GFS Pickups Crunchy PAF

humbucking PAF repro with a slightly higher output i ordered the bridge model

i recently discovered my first guitar, an epiphone les paul special II in several pieces in my closet and was stricken with a creative urge to rebuild it. my way. i filled the neck pickup rout and refinished the guitar, ordered this pickup along with a bevy of new replacement parts from guitar fetish and decided to pop it into this single pup project guitar.

wow. i had heard good things about GFS but i was a little worried about the quality of this pickup and the sound. i plugged it into an old dean markley tube amp from when the made amps in CA back in the 70s and i was just in awe. it sounds like the name says. it sounds lke an old gibson PAF, it gets THE TONE that everyone wants! surprisingly dynamic, i kept the volume low and i got very warm clean tones, cranked it up and its exactly what it says, a "crunchy" PAF. just slighlty higher output and VERY warm, this is definetley not a twangy pickup, with the tone knob and treble on the amp cranked it still retains that warm les paul tone. and wow. im still amazed how it just lifts up this guitar like i have never heard it play. jeez. i think im gonna buy another one for my epi G400, and MAYBE even my gibson SG special. i think GFS has swayed me. im a GFS pup user from now on. WOW.

i would definetley replace this thing. FAST. ive been playing 8 years and am in a rock band out of southern connecticut. i just installed this pickup today but i am so gonna play out with my les paul now. jeez. its like the perfect tone. i thought the 490t's and my gibson were good, but this thing is like ME! IN A PICKUP! FOR 25 BUCKS!!!!!

Passive humbucker, 14k at the bridge 10 at the neck

I have one in the neck of an LTD EC-300 and bridge/neck in an LTD Viper-301

replacing EMG-HZ in both

Great output, pickss up harmonics great. I play through a marshall valvestate 8200 and play metal and hardcore... great versatility.

humbucking full size chrome covered 4 wire pickup, +/- 14ohm... regular spacing.

Installed in Bridge of Epiphone Dot Studio.
Replacing the stock hot 13k ceramic epiphone pickup.
In the neck I have a GFS Dream 90.
No clue which artists use these.
Although the stock pickup was okay in this guitar (probably a FIRST for Epiphone.. the dot studio actually comes with nice pickups)... but it was a little dark and possibly a little hot for me.

The output of this is a little lower than my stock epi dot studio bridge pickup. Currently I run a ltd edition (with celestion) fender blues junior. The old pickup was good - at driving the amp to distortion, sustain, etc., but was a little too much, where I didnt get good dynamics out of it. When I first installed the GFS, I didnt like it - lower output, maybe a little more trebly than I wanted. I promptly took it out...before playing in a band situation.. I was just.. annoyed at first. then two weeks later I thought I would try again... OK.... I adjusted the pickup height, balanced it out a bit better with the dream 90.. and went to rehearsal with the band. Whoah. Okay at FULL volume, this thing came alive. Suddenly, I was getting better definition, clarity, good overdrive (no zakk wylde but I wasnt looking for that). No - I got exactly what I was looking for: The line between classic and modern rock. We cover everything from Gary Moore to Scorpions, Santana to GnR. This baby did it all and made my other guitarist jealous!! Suddenly I was jumping out of the mix, getting clean sound when I backed off my picking, or hard hitting BadCo distortion (with articulation and clarity) when digging in. Then a week later, we played an outdoor festival - big stage - warming up for a (big 80s popular hair band) in WV.. mic'ing up the blues junior, and using this guitar, the sound was huge, and kept up with the walls of marshalls (not in stage volume of course, but through the mains and monitors).
I dont really know iif this pickup would be great in the neck, as I cant and probably wont try it there (I really like the dream 90 in the neck)... but I will assume it would sound good.

If lost, I might try the GFS Fat Pats first, but if they didnt work out, would surely come back to this pickup for all my humbucking guitars. been playing professionally since the early 80s.. almost 30 years. There is nothing I hate about this pickup. I had to give it the proper chance in order to fall in love with it - out of the box, and at living-room levels, I wasnt impressed.. however, in a live setting I havent owned a better pickup - even duncan and dimarzios.. and price - at 25 bucks, less than half the cost of a dimarzio super distortion, and even even less than that of a duncan jb. I have GFS Pickups in all my guitars - and have done so for the last three or four years.

Neck position humbucker, no cover, black/black bobbins. Can be tappped.

Franken-telly, Les Paul Juniorish with mahogany body, maple neck, Gibson scale.

Neck.

Replacing, with hearty regrets (and maybe temporarily), a GFS Dream 90. In love with the Dream 90's tone, but can't deal with the P-90 noise in my hoplessly old-wired studio.

I use a variety of recording software--Amplitube, Guitar Rig etc, with a Tech 21 Trademark 60 and a Trademark 20 as my "real" amps.

I play amped-up blues rock a-la Leslie West meets Rory Gallagher, and I wanted a humbucker that could "stand in" for a P-90. But I had never found a neck humbucker that gave me the clarity and balls I was looking for--at the same time. This comes close, though in humbucking mode it sounds a little sonically flat to my ear. Not necessarily a bad thing; it just doesn't seem to "breathe" much. But the more or less linear tones are really sweet. There's a darkness in the mids that is NOT muddy and gives bucker mode with moderate crunch/distortion a clarinet-like quality that really sings and enhances a good vibrato. Warning, it also enhances a bad one. Much clearer than my Gibson neck buckers. Dimed, it's still pretty clear and jeez, it just sustains for days. I'm so surprised, because I thought this axe had decent sustain with the Dream 90 single coils. Now it's like the scene from Spinal Tap where Nigel demonstrates the "wahahahahahah" sustain on his prized Paul. WTF. Score. Clean, I can get some nice flutey jazz tones.

In single coil mode, this pup really shines. There's a little more breath in the notes--a little less of the dark mids than in humbucking mode, so you can get some excellent blues out of it. Responds nicely to the tone control.

I replaced the bridge Dream 90 with a Fat Pat, more on that in a separate review. The Crunchy Pat, in the middle position with the Fat Pat, offers some really nice tonal options. When both are in single coil mode, you can get a decent Tele-like squawk. Playing with the coil taps, you can approximate a nice variety Jimmy Page tones in the middle position. This would be a killer axe to play in a classic rock cover band!

I've been playing actively since '74 and know good tone and how it's made.

This is a really good pickup if you're looking for a neck pup with a uniquely flute/clarinet tone. I doubt it would be good for metal, too much mids. But for some other styles, jazz/blues/rock, this could give you some useful tone. If you want to know what I mean, youtube Artie Shaw Begin the Beguine. That lead clarinet is what this pup reminds me of. Including the high, "overdriven" stabs.

I've yet to find my Holy Grail of tone, which is somewhere in the murky territory between Leslie West's vintage LIVE Mountain tone and marshallized horns and woodwinds--that cleans up to huge, kerrangy chords. This is an interesting discovery along the path to that elusive goal.

Cheap, too.

passive humbucer 14k

Dimavery FV-520 (cheap ****), I've replaced the factory pup, why? because the factory pup wasn't good;>

It sounds awesome... in guitar for about 110$ in poland it sounds just like the EMG 81 in Epiphone for about 450$ (of course in poland) or maybe even better. I give only 9 because I'm sure that there is a better one but not for this price

I've planed to buy the d activator but by the price difference I decieded to try the cheaper one.. probably if I change the guiter I'll replace bridge pup with this one. If it was stolen I'd probably by another one.

You have seen the specs, double coil humbucker, ceramic magnet, 4 conducter wiring blah, blah, blah.

I have these in a Gibson Les Paul classic. The stock pickups were great but...I have put these in some other guitars and loved the clarity and low end, it only made a good guitar better.

Very nice low end with an open, balanced sound. No noticable humps or notches in the mid range, over all a very balanced sound with a very aggressive mid range crunch and attack. The neck position pickup is by far the best available. That was one of the reasons for changing out the stock gibson pickups. It you like that mushy, flutey sound, this ain't it. The neck pickup here is very well defined, even enough for chords with a high gain amp. Very articulate and well defined. In a way it has the clarity and definition of a high end single coil.

For the bridge position I prefer the Fat paf with the Alnico magnets, but you cannot beat this pickup. In my view it is a high end, high quality swap out. Don't get hung up on the price, a low price does not mean a cheap sound. These are now my favorite. I have been playing for over 40 years and have used it all.

zebra humbucker matched set.
these are amazing, almost as close as the original humbuckers in my 1987 les paul.

inlayed map guitar from vietnam.

these are amazing for the value and rip at high gain and sound clear with out breaking up.

the original pickups were crap and i didn't even test them out just changed since i knew these would be better.

amazing, i'm giving them a 9 since they are great but not like the gibsons i have.

i have 3 sets of GFS already and will buy more.

these are a great value and have an amazing sound, better than some epiphone pickups i have heard.

GFS crunchy PAF NECK.....

gibson SG....

Unbelievable, the perfect neck pickup.....

Best neck pickup I'v heard in my 35 years of playing.....

Passive humbucker. Chrome cover. 5 wires.

I put this pickup in the bridge position of my Gibson SG Elite just to give it a test drive.

This review will be short. Very low output and no punch. This pickup is so dull and weak compared to a Gibson 490T or a DiMarzio Virtual PAF. I can't call this a PAF because it's too cheap-sounding.

!!!!!UPDATE!!!!!!

This is the follow-up to my previous review which should be completely ignored. I don't know what exactly went wrong the first time I installed this pickup, but I reinstalled it in the same guitar and it sounds great ! I was about to sell it until I got a reaction on my first review from Greg Lewis who's working as a luthier in Wales. He encouraged me to give the crunchy PAF another try because he's been using these for years and won't ever buy expensive pickups again. So I took the word from a pro and reinstalled the pickup double-checking everything this time and yes ... he was right !
This pickup is cheap but sounds like the best out there. It's warm, punchy and articulate like a PAF should be.
Once again, forget about my previous review. It was based on a technical error and I apologize for me giving it bad publicity.

These pickups are cheap and sound cheap. If you're used to Duncans, DiMarzios or Gibsons these GFS-pickups won't be good enough. Pickups must be touch-sensitive, punchy and dynamic. I'd rather by a second-hand big brand pickup than another new GFS pickup that's for sure !
I couldn't even recommend these pickups to debutants.

GFS Crunchy Pat, Alnico V, GOLD Covered, Neck humbucker. These come from GFS with 4-leads for Single-coil options.

I used the Crunchy Pat in my GIBSON Les-Paul. I own THREE Les-Pauls. Two of them have BB-Pro's which came stock from Gibson. I absolutly LOVE the neck BB-Pro. In the bridge position they are OK. So this LP has the 490/498 Gibson set. And while IMO the bridge 498 sounds great, I just think the neck is way to Muddy for me. So I bought the Cruncy Pat for the Neck position.

After removing the 490 in my Les-Paul and soldering in the Crunchy Pat I finally had a shot to Jam with the Les-Paul tonight.

The neck version of this Crunchy Pat is AWESOME, While its not EXACTLY like a BB-Pro. Its close! It has a bigger Bass response. The pick-up is Clear, Clean, Raw and Edgy. Its output is all of 10K and fit GREAT with the Gibson bridge 498. The set sounds like they were made for each other much moe than the 490 did.

Many players like the Alnico II magnets for their humbuckers and rightfully so, that is what the Great ones of the late 50's were by Gibson. While I could go Alnico II in the bridge I find that the Alnico V is my favorite for the neck position.

This Les-Paul will NOW get a LOT of use due mainly to the GFS neck Crunchy Pat. I have had a difficult time over the years finding Neck humbuckers I am totally happy with. GFS has now given me THREE different neck humbuckers I absoluty LOVE in the Crunchy Pat, Fat Paf, and the Dream 180. The Crunchy Paf stands out from the others due to its output. At 10K its no whimp, yet it does retain so much Tone for the output. The Clearness of this pick-up is immediatly noticed. The second thing I noticed was the Bass response on it, Next I found the pick-up almost asking to played hard with it Edgy, Raw Crisp Tone! Nice job again JAY!

Pick-Up is a 10, no doubt about it. And its not a 10 because its a great pick-up for the price! Regardless of what I could, would or did spend for the pick-up, I would have paid $100, bucks for this pup or more for this EXACT Tone! I have a good idea now of what GFS's pick-ups will sound like from reading his sight info and from owning many of his pick-ups already. So I have found this pick-up to be everything it was desribed to be. Bpttom line is I want a Clean, Clear pick-up in the neck of ALL my guitars. So Gibsons 57 classic and 490 have never impressed me.

THis Crunchy Pat has given me another Tool to use now in my Musical journey. The Studio would just have not been played with the 490 ib the neck. And its a SHAME. While I LOVE my Vintage Mahogany LP, and my Standard LP. This Studio just has the best feel with the combination of a FAT neck and a weight of 8LBs on the nose. And it just Rings out acoutically.

I found it very disappointing that I enjoyed playing a $159.00 dollar Xaviere electric OVER my Les-Paul Gibby? Regarless HOW much a guitar cost or how well its built? If it has a Neck pick-up I don't care for, I will not play it!

When I dropped the Crunchy Paf in the STUDIO the guitar went from a under the bed Dust Collector to a Spot in the Line-Up of electrics I CONSTANTLY USE. And really a lot of this is DUE TO THE GFS Crunchy Pat! This was a great guitar before the GFS pup, but a great guitar not being used! GFS has once again done its MAGIC with this pick-up!

BTW I can't speak on the bridge version cause I haven't played it as of yet. But after hearing the neck? I might try a bridge version in my other LP to go along with the neck BB-Pro. That combo most likely will work great also?