GFS Pickups Dream 90

P90 pickups in a Humbucking case. Fits great on my 90's LP classic.

I installed a pair of these (Gloss Black) in my 90's Gibson Les Paul Classic. The pickups that were in the LP were way too hat for my tastes. I couldn't tame my amps down to like them. Both amps are an original Blues Deluxe and a New Blues Jr.

The out put seems to be a low / medium output. The original pickups were breaking up way too early (pushing too hard) These now give me some phenomenal clean tones from my LP. These are single coils, but sound very warm. I compared this to my 90's Strat with Lace Sensor Golds in all three positions.

I love the clean Fender tones that are coming from my Gibson. Not exactly strat like sounds (you can tell they are single coil) , but they carry the heavy mahogany tones to your amp. I would definitely replace these if something happened to them.

Humbucker sized P90 single coil of fairly hot output. Silver cover. Three wires out.

I purchased both the neck & bridge pickups to replace the stock humbuckers in an Ibanez AXD81 Artcore. The stock pups were a bit generic and muddy sounding and really sounded good only with my Tech 21 Trademark 60. They did not interact all that well with my tube amps. The guitar is sweet but it was just hanging on the wall looking pretty.

I have 10 electric guitars, all modified to greater or lesser degrees. I have tried many pickups. I prefer single coils for their clarity and the articulation they allow you to retain when chording. I also think they allow you greater versatility with overdrive pedals than do humbuckers. For the blues, old school rock and R&B stuff I play the GFS Dream 90s are the cat's ass. These things retain the features I like to hear in a single coils but have an extra kick that gives their tone an edge. They also like my gain pedals (Keeley modified Boss Blues Driver, Fuchs Extreme Cream and Danelectro Drive (do yourself a favour and buy this pedal) and they deliver a creamy distortion through my 1976 Traynor YGL Mark III, 1973 Traynor Guitar YGM 3, THD Univalve and Epiphone Valve Junior. These pickups have transformed this guitar. They are very resposive to pick attack and dynamics. They can shimmer, squeal, bark and howl. I read in various sources on the web that people were having some trouble wiring these pups. They have three wires. GFS says they are a hot and two grounds. My Ibanez has one volume control and one tone control. I wired the pups as suggested in the diagram enclosed by GFS. No problems. I even left the stock 500K pots in place. No single coil hum that I can detect and no static or crackle when touching any of the metal parts on the guitar. Success. I am now considering installing them in a couple of other guitars. These pups are a gas to play. I just put a pair of 12 inch Celestion Vintage 30s in my 1976 Traynor YGL Mark III. When I play the Dream 90s through that amp/speaker combo, I can honestly say that I am finally hearing the overdrive sound I have imagined for years. I get crunch and chime together - the combination that creates a great overdrive tone. It's a tone that makes you want to play more and better. We all need that sort of encouragement.

I would most certainly replace these pups if lost or stolen. Cheap and sand great. What else do you want?

This is for a pair if single coil Dream 90's with passive tone controls.

These were put into both the bridge and neck positions of an Epiphone Sheraton that's about 5 years old. It formerly had stock Humbuckers. It didn't sound bad, but next to my Strat with Harmonic Design pu's it came across very flat and one dimensional. And except for mini Humbuckers, I'm a little tired of the usual double coil sound. I haven't heard ones that have the kind of spring and attack of single coils. Yet sometime single coils also get too much of a "signature" sound, so I thought I'd try something in the P-90 realm to see if I could find something to bridge the gap, so I tried the Dream 90's.

The Dream 90's did have more sparkle and could be played with over more dynamic range. The bridge alone was very chimey, and mixing it with some from the neck gave a wide range of variations. Played through a Line 6, it seemed just right for that indie rock stripped down but lean sound. Then I put it though a Tweed Deluxe (yes, a real one), when cranked above half, it pushed nicely, and got that perfect overdrive with no fuzz sound, perfect for blues.

I've been playing for 40 years, more on bass. Long ago I got my perfect bass set up. On guitars I do my fun tweaking and experimentation.
I'm rating these a 10 for the value. There are other pick ups out there that might outperform these by a shade, but certainly not for the price. Given that, these are great pick ups to bring that work horse guitar up to the next level.

Home-made Les Paul Junior-ish axe, mahogany body/maple neck.

Neck and Bridge

Wanted a P-90 tone that wailed musically a-la Leslie West in a humbucker slot.

This is a follow-up to a review I already posted a few months ago. Honeymoon's far from over.

Just gotta say, and there are those out there who will know just what I mean--

I've been playing since '74, am an accomplished player who knows what the gear snobs mean when they say "tone" but who never lost the f--K-you-if-you-don't-like-it attitude of a rocker, honest. These pups have inspired more endless hours of pot-fueled wailing than any I've played in years. Yummy, creamaliscious tone that cleans up beautifully but roars like Woodstock on some evil, modern drug. I got the black cases with chrome polepieces, so they look vaguely P-90-ish too. I don't care if they're not sniff-sniff this and sniff-sniff that, anything they might be lacking in tone is made up for in bang-for-buck fun.

Single coil humbucking size. This one has a chrome cover with 6 centered pole pieces

In my Epi Dot Studio. Had it in the bridge position, with a dream 180 in the neck... but then switched it to the neck position, and pit the original epi bridge pickup back. So.. this is in the neck.

Sounds great! Had it in the brdge initially, but it was a little more on the high end than I wanted - slightly shrill. Put it in the neck, and WHOA.. this rocks!! Depending on the amp settings, the guitar volume and the what I am picking, I can get great cleans, raunchy overdrive, violin sustain, or out and out metal! I really like this in the neck! Just the right balance.

Rates a 9, only because I didnt like it in the bridge, for which it was initially intended, but LOVE it in the neck position.

Single coil, nickel covers, passive, around 8K for the neck and 8.5K in the bridge position. Drop in retrofit P90 tone for humbucker routed guitars. Alnico magnets.

Installed in an S101 EHI24 ES335 copy in both positions. Replaced the factory humbuckers, one of which was DOA. I have the GFS Mean 90's in another ES335 and an SG.

These are great sounding, full-bodied single coils, that are very articulate. They lack a bit in the bass compared to the Mean 90's and Duncan Phat Cats, but more than make up for it with strong upper mids and wonderful, almost bell-like top end. They will drive your preamp a bit harder since they are not really overwound or hot, and can produce some excellent crunch! Very quiet and well potted design, neck is RWRP, so they're noise cancelling with both positions on. I play mostly classic rock, 60's, 70's, and 80's, and use a Randall 200W hybrid 2X12 combo with another 2X12 extension cab. These pups wound wonderful with my usual effects which include a customized VOX Wah, Soul Preacher compressor, Small Stone phaser and Maxon analog chorus with BBG chip. The gain 1 channel of my Randall set on 3, with the compressor, and spring reverb set to 6 just about clones "Mary Jane's Last Dance" tone and harmonics. Can't say they are a perfect dupe of true P90's I have heard and played, but you don't have to deal with the poor microphonics of those damn bakelite covers either! I also think Alnico V has some beneficial qualities over Alnico II that most players prefer.

Yes, I'd replace them with these or Mean 90's, which have a different balance point toward the bass side.

single coil, passive
as replacement of a paf (roots)

bach les paul model, wich is an excellent guitar !!!
the originals where somewhat not satisfiying. i have also an flying V from bach and it sounds great . but this les paul sounded so much better dry, i thought to change the pickups.

output is strong !!!
a great blues sound . lively and totaly convincing....
it remebered my old les paul junior from '57.
i play all styles, in studios and live for about 30 years.
the tone is deep and very creamy. i was surprised , really this pick up is great. at least for this guitar.
a replaced only the neck pickup.
for bridge soudn i dont know, but i presume it will be great too.

sure i would buy them again. ihave also the gibson models of the same kind and they are very good too. but why spend the money !!!
maybe the gibsons are a little more even in sound and less deep. but i like the gfs 90 a lot. its very special, but really vintage.

i have a lot of guitars and amps so i dont need a guitar that does all the jobs. this paula is now a really cool blues and jazz guitar, wich it wasnt before....

humbucker sized single coil P-90, just drop these into a humbucker hole and you can rip like leslie west.

lower priced machine gun guitar, i wanted to get that growl that my 225 has, these are close but they arn't 50 years old.


original pickups fell apart and didn't even have any coil wire.

very good, i like these for the P-90.

the P-90 are some of my favorite pickup sounds, they are so underappreciated.

they only get a 9 not 10 since i'm comparing these to my old P-90s.

i will get more of GFS pickups, i have 3 different guitars with them in and they all sound amazing, the other 2 have the zebra vintage 59 classics and the crunchy pat zebras.

you can get an amazing set of pups without any rolling of the dice and without spending 100.00 each.

Standard, passive, single coil P90. The neck is reverse wound to eliminate hum when used in conjunction with the bridge...but you've probably been to the site and read all of that...

The GFS site says 8.2K for the neck and 8.4K for the bridge. Mine measured 8.1K and 8.5K...plus or minus the meter tolerances.

I put a set of these in my Epiphone Casino VT. It's a rare custom version that was originally outfitted with humbuckers. The original Epi's were mediocre. The clean was OK, but they had NO body--mostly piercing high end and too much "sub" bass...while at the same time being thin and muddy?? How Epiphone managed to do this, I'll never know??? Plus, they squealed at high volume or with moderate gain.

I replaced those with a set of Gibson 490s. I was very happy with the 490s for many years--definitely a MAJOR improvement. I even put a set of 490s in a G-400 (Epi SG), so I had a backup when playing live.

However, over time the 490T became a disappointment. It was embarrassing to switch to that pickup during a solo...unless you wanted to drop out of the mix. Also, I began noticing how generic and "standard" these guitars sounded. They sounded good, but the 490 [in my opinion] wasn't expressing much of the unique character of a guitar. It was a default, standard sound that you hear A LOT OF. Aurally, you couldn't really tell what kind of guitar you were playing or listening to...

Anyway...Everyone kept telling me, "OHHH, YOU GOTTA PUT SOME P90s IN THAT CASINO!!!" So, the Dream 90s replaced the 490s in the Casino.

These are a little hotter than the 490s (7.7K and 8K). There's more bass from the neck, and more output from the bridge. The increase in bass can make the neck sound muddy with high gain. However, the cool thing with the P90s is that they respond VERY WELL to changes in guitar volume. Rolling off a little volume can make a HUGE difference. I think the Bridge could be a little hotter, with slightly more bass response, but overall they are pretty well balanced. When you keep these moderately clean or use a good rock tone, they sound AMAZING. They actually give the Casino a lovely voice...

My performance FX chain is:
Guitar--> Ottava Magus--> Boss CS-2--> V8 Fuzz--> Hyper Pak--> Valcoder--> Bud Wah--> Nobels ODR-1+--> EB Volume Pedal--> Delay--> Serrano Picoso--> Amp (Peavey Classic 30, Carvin Nomad, Fender Twin, or a Traynor YRM-1SC--my favorite). I LOVE those little Catalinbread pedals.

When recording I use either an old SF Fender Champ or the Nomad with only the few pedals that I need and/or a PODxt (kind of soul-less, but great at 4:30am)

I play lead guitar in an basement/garage rock outfit...a little alt-americana pops in every now and then...very Mid-Western. It's a great sound and a perfect match for me.

I've been playing for 16 years. I've never had P90s before. I don't really have a good reference point. I've had Strat's and Tele's, but talk about a generic "signature tone"...Some people [the wanking Guitar Gods of Classic 99.9 or Yore--wherever they hail, Billy Corgan, Doug Martsch, tons of others etc.] do wonders with those guitars, but I could never really get into single coils. I've always enjoyed humbuckers, and when I wanted a thin tone or less output I use phase switches or coil taps...

If I ever lose or replace these, I might try Mean 90s, possibly a Kent Armstrong, or Gibson P94s [if I have the spare $240]...but I would probably stick with GFS. The whole reason I bought the Dream 90s is due to a set of GFS Retrotrons (GREAT PICKUPS!!!!). The quality and tone for the price is unbeatable, and Jay is incredibly helpful.

I don't know if I've found the right pickup, yet. These sound great, but I need to break them in for a while. I may get a Mean 90s if I can't deal with them. I'm very curious to know how they compare to Gibson P94s or any other quality P90.

P90 single coil in a humbucker-sized mount.
Black & pearl 'tuxedo' model (if it matters)

2005 Fender Highway One Stratocaster
Installed to replace the stock bridge pickup. I've always hated the sound of the bridge position on my strat. The neck & middle are beautiful, but the bridge is just thin and weak.

I am really really happy with the sound of this pickup. As I mentioned I hated the thin, brittle sound of the Fender single coil, I've also tried a Duncan JB Jr. and a GFS "vintage 59" in this guitar but neither of the humbuckers really matched the other pickups. This Dream 90 is just a perfect fit. I get that bright, clear bridge position sound without the harsh, overbearing treble and without overpowering the single coils or distorting the clean channel. I installed a switch when I got the guitar to get a neck & bridge position and with this pickup installed that position is perfect for everything I play from surf to rockabilly to country to old Beatles favorites.

I don't think I'm qualified to talk about "the P90 sound". If you want to know how this stacks up against other P90s I can't help you. What I can say is that this pickup sounds like a single coil should. It's well balance without harsh or brittle highs. It's crystal clear and responsive to pick attack. It has a great 60s rock crunch when distorted and the snap and definition I was looking for when clean. It sounds fantastic on it's own or in combination with other single coils. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to buy another one or to recommend it to others.