GFS Pickups Dream 90

p-90 in humbucker size

I use it on my epiphnone les paul in the neck position for replacing stock pickup.

It's hotter than the stock pickup,with good tone but sometimes muddy,good with clean sound,very good with overdrive sounds for lead ritmics.
I play alternative indie rock

It's a goog pickup compared through the price paid for.
It's better than the stock pickup and not too distant from other brands like seymour duncan.
If you want a cheap good pickup to try new sounds try it.

Pickup features: Humbucker-sized P-90
Impedence or other specs: 8k-ish

Model of guitar or bass: Gibson Les Paul Special
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: 498T, SD '59, GFS Liverpool
Other pickups on guitar: none yet
Artists using this pickup: Madd Kalaway, Brenden Misereaux, Jon Cornwaller, Just Kidding, etc.
You musical style(s):
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level: pretty hot
Tone: balanced sound on all strings, but overall dark for a p90. takes well to alot of treble boosting.
Sonic evaluation: I ditched the stock Gibson humbuckers 498T and 490R. I tried a Seymour Duncan 59 in the bridge and neck and thought it was lacking in some frequency, not sure. I just didn't like it. Then I tried a GFS Liverpool and it was the best of the bunch. That pickup sounds awesome, but not for me. If you're looking for a very vintage sound, that thing is IT. Then I tried the Dream 90 on a whim and I love it. I've owned two other p90 guitars and have been trying out a bunch and they sound pretty good, but they never sound as good at home through my Blues Junior. But this thing is kind of in a world of its own. It just rocks. I can't decribe the sound, but it's very thick and syrup-y compared to other real p90's, both clean and all the way up to heavy heavy heavy overdrive. Yes, you can do metal with this pickup. Too noisy? Hell no, it's the quietest single coil I've ever heard. I'm using 500k pots and they're perfect. I can't wait to get a neck one to see how the in-between position sounds.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Funk, CCR/Roots rock, rock a la AC/DC

Comments: I really like this pickup. I was getting sick of shopping around and trying different pickups. Get these! Jay at GFS is a cool guy and knows his stuff. He'll help you pick the right one.

Pickup features: p-90
Impedence or other specs: 8.4

Model of guitar or bass: Squier '51
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock Humbucker
Other pickups on guitar: Strat single neck coil
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Blues, Classic Rock
Reason for pickup change: Wanted more of a single coil sound

Perceived output level: Hot enough that you wont miss the power of a humbucker !
Tone: Trebly with a lot of "bite" , screams & sings with
Sonic evaluation: I play at home through a Roland Cube 30 & Marshall dfx 15.
This pup sounds fantastic, incredibly "tasty" and extremely sensitive to any and all string vibration as other people have noted and they are not lying!
I liked & still like the stock humbucker from the '51 but I have several of them and wanted a more of a single coil sound from one of them and this does the job & more.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:

Comments: I'd give these a 9 just based on sound, but a 10 considering the value. The only thing I could say on the down side is that I thought they might be a bit more "snarly", but that may just be due to the guitar style itself or my crappy playing! These babies are smooth, snappy with tons of bite and just flat out tasty, a great way to add to your tone arsenal without mortgaging the house!

Pickup features: P90 in humbucker packaging
Impedence or other specs: Bridge 8.4k

Model of guitar or bass: Mexican Telecaster Squier Series
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock Factory Pickup
Other pickups on guitar: Neck, MIM factory pickup with cover removed
Artists using this pickup: ?
You musical style(s): Classic Rock, Blues
Reason for pickup change: Two reasons; I was after a P90 type pickup sound and these look fantastic! Also, the Mexican tele bridge pickups don't do it for me. I think they need the metal bottom plate to give some sparkle.

Perceived output level: I have another Mexican Tele with an after-market pickup with metal bottom plate wound to about 7.3k. This gives a lovely vintage Tele sound. In comparison, the Dream 90 has more power but less of that typical Tele high end bite.
Tone: Surprisingly, this pickup still retains some of that Tele jangle in the bridge position. I suspect this has something to do with the metal plate on the bottom of this pickup. It has less treble bite than my other Tele but has more bottom and mids. Other people have said it already, it's warmer than standard single coils and much clearer than humbuckers.
Sonic evaluation: I play through a Traynor YCV20 valve combo with a couple of overdrive pedals a chorus and a tremolo. This pickup can jangle and shimmer on clean (with or without effects) and it really sings when things get dirty. It also has nice harmonics.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play mainly classic rock and blues. I have a collection of MIM Fender guitars which have all been modded to some degree or another to get the range of sounds I'm after. This pickup fits into its own niche between "vintage" and "modern". It's a great pickup for classic rock and blues.

Comments: I installed this pickup in the bridge position of my Tele using one of Guitar Fetish's Tele Humbucker bridges. The whole package looks and sounds fantastic. If this guitar was lost or stolen, I'd buy the same guitar, the same bridge, the same pickup and build another. It's a permanent fixture in my collection.
There are several manufacturers out there offering a similar products but Guitar Fetish wins on tone & price.

Pickup features: Passive humbucker sized P90
Impedence or other specs: #

Model of guitar or bass: Cort Matt "Guitar" Murphy Signature
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Gibson Burstbucker #1 and #2
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: ?
You musical style(s): Rock'n roll, texas blues, classic rock, everything that gets your toes tapping.
Reason for pickup change: The burstbuckers were good for classic rock like AC/DC, Nugent etc, but didn't quite have the "bite" I wanted. P-90's have more clarity and sings out the notes.

Perceived output level: Something like a mix of tex-mex/ texas special strat pickups and classic Les-Paul humbuckers.
Tone: Just perfect for this guitar. Very balanced set of PU's. The tone of the guitar is now very clear, you hear every tone of the chords. Great pickups.
Sonic evaluation: Plays it mostly trough a Peavey bandit 112 when I am at home, play it trough an old fender amp at band practice. I'm not into all kinds of effects. I just crank it up, no need for messing with the tone when a guitar sings like this one.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play a lot of different music, but I play basically with a mild overdrive setting. Just enough to make the guitar "bite". These pickups wont do metal too good. They are single coils and get a little noise when you put on too much overdrive. Nothing harder than AC/DC

Comments: I've played guitar for 13 years, got a lot of guitars. Gibson, Fender, Peavey, Hagstrom, Cort, Takamine, Danelectro. At the moment I only play the Cort. It's a damn good guitar, and the Dream 90's make it sing. I love the clarity and sound of these pickups. At this extremly low price, it is a bargain.

Pickup features: P90 Style humbucker size passive with gold cover
Impedence or other specs: 8.2 neck and 8.4 bridge

Model of guitar or bass: Heritage 555
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Original Shaller
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Classic Rock, Blues based Southern Rock
Reason for pickup change: The Shallers were just week in every sense. They had no bite when overdiven and too bassy when clean. They were no where when playing with a group. I tried changing the neck pickup to a Burst Bucker #2 because these are on my Les Paul and I like them very much. In this guitar it became too bassy both clean and overdriven. I was considering getting rid of this guitar even though it plays really well.

Perceived output level: The Dream 90's are deffinatly hotter than the Shaller's but slightly hotter than the Burst Bucker which I was surprised about.
Tone: They sound very balanced like a strong P90 should
Sonic evaluation: I am playing through a Marshall DSL2000 50 watt for my dirty tones and a old Music Man 130 watt head for clean. I could never use this guitar before on the Marshall beacuse it sounded too muddy and bassy. There was no definition to the tone. The Burst Bucker was only a little better. The Dream 90's made this guitar come alive. I can now get that Bluesy overdiven tone I wanted as well as use it for a heavier stuff. I was very amazed at the sonic quailty of these pickups. Dirty tones just scream from this guitar now. Clean it gives a nice warm tone that is very much like early 50's guitars. I need to roll the volume down a little but they are very clear and strong. I like single coils for clean anyway.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: These are great pickups for straight up Rock and Roll and Blues. This is the tone I was going for on this guitar. I like all the positions and tones they give me. I don't know if I would use these for Jazz but if you were playing fusion then then I would say yes.

Comments: I would buy these again in a heartbeat. For the price these have to be one of the best sounding and values out there. I have been playing for over 20 years in and out of bands and through a ton of gear. Right now I have the Heritage 555, Class 5 Les Paul, Fender Strat Plus with DG-20 EMG set up, Martin Jumbo, Dobro, and a Tobias bass. For amps I have the Marshall DSL2000, Music Man, and a Ampeg V4 that I also use for bass. these pickups definately crush the Shallers and in this guitar are way better than the Burst Bucker. I would recomend these to anyone who asks. For the price you can always take a chance on these to punch up your sound. I don't normally give out 10's on gear but for the price and quick shipping you cannot go wrong with these in your guitar.

Pickup features: humbucker-size P-90 (passive single coil)
Impedence or other specs: 8.2 neck, 8.4 bridge, according to GFS

Model of guitar or bass: self-assembled, two-pickup Les Paul
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: n/a
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): indie rock, prog, jazz
Reason for pickup change: I bought these for the guitar I was building. I wanted a wide range of sound without too many useless settings, and P-90s allow that. The GFS Dream 90s looked totally sweet on eBay (black pearl/gold model), and the price was right.

Perceived output level: About average, though lower than a lot of modern humbuckers. The brightness makes them seem louder than they are.
Tone: Spans the gap between vintage humbuckers and Strat single-coils.
Sonic evaluation: I've used this guitar through a Tech 21 Trademark 120 and a small, late-'50s Rickenbacker M-8 amp (like a Champ). The Rickenbacker has no tone controls and cuts out a lot of the extreme highs and lows, but is otherwise balanced, and the guitar sounded very much like a Les Paul Standard -- more like a humbucker sound, but a little snappier in the single positions and somewhat scooped-sounded in the mixed position. No equalization was necessary. The pickups played very nicely with a Rat pedal, too.
The Tech 21 accentuates the brightness of these pickups; I found the guitar's tone knobs very handy. The pickups came across as very Strat-ish, but with more bass, on the amp's "tweed"/Fender setting. With the "British"/Marshall preamp, the clean sounds were again glassy and beautiful, and the distortion also turned out to be exciting. The single-coil positions distort nicely on their own, but using both pickups together through a stereo amp creates an incredibly useful "doubled" sound, with each pickup producing a different-enough tone that the result sounds almost like double-tracking. This isn't unique to Dream 90s, but these pickups do it well.
The pickups aren't especially hot, but they are very sensitive to every sound that comes out of the guitar, including string noise, squeeks, taps, and picking technique. This all comes through in the high-frequency range of the pickups' output, so it's important to (1) adjust the guitar's tone knobs to let an appropriate amount of treble through (do it here, the amp's EQ works differently); (2) play well.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Together, these pickups cover eveything I want to do, from jazz to semi-brutal indie rock. But since hum is only cancelled in one setting, extreme distortion gets too noisy.

Comments: My other guitars before this were an LP with humbuckers and a Japanese Strat with two singles and a very hot Dimarzio humbucker in the bridge (a good guitar, but poorly balanced pickups). I borrowed a few guitars and played a few more before deciding that P-90s would give the best balance and range of useful sounds.
These sound better than any combination that exists on the Japanese Strat, and can match the tone quality of a LP Standard if used with a good guitar body and neck, although the output is clearly lower than the LP's humbuckers. However, to get all these different sounds, the Dream 90s require tinkering with all four knobs on the guitar. Use the tone knobs to tame the brightness before trying the amp's EQ; also, some good sounds can be found by changing each pickup's volume separately while in the mixed position.
The hum is not a problem. These pickups come sealed in metal covers, so they're already partially shielded. I also shielded the control cavity of the guitar when I was assembling it, so that could also be helping.
Since this guitar turned out so well, and since I am now super broke, I don't think I'll be buying any more guitars or pickups for awhile. These pickups are hugely versatile (as are most P-90s), and since I could easily replace them for another $80 if some deity smote them, I have no fear of gigging with this guitar.

Pickup features: humbucker size p-90s
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Aria Pro II TS-400
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: both
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): blues
Reason for pickup change: wanted to get p-90s

Perceived output level: normal
Tone: glassy, strat-like
Sonic evaluation: I'm using the Dream 90s in an Aria Pro II (an excellent pawn shop find) through a Nobels ODR-1 overdrive into a Peavey Classic 30 equipped with a Hellatone speaker from Avatar (a great speaker).

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: blues

Comments: I've been playing since I was 12 and now I'm 51 (jeez louise...), and I'm picky about tone. I got these Dream 90s for a very low price on ebay from GFS, and I don't see how I could be happier. I have a strat with custom pups (Frankie Blue) and a 1974 Guild M-75 (The Bluesbird) with the original pups, and I like both of those guitars, but I've been playing the Aria (Thor) for the last two weeks while The Bluesbird and Frankie sit around because I'm so pleased with the sound of these pick-ups. Thor originally was equipped with 'buckers, and I didn't even change the 500k pots to 250s, and I still like these new pups. Describing pick-up sound is like trying to describe wine, but I'd say these are creamy and smooth with the strat-ish glassiness that I was hoping for. They also look great. The guys at the shop where I usually go for work on my guitars put them in, and they were raving about the tone. Excellent pick-ups at any price, and all the better for being inexpensive.

Pickup features: Passive single coil P90 in a humbucker body
Impedence or other specs: 8.0 at neck 8.4 in bridge

Model of guitar or bass: First Act ME501
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Alnico 50 and Alnico 52 humbuckers
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup: dunno
You musical style(s): Rockabilly, punk, ska
Reason for pickup change: Bought a relatively inexpensive guitar for the sole purpose of putting in P90s

Perceived output level: Fairly hot, I notice a big difference between these and the ceramic HB's in my Ibanez
Tone: Pretty well balanced for budget PUP's, sound best with both engaged and the bridge rolled down a bit
Sonic evaluation: I use this guitar set-up through a Vox Pathfinder 15R with several different pedal options. These PUP's did force me to evaluate the EQ'ing of my amp, as they have much more high end response than the Humbuckers in my Ibanez Artcore. But with the EQ tamed, I can get some nice chime and these really growl with some drive on the amp. I'm very happy with the bang for the buck on these. As a side note, i play bass in my band, but I took this to practice last night, and BOTH of my guitar players(who have respectively several Ibanez's and an SG) spent about 45 minutes apiece playing this >$200 guitar and talking about how good it sounded especially with amps set on the edge of breakup.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: These are great for the rockabilly & garage punk, some hum when bridge or neck only, but dead quiet in the hum-cancelling midposition, which is what i use the most anyways. I use the volume knobs to blend in more or less of either pickup.

Comments: These really are nice pickups for the dough. I looked at Gibson P94's. $110 apiece and I'd read that Armstrongs ($110 a pr.) were too overwound and muddy. So I went for these on ebay and got a fantastic price on some P90s that are both sonically and aesthtically pleasing. i like them so much that I'm thinking about ordering some of their filtertron clones to replace the 'buckers in the Artcore.

Pickup features: p 90
Impedence or other specs: 8.4

Model of guitar or bass: epiphone dot
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: kent armstrong paf
Other pickups on guitar: same
Artists using this pickup: ?
You musical style(s): blue's,rock
Reason for pickup change: i was very unhappy with humbucker's.

Perceived output level: these are 8.4 p 90's output is brighter than stock
Tone: the tone is just what i was looking for,very balanced,not muddy as a humbucker.
Sonic evaluation: i use a epiphone dot with these gfs dream 90's and a fender 1965 showman,wow what a nice warm clear sound i get now..

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: i play mostly blue's now,these pickups are just what i was lookink for..

Comments: i still can't believe what i bought these pickups for, at 32.00 dollor's apiece they are a bargain and they look stunning too,mine are the cream pearl top's simply stunning...and the sound? amazing!!! you simply cannot beat theses pickups..