GFS Pickups Fat Alnico P-90

Soapbar-style P90, Alnico magnets, GFS says they're 8.8K impedance

I installed these in both positions of a PRS SE Soapbar II. I really like this guitar, but to my ear, the stock pickups were dull and lifeless.

I compared these to the P90s in my '65 Gibson ES-330 through various amps. The pickups in the Gibson were fatter and warmer, even though they're 43 years old and slightly farther from the strings. The GFS pickups had more definition, especially on the bass strings, which were really solid. Output was comparable, although the GFS bridge pickup seemed a lot weaker than the neck for some reason. In general, compared to a good set of vintage Gibson P90s, they came off pretty well.

"The perfect way to REALLY improve the tone of your PRS SE or similar soapbar equipped guitar". That's a direct quote from the GFS website. I'm not sure how they know that because out of the box, the only way these were going into my particular PRS SE was with a hammer. In general I've found this same thing to be true with the GFS humbucker-sized pickups that have metal covers; they have a ridge on the bottom that interferes with the fit in any guitar with a tight pickup cavity. These didn't have any ridge on the covers; instead the covers seem to be tapered and they're too freakin' big at the bottom. And, just like their humbuckers, the pole-piece spacing is just different enough so you can't swap pickup covers. I got them in, but I had to do some serious Dremel work to make the bottom portion of the covers small enough to fit. Even though they did improve tone (considerably over the stock PRS pickups), I wouldn't buy them again, and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone unless you're mounting them to a pickguard.

Passive Single coil
8K

Agile Double Cut LP
neck and Bridge
Stock on both
?
Thought GFS would be an improvement

Muddy.. The stock pickups blow these away
Timmy OD, Digitech Reverb, Voodoo Lab Tremolo, Electro Harmonix Big Muff, Dunlop Cry Baby thru original Fender Tweed Champ, Marshall 18watt Clone and Fender Bassman (4X10)
The neck and bridge are inadequate

I would not buy again
I have purchased many GFS pickups and have always been happy,
I feel this pick-up is a let down. I have heard (2) sets of this pickup and neither set sounded worth a damn. If you want a set of GFS pickups.. purchase the Dream 90, Fat PAF, Retrotron and almost all their other pickups. This one did not do it for me.

P90s - single coil. Short magnets. impedance whatever.

Put em in a 1966 epiphone caiola (an artist model casino w/ no f holes).
Both positions.
Replaced the humbucker sized Pete Biltoft Vintage Vibe hand made p90's.
The guitar was built in '66 with p90's. Some dude along the way thought it would be cool to cut bigger holes in the guitar and jam some humbuckers in there.
What can i say - there are lots of old guitars out there that have been similarly molested.

Output - fat. Loud. BIG. Way more than my strat. More than the pafs in my gibson 175. Breaks up my boogie ealier than the gibson.
Tone - fat like a paf, but clear like a single coil.
I play jazz. But also play classical solo professionally. Played in Blues Bands. Rock covers in the early 90's. Worked in a recording studio. Massive guitar geek.
P90's are really nice for vintage blues sounds and for a funky jazz style from jump to '60's style lounge.
Everything I play with this guitar sounds like the '60's!
Amazing guitar now has pickups that do it justice.
I got chrome covers from Jay at GF, but they are not on his sit - ask directly. the chrome covers shield the pups at cut a lot of noise.
The neck pickup if just wonderful - full and articluate. In between in funky. Bridge makes '60's rock sounds.
I had to really work on the heights (including bending down the mounts on the neck and bulking up the bridge height with closed cell foam) to match the outputs of this set - but every archtop I have owned (4 in all) have needed work in this area. They match now, and sound great.
The set is calibrated - unlike gibson p90's. so this is less of an issue than other pups. Hell - you need to adjust any set of pups to match them up.
The GFS's made the handmade vintage vibe p90's sound like toys.
AWesome pickups.

Great!
would do it again.
Great guys at Guitarfetish.

Pickup features: Passive Single coil
Impedence or other specs: 8K

Model of guitar or bass: 1996 Gibson LP Special
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Stock P-100
Other pickups on guitar: Seymour Duncan SP90-2, AKA Hot P-90 (see my review)
Artists using this pickup: I never was the fuck-giving type
You musical style(s): Rock'n'roll
Reason for pickup change: P-100 was adequate in neck position, but I wanted an all P-90 set-up & the GFS seemed like a low risk experiment, at least as far as the price went

Perceived output level: Fairly in-your-face. I had to raise the ceramic Duncan in the bridge slightly to adjust
Tone: Smooth & round w/impressively un-muddy bottom end for a cheap pickup
Sonic evaluation: Tested through an all-tube Ashdown Peacemaker 2x12 combo & a Marshall Artist 3203 30W head via the Ashdown's Celestion Vintage 30 speakers (with the mids suitably tamed on the eq). This pup is warmer, more articulate w/ better sustain than the stock P-100. It matches the hot Duncan P-90 very well, though they're not hum-cancelling in the middle position. That said, the noise off this thing is really not that bad. Slightly less than the Duncan, in fact.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play punky, bluesy rock'n'roll that touches on most things except metal, funk & jazz. I seldom use the neck pickup on any guitar, but this is a good 'un & will do for anything except, predictably, metal.

Comments: I've been playing 16 years & currently own this guitar + my 1992 Gibson LP Standard w/ Duncan Antiquities & a Tokai TJ 60 Junior TV. I just took a gamble on Ebay w/ this & it paid off. I would have reservations about dealing with GFS again, as they were less than helpful prior to purchase when I asked them for info on their international shipping costs (I live in Europe). After I'd paid the order (along with the 8.8K bridge version which I'm keeping as a spare for now)- quoted $8 shipping charge included - they then turned around & demanded a further $6 before they'd send the thing. I grudgingly coughed it up & was less than thrilled when the postmark on the package (which arrived fast, I will admit) read $9.85, after I'd been charged $14. I emailed the cunts asking for an explanation & they conjured up some bollocks about a "handling fee", whatever the good fuck that is. Nowhere on their online blurb do they mention this. My only guess is they were sour that I was the only bidder & that the pups went for the starting cost, so they thought they'd sting me for an extra $4.15 to cream off as much as they could.
However, for mass produced Korean-made pickups (which they don't tell you either), I must admit I'm impressed at the overall quality. No, they're probably not the best there is, but factor in the price & it takes some beating. (have you actually seen the PRICE of those Bareknuckle things??)
One other thing: GFS P-90's are NOT "perfect for all Gibson-spaced instruments" as they audaciously claim. If you buy these for a Gibbo, be prepared to spend a solid hour whittling away like a mong at the plastic cover with some heavy duty sandpaper before they'll fit.
9 for the sound, 3 for the company resulting in an averaged: