now - even live, although most of my work is not anymore. With the amps in this set up (half of which I have physcially owned in the past), there are no options out of the 32 that don't sound good with these GFS pups. In fact there are settings which I use now that I never liked before either with the ESP or my other guitars - Gibsons/Charvels.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: You could try using these for shred metal but there are probably better pups for that - these do anything else.

Comments: I've been playing over 30 years and have seen the massive growth in replacement pickups and have used many well known brands myself. Changing to these pups has been truly inspirational and I now get in the car to get home from work looking forward to picking up the Strat and playing it. It just sounds soooo good. Set up the amp to just break up and back them off for beautiful cleans and wind em up and dig in for wailing, sustaining blues. Set up for clean and they will ring away all night. Quietest pups I've heard as well.
You name it, from the Strat sound stable these do it. Gilmour, Healy, Gallagher, Blackmore, SRV, Hendrix, Clapton, Cray, Knopfler, Marvin, Carlton, Samboro.
Everyone, including my 9 year old son, have complemented me on the sound, including some grizzled old musos - you know the sort who think that valves rule and nothing after 62 was any good from Fender. Mind you I just wish I'd kept the 65 Deluxe I had once - now that would be the perfect match for this GFS Texas set ..... killer live sound!
This won't be the only set I'll buy from Jay at GFS