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Home > Guitar > Electric Guitar Pickup Reviews > GFS Pickups > Crunchy Rails

GFS Pickups Crunchy Rails

Summary
Manufacturer URL http://store.guitarfetish.com/
Sound 8.7 (6 responses)
Overall Rating 9.0 (6 responses)
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Product: GFS Pickups Crunchy Rails
Price Paid: USD 35
Submitted 05/05/2009 at 04:11pm by Dave

Features :
15k Rail type full size humbucker for bridge

Instrument :
Bridge position of a yamaha Pacifica 112. I love that guitar but the original humbucker was kinda 80s sounding(but in a good way) i wanted something more modern. It was installed with a lil killer in the middle and a duncan hotrail in the neck.

Sound : 8
I really like that pickups specially when overdriven. Great overdrive tones. It mixes very well when recorded. The highs when you solo are smooth. I gave it an 8 because the clean are not as good, it is a bit dry for my taste. I play instrumental rock and jazz fusion i really like the sound i get.

Overall Rating : 8
Great pick-up of the 3 pick-up mentioned earlier it's the only one i kept. I replaced the lil' killer and hotrail with emg select pickups this morning. I am gonna make up my mind about the emg's later.

Note: WIRING and magnet orientations are the same has seymour duncan


Product: GFS Pickups Crunchy Rails
Price Paid: USD 35
Submitted 04/28/2009 at 04:38pm by Dave

Features :
Rail type full size passive humbucker!

Instrument :
Installed in the bridge position of a Yamaha pacifica 112. There is a little killer wired in parallel in the middle and a duncan hot-rail in the neck. I replace the yamaha pickup. It was a good one but a bit too 80s for my taste.

Sound : 8
High output. I use it with tech21( trademark60 or sansamp california)
I play instrumental rock and i was searching for a bridge pickup that was pleasing to ear recorded. Usually high ouptut pickups are considered a bit muddy, but this one is very bright played clean. The clean sound is above average maybe. This pickup really shine when a bit of gain is added. When there is a lot of gain it is even better.
I really like that pickup it hold up the the quality of the duncan hot rail. Good work GFS
Note that some people need to pay a lot for their goods in order to feel they bought something good. Me i use blind test. Since i putted that pickup i receive compliment on my tone, it never happened before. SO i guess yammy+gfs+tech21=good tone

Overall Rating : 9
I really like that pickup when it is used for what it is intended to be it is great value!


Product: GFS Pickups Crunchy Rails
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 03/11/2009 at 08:01am by lodaddy
Email: roscoepeterson<at>yahoo dot com

Features :
humbucking rail pickups that fit in a single coil space.

Instrument :
i have the "calibrated crunchy rails set in 2 of my home made strat type guitars. i needed a quiet pickup that had balls and tone. these really did the job nicely.

Sound : 10
i play my guitars thrugh a peavey bandit. i have used these amps for years because of thier reliability and great consiatant tone. i cant tell you how happy i am with these pickups. they are very vesitile and resond dynamically well when you turn the guitars volume down. the lead sound is very thick but with a nice high end kick. you can get a nice brian may meets steve vai lead tone. much to my suprise, when you turn off the distotion these pickups are very sweet clen sounding. after insalling my first set ang gigging a couple of times, i ordered 3 more sets right away. when you consider the price of a set of three calibrated pickups (a little over 60 bucks with shipping) you cannot go wrong.

Overall Rating : 10
i have already ordered a spare set incase of breakage or whatever.


Product: GFS Pickups Crunchy Rails
Price Paid: USD 35.00
Submitted 02/28/2009 at 10:14pm by EBMMAxis Playa

Features :
The GFS Crunchy Rail Humbucker bridge pickup comes in three color choices of white, black, ivory, or zebra(which I have) These things have 2 stainless steel rails. These hings are HOTT. Even playing through a solid state, these things are really hott. Great for Marshalls or Triple Recs.

Instrument :
I installed this pickup in my Jackson Dinky, replacing the stock Seymour Duncan, and it kills it. The only problem it has is there are two single coils in the middle and neck positions, and its just so hott, it kills those pickups and completely drowns them out. For 40 bucks you can't go wrong

Sound : 9
Obviously it's hot as i said before. I use a solid state unfortunatley but it really brings out the tonal quality of my amp. I play 80s metal, glam, and stuff like hat so its a perfect fit. This thing is really balanced out with its treble and mids. perfect for 80s stuff.

Overall Rating : 10
If something happened to this thing, I would surely replace it. without a doubt, and ill buy every fricken pickup they have for the price. Ive been playing for 3 years. I eel this pickup, and anything else from gfs, beats any seymour duncan. Id like to try every one of their pickups.


Product: GFS Pickups Crunchy Rails
Price Paid: USD 25.00
Submitted 06/01/2008 at 12:49pm by CERTIFIER665

Features :
THIS PICKUP IS A GREAT PICKUP BUT HERE IS THE CATCH....GFS ALWAYS TOUTS THEMSELVES AS THE CREATORS OF THEIR PICKUPS....WELL FOLKS THEY ARE MADE OVER SEAS AND A COMPANY CALLED ARTEC AND ANOTHER COMPANY CALLED SJK MAKE THE SAME PUPS...GFS ACTUALLY CHARGES A BIT MORE DUE TO SOME OF THE EXTRA COSTS RELATED TO FANCY PACKAGING AND SOME CUSTOM FEATURES IE: MOP TOPS ON SOME OF THEIR PUPS...HERE IS THE STORY OF HOW I CAME TO KNOW THESE FACTS.I PURCHASED A PAIR OF GFS RAIL PUPS ONE WAS MADE WITH BLACK RAILS AND ONE CAME IN WITH CHROME RAILS EVEN THOUGH I ORDERED BOTH WITH CHROME RAILS...I WAS TOLD THEY WOULD MAKE MORE SOON...WELL THREE MONTHS LATER AND FULLY FRUSTRATED I STUMBLED ON SOUTHEAST MUSIC ONLINE SELLING WHAT LOOKED LIKE THE SAME RAIL STYLE PICKUPS SO I WENT FOR IT TO COMPLETE MY PROJECT. I RECEIVED IT ALMOST THREE DAYS LATER IN A PLAIN PACKAGE WRAPPED IN THE SAME FOAM WRAP THAT GFS USED...I MEASURED THE OUTPUT ITS THE SAME AS THE GFS PUP. THE ENTIRE PICKUP DOWN TO THE MULTI CONTACT WIRE USED IS IDENTICAL.

Instrument :
I REALLY NEEDED A HIGH OUTPUT PICKUP WITH THIS LOOK TO RESTORE AN OLDER IBANEZ GUITAR I HAVE WHICH CAME WITH THE V7 RAIL STYLE PUPS WHICH OBVIOUSLY AREN'T MADE ANY MORE SOME 20 YEARS LATER. THEY WORK GREAT NOT QUITE AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINALS BUT GOOD ENOUGH TO MAKE ME HAPPY WITH THE RESTORATION. GFS SELLS GREAT PICKUPS BUT I MUST SAY THAT MANY OF THEM ARE STANDARD FOREIGN MADE PICKUPS WITH ALOT OF HYPE...DIESEL AND SEVERAL OTHER COMPANIES BUY THESE AND PUT THEIR NAME ON THEM TOO....WHAT WAS REALLY STRANGE TO ME WAS WHEN I RECEIVED THE TWO DIFFERENT COLORED RAIL PUPS FROM GFS ONLY THE NECK PUP WAS STAMPED ON THE BOTTOM WITH THE GFS LOGO THE OTHER HAD THE STANDARD F OR B STAMP THAT DESIGNATES FRONT OR BRIDGE POSITION FOR THAT PUP AND THAT MADE ME QUESTION THEIR HONESTY ABOUT MAKING THESE...I'M NOT NAIVE AND WHEN GFS SAYS "WE WOUND'EM HOT" THEY MEAN THEY ORDERED THEM HOT WOUND FROM SJK OR WHOEVER IS MAKING THEM OVERSEAS. NOW FOR MY HONEST REVIEW.

Sound : 7
THE OUTPUT MEASURED OUT AT 15.4k AS ADVERTISED BY SJK NOT GFS WHO SAYS THEY ARE HIGHER...IN FACT TO QUOTE "THE HOTTEST PICKUP WE MAKE" IT SUITS MY PURPOSES WELL AND SOUNDS GOOD. A GREAT HIGH GAIN METAL PICKUP!

Overall Rating : 7
I'D BUY MORE BUT AT THE CHEAPER SJK PRICE NOT THE OVER HYPED GFS PRICE. SJK SELLS THESE AROUND 20 BUCKS A GREAT DEAL GFS WANTS MORE COIN TO SUPPORT THE PACKAGING...I'M NOT USING A FANCY BOX ON MY GUITAR JUST THE PUP RIGHT? SJK SELLS THEM WITH BLACK RAILS CHROME RAILS AND SOMETHING GFS DOESN'T DO IN GOLD RAILS WHICH I'M CONSIDERING FOR ANOTHER PROJECT.
GFS NEEDS TO DO SOME MORE INVENTORY CONTROL SO THEY DO NOT MIX UP RAIL COLORS AND PICKUP RING SCREW COLORS. MINE CAME IN WITH THE BLACK RAILS WITH CHROME SCREWS AND VICE VERSA ON THE OTHER PUP...LETS GET IT TOGETHER GUYS...THESE ARE JUST FACTS...OVERALL A GREAT PICKUP BUT IT IS A GENERIC PUP SOLD UNDER MANY NAMES...


Product: GFS Pickups Crunchy Rails
Price Paid: USD 33.95
Submitted 04/08/2008 at 11:47pm by Matt
Email: mtuckx at gmail<dot>com

Features :
A passive 16.2 impedance humbucker with a single rail across each coil. My review is for the bridge. Professionally wired for coil tapping (comes with a color installation guide!). An utterly professionally made pickup in every way.

Instrument :
I dropped it into my Fernandes Revolver Pro, which is equipped with the Fernandes Sustainer. The sustainer has its own active EMG in the neck, and the stock bridge passive PU wasn't all that bad, but I wanted more tone from my bridge PU. Since I didn't want to totally re-wire the guitar to be able to accommodate another Active pickup, I looked for a good, hot, passive PU. Rather than go with a Dimarzio Evolution, which I already knew would be a good choice. I took a gamble and went with the GFS Crunchy Rails. I know sometimes we reviewers can be a little overblown in the way we praise the equipment we love, but I can tell you without a doubt this is as good a hot humbucking pickup as you'll ever find - at half the price of most quality PU's!

Sound : 10
"Crunchy" is indeed a good way to describe the tone, but I'd describe it as muscular. In my opinion hi-impedance aspect of a PU like this is overstated. This isn't merely a uber-hot PU for death metal kids. I play a range from Van Halen to Dimebag. The gain is good, but it's TONE that make this PU great. I was concerned that the rails would cause the strings to dissolve into each other, and string separation would be lost. Not so. This PU has all the separation of a Seymore Duncan PAF or a Dimario Evo, with an added muscular tone or crunch.

Overall Rating : 10
Every once in a while, I happen upon a small company out there on the Internet that's doing something better than the overgrown companies. I love the story of the GFS company, which is basically a guy named Andrew that was able to make an array of homemade PU's that were as good or better than the big companies made. Fortunately for us, he found a manufacturer that could mass produce his PU's identically to his originals and now sells them exclusively through his website (guitarfetish.com) and his eBay store (UserID: guitarfetish_parts). I feel like I'm in on a secret that the rest of the world will soon discover. In the meantime, I get to have the best PU's in my guitars turn heads everywhere I go. I can't wait to drop a set of these in my Ibanez Prestige. I'll deffinately review the Neck Crunchy soon after.

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