GFS Pickups Fat PAF

Model H11. Fat PAF with Alnico magnets. Mine has the gold cover to match the hardware on my Jay Turser JT Custom Tele Deluxe. The Alnico Fat PAF reads at 10K ohms on my FLUKE meter. Four wire conductors for coil tapping. Very well made, nice brass bottom, nice wire harness and potted very well with beeswax using a vacuum impregnating method. Simply the best in every respect. This is a passive humbucker-medium output compared to the "standard" 8K ohm PAF.

I installed this pickup in the neck position of a Jay Turser Custom Tele Deluxe aka "TC Deluxe." I also replaced the bridge pickup with a LIL PUNCHER humbucking, rail type pickup, which is a fantastic sounding pickup, too. FYI, the LIL PUNCHER measures at 10.4K ohms on the FLUKE meter. Both pickups are wired as humbuckers, with no coil tapping. I changed out the stock .047 cap with a Sprague orange drop .022 cap to compliment the two humbuckers and that turned out to be a good choice to match the tone signature of the two pickups I have 500K tone and volume pots installed on the Tele.
I changed out the pickups on this Tele because the stock neck pickup was just a little too dark and tended to muddy up with distortion. The stock bridge pickup was replaced with a GFS Hot TC Alnico...nice but way too underpowered compared with the neck pickup output. The middle switch position was all neck due to the mismatch in output. Notwithstanding that, the GFS Hot TC Alnico is a killer sounding Tele bridge SC pickup that would probably work well with a Tele neck SC pickup, as the output is more closely matched to another SC.

The FAT PAF is a warm, open sounding pickup with no noticeable compression. Medium output. It has a nice, clear tone and good string definition, very similar to a standard PAF neck type pickup, but with some extra punch.
Played clean through a Peavey Classic 30 the FAT PAF is warm and has the character of a high quality humbucker. It exhibits a nice neck pickup vibe, clear, warm and clean. Digging in to the strings evokes a small amount of bark. Chords are well defined with just a little chimeyness. Good low end-not one drop of muddiness or excessive bass bloom. It sustains well with a smooth note / chord decay. It matches up perfectly with the LIL PUNCHER in the middle switch position. In fact the middle position is my favorite for clean playing now, whereas before it was not any different from the neck position.
With overdrive it retains its string definition very well and has a nice harmonic signature with hard picking. It is dark, like a neck pickup but it is also much clearer for single note lines and for lighter chording. Very well behaved-the lows and the mids don't get away from you at all. Highs are subdued, yet present.
Through a high gain head and closed back quad with TEXAS HEAT speakers, it has excellent sustain but it does mud up a bit more than a lower output PAF. All in all, it is very respectable and whether playing clean, overdriven or saturated high gain the FAT PAF holds its own and stays "musical." It's all I had hoped for.

I have purchased a total of 5 GFS pickups in the past year. For the money these pickups are absolutely great. Outfitting my guitars with these is the biggest no-brainer in the history of planet earth. The two pickups I installed in the Tele have made this guitar into a giant killer.
If I were to do it over again, I might buy the lower resistance Boutique Overwound PAF Alnico(9Kohms) or the straight PAF Alnico @ 8Kohms, looking for just a bit more chime. I'll be keeping the FAT PAF in the Tele for now and I'm very happy with the guitar but for me, the standard or slightly overwound PAF tone signature might just be "that sound" that I hear in my head.
Overall, GFS pickups are half the cost of the big boys, but they are equal in quality and sound. These pickups are a fantastic value for the money.
By the way, Guitar Fetish sells the GFS line and delivers excellent, friendly, personal service. First class in all respects!

Passive humbucking pickups.

I installed these in an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus to replace the stock humbuckers. I was looking for something a little hotter to compliment lead guitar work. These were an excellent upgrade for the money.

I am not sure what the output measures out on the these. But, they are definitely hot with plenty of low end as well. Harmonics are pretty easily achieved. Good, balanced low end in the rythmn setting. Hot but not too loud in the treble setting. I have noticed that in the middle setting, adjusting the volume and tone knobs on your guitar helps you achieve an excellent balance between the two. I would say excellent pickups for rock n roll lead guitar work.

I would buy these again, although I would like to try some of the other pickups in their massive selection. I have been playing about 10 years. I have owned a lot of guitars but right now I am having fun playing on these through a Hughes and Kettner Tour Reverb amp. They have truly upgraded this Epiphone Les Paul into an instrument I enjoy playing. I won't get into the business of comparing these pickups to other pickups because sound is always very subjective. I will say that this set for under 80 dollars is pretty damn amazing. Simply put, I haven't found anything more satisfying for such a reasonable price. I do have a Gibson Les Paul with a 200+ dollar set of burstbucker pickups. It's hard to see how they were worth all that extra cash. The point is, these are very reasonable and worth checking out for the price. If you don't like them, talk to Jay and he will swap them out for something you might be more happy with. Very helpful people that know their stuff. I would recommend it!!

Passive humbucker. I'm not sure of the actual specs but I'd say it's a medium to high output pickup.

I installed this in a guitar that I built with a mohagany body, zebrawood top, maple neck with ebony freatboard.

As others have said, it's a balanced output. The web site makes a big deal out of how FAT the low end is. I don't hear it as anything special but it certainly isn't lacking in low end. The highs balance well and are not harsh. Mids are present without calling attention to themselves by either being to present or too scooped.

Output is medium to hot. I had a DiMarzio Tone Zone in the same position that I replaced with this pickup. The Tone Zone was much hotter than this pickup. I tried for years to make the Tone Zone work for me. I had a couple of them in 3 different guitars through the years and ultimately, I just never liked it. It had too much mid range and was way too hot. It seemed flabby and messy with high gain. And clean it had little to no character.

The Fat PAF on the other hand, has less output, is cleaner and has a more vintage type of tone even though it's hotter than vintage pickups. Clean, it's warm and has a decent edge even though it isn't terribly chimey. But it's quite usable and plesant none the less. It handles overdrive well too. I've used it with all but the highest gain with excellent results. Harmonics are what you would demand from a pickup like this.

While I'm quite happy with this pickup, I make it a point to not tell too many people what it is or how much I paid for it so as to not taint their opinions. Having done this, I frequently get compliments on how good my tone is. Nobody suspects that it's a GFS or that I only paid $28 for it.

I would certainly replace it if it were lost (how do you lose a pickup?) or stolen. Without a doubt, part of the charm of these pickups is the price. I think anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves. For the money, they are an absolute home run and second to none. PERIOD. But to say this almost diminishes their performance. They aren't just good for the money. They're amazing for the money. They'd still be good at twice the price.

They stack up well against pickups that go for $60 plus dollars without any problem. I won't make any grand proclaimations that they are Duncan killers or whatever. Pickups are probably the most subjective aspect of electric guitars. You may hate GFS or you may love them. But I can't imagine anyone playing these and being able to identify them as cheap pickups. While the web site propaganda is probably a little overblown, it isn't overblown by much. These pickups can hang with the big boys and they're so cheap, you don't mind experimenting with them. Worst case scenario, you hate it and you're only out about $30 for the trouble.

It makes me wish I had more guitars to experiment with. Are you going to replace your stock PRS pickups with these as the site suggests? ...I doubt it. Not because these suck but because I'm not sure they're better than the stock PRS pickups. But if for some reason you did replace your PRS pickups, your tone wouldn't be laughed off of the stage. I would suggest your tone would just be different.

Pickup features: Humbucker
Impedence or other specs: 13.6k Bridge and 12.8 Neck

Model of guitar or bass: Cheap Chinese Les Paul Copy (Richwood)
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: crappy stock pups
Other pickups on guitar: same
Artists using this pickup: don't know
You musical style(s): blues and rock
Reason for pickup change: Original pups were noisy and squealed like crazy.

Perceived output level: a little hotter than stock
Tone: Fat like they promised
Sonic evaluation: The reason I bought the cheap Les Paul copy is because it looks killer and plays like a dream. It sounded crap but I was hoping I could fix that with some new pups and pots.
I decided to try the GFS pups because of the hype and I am so happy I did. These Fat PAFs have such a nice tone and they sound so well defined. Absolutely amazing for that kind of money.
I am not saying that my guitar now comes close to the real deal... no way. But I am very pleased with how it sounds. No more squeal and with high gain it does not get muddy like the stock pups.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play blues and rock and these pups are fine for that.

Comments: I would buy these again but I am going to try some other GFS pups first. I still have some guitars that could use an upgrade and if the other GFS pups are of the same quality I'll never spend more money on big brands.
I do not own high end guitars and I wouldn't buy high end pups for my guitars. I think these GFS pups are bringing the maximum out of my guitars.
I have owned an Epi Les Paul in which I had a SD Custom Custom in the bridge. That sounded great and probably a bit better than a GFS but not by much.
One thing: I wish it had longer leads. The routing in my guitar is probably different from others because I had to stretch the lead on the neck pickup to its max to get it soldered to the pot.
Oh yeah... I have been playing for more then 20 years and own and have owned lots of guitars and stuff. I spend about as much time working on guitars as I do playing.

Pickup features: Passive Humbucking
Impedence or other specs: 13.5K (bridge)

Model of guitar or bass: Squier '51
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock Squier humbucker
Other pickups on guitar: GFS P-90 (neck)
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Rock, blues, pop
Reason for pickup change: Stock pickup lacked character and had low output. In addition, coil tap switch had very little change on overall tone.

Perceived output level: Hotter than my '75 Gibson SG's stock pickups, but not by much - more "vintage hot" than "Super Distortion"
Tone: Balanced bass and treble, prounounced midrange "roar" through a distorted amp. Cleans up well with guitar volume changes
Sonic evaluation: I installed this pickup (along with a GFS P-90) in a recent Squier '51 guitar. I picked up the guitar for around $100 at a local store, and was wowed by its playability and unplugged tone. The Strat body shape, Tele neck, hardtail bridge, and simple controls make it a really great "simple stupid" guitar. It's great for picking up and bashing around on, taking to jams, etc. The only problem I had with it was the pickups - they're very indistinct and boring-sounding. The neck single coil (3.8k) had neither bloom nor sparkle, and the bridge humbucker (no adjuster screws, 10k) sounded totally generic. The '51 lets you coil-tap the bridge pickup with a push-pull pot, and all this does is lower the output of the bridge pickup a little bit. Boring.
I decided to go all-out and make myself a little screamer. I routed a slot in the neck position ad dropped the P-90 in there, and put the Fat PAF in the bridge. The Fat PAF has a 4-wire cable, so I was able to retain the coil-tap function. I've got it set so that the rear / bridge coil is active when the pickup is tapped.
The sound? Well, let's just say it's not boring any more! The neck P-90 has a lot of nice definition and a lot of that fat P-90 character, but the bridge pickup just knocked me out. I have a poop-brown '75 SG with stock pickups, and it's always been my "go-to" guitar for the classic rock thing. It just sounds mean, all the time. Now I find myself reaching for the '51, especially when I want to do some slide... One big bonus is that the Fat PAF sounds really "twangy" in single-coil mode with the screw-coil active (bridge-side coil.) It ALMOST gets the guitar back into Tele country, which the stock pickups could never manage.
The stock '51 is a good guitar. However, it's neither one thing nor the other - not enough humbucker for Gibson stuff, and no way are it's single coil sounds Fender quality. The woodwork is fine, but the pickups suck. With the Fat PAF and the P-90, it's totally worth owning.

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

Comments: I do like this pickup a lot! I've used several different big-name pickups (SD JB and Jazz, Gibson '57 Classics, Gibson 498T, etc.) and it compares favorably to all of them. It's actually a more open-sounding pickup than the JB, although not quite as hot. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one, especially for $35.

Pickup features: Humbucking, Passive
Impedence or other specs: 13K Bridge- 11.6K Neck

Model of guitar or bass: PRS SE
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Stock PRS Pickups
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Rock
Reason for pickup change: Guitar sounded too thin and middy- not big and fat like I wanted

Perceived output level: The Mfr claims that these are "Overwound"- which i take to mean hotter than average- And yes they definitely deliver- easily 50% more PUNCH than the stock PRS korean pickups.
Tone: FAT AND MORE FAT- Not kidding when they call these things Fat Pafs- LOTS of bottom end, really warm- but not at all dull on top
Sonic evaluation: I play through a Fender Vibrosonic and a Marshall 18 watt hand wired clone. The SE is a great little guitar but always sounded too midrangey and thin to my ears. I figured that it was just the guitar- but read some good things about the GFS stuff here. I checked out their ebay autions, but kept losing at the last second. On the HC Forum I saw that they had a website where these are only like $32 each- so I bought a pair. They seem like REALLY nice pickups- not the cheap junk like the stock cheapos in the PRS. I have not yet hooked up the coil tapping wires, but I plan to cause I hear the single coil tones are happening. The guitar is now hot and VERY fat- really cool. I'm gonna try their Vintage 59's in a 70's Sonex I have and will post when I get them soldered in.

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

Comments: Very happy with these. I can't see how you could go wrong with these. Dave and Jay at GFS are excellent- they get back to you right away and have obviously been doing this a while- There are a few other GFS pickups that I would like to try at some point-
Their website is a little cheaper than their ebay store- plus shipping is cheaper there too- seems that way with a few guys on ebay- For $65 my guitar now ROCKS!

Pickup features: Reverse Zebra Humbuckers
Impedence or other specs: Veries

Model of guitar or bass: Hamer USA Studio
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Stock
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): All
Reason for pickup change: Wanted to see if these lived up to the hype. LOL Not even close.

Perceived output level: They don't sound two bad, but nowhere near as good as these reviews would lead one to believe.
Tone: Muddy, tanggy. Not FAT by any means.
Sonic evaluation: When receiving my GFS pickups I was at first impressed with the packaging. Everything is done nice and neat. Once opened I saw that the neck pickup came with black mounting screws and the bridge with chrome even though both had black rings. The pickup back plates were different. The neck pickup was nickel in color and stamped F and A and the bridge was brass in color and stamped GFS. Obviously two different pickups. The cream on the two pickups also did not match and the bridge had the pole pieces on the black coil and the neck on the cream when both should have been cream since I did not buy a reverse zebra. If you have a pair of these I would suggest you look them over real close as you may have some issues you were not aware of. The next thing I noticed was the pickups are quite a bit thinner (depth from top to bottom) than major brands such as Dimarzio, Duncan, and Gibson. They are about ? thinner in fact. Here?s the catch; anybody that knows about making pickups knows that it is impossible to create a fat sound with thin pickups. The thicker they are the thicker they sound. I also noticed the pole pieces are the smaller diameter imported size. If you?ve ever seen the size of the pole pieces on a Duncan Quarter Pounder I don?t need to go into what this does for the sound. To be honest to at this point I haven?t installed them I?ll write about that later in this review. But just by looking at them I have serious doubts that they will live up to previous reviews, but that Harmony Central reviews for you.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Just about any style.

Comments: As suspected the tone of these pickups is reminiscent of the cheaper imported pickups. Not horrible but not even close to real Boutique pickups. Not even close to the big USA name brands. With some nice looking packaging and hype GF is able to sell a few of these, but they do not live up to that hype. And we all know that some of the reviews on HC are written by sellers and manufacturers and a great deal are written by people that don?t have a clue.
I contacted Guitar Fetish and they sent another pair. This time they sent me two reverse Zebras when I paid for two zebras. It?s obvious to me now that these guys are more concerned with a quick buck than selling quality pickups. The new set also came with chrome screws with one and black with the other. Inconsistent. Although these are supposed to be the same model they sounded nothing like the first pair. You will notice that the only thing labeling these pickups is a ?neck? or ?bridge? sticker. No model with a hard stamp. This would mean to me that the pickup models are actually all the same. One could pull them from a lot and meter them, then label them neck or bridge then toss them in the box with the model that closest resembles the meter readings. Read between the lines people. These are cheap imported pickups with fancy wording and packaging, nothing more. Save yourself some time and money and buy some name brand pickups. The people claiming these are the next hot pickups are obviously not schooled in the area of real tone. Not junk, but they don't come close to the hype. With the inconsistancies I guess some would sound different than others of the same model. But that's scarey in itself.

Pickup features: passive humbucker
Impedence or other specs: about 15k

Model of guitar or bass: epiphone g400 sg
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced:
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s):
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level:
Tone:
Sonic evaluation: an amendment to last posting. the fat paf will give the same tone as a Gibson 498t, but the output level is as if the guitar was turned down to about 7 on the volume knob. doesn't quite have the punch as a 489t pickup. more like a 57 classic or burstbucker.

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

Comments: still a very nice sounding pickup, giving that gibson tone, but not quite the same output or drive.

Pickup features: humbucker, passive, alnico magnet
Impedence or other specs: about 15k

Model of guitar or bass: epiphone g400 sg
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: epiphone crap
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): rock, heavy rock
Reason for pickup change: stock pups were just crap, no definition

Perceived output level: good output, not too hot
Tone: very balanced, nice and fat with good definition, easily compare to a gibson 498t pup. gives that classic gibson mahagony sound
Sonic evaluation: running thru marshall jcm900 and jcm800

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: good for rock, blues, heavy rock

Comments: these pups are excellent, regardless of price. would definitely buy another

Pickup features: Passive Humbucker, Alnico magnets
Impedence or other specs: GFS Model (H10) - Approx 13.5k

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Prodigy
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock ceramic humbucker
Other pickups on guitar: Stock ceramic single colis in neck & middle
Artists using this pickup: ?
You musical style(s): Classic rock, blues
Reason for pickup change: To my ears, ceramic pickups are just too dull.

Perceived output level: I'd say output is slightly less than the stock ceramic pickup. It took a bit of tweaking with the Fat PAF pickup height as well as the existing ceramic single coils to get an even output accross the pickups. The Fat PAF is noticeably higher than the single coils.
Tone: I am mainly a single coil (Alnico) player and to my ears the Fat PAF doesn't have the sparkle of good single coils. What it does have is great bottom and middle.
Sonic evaluation: I run a few effects such as overdrive, phasing and chorus and occassionally an octaver as well. This runs into a Traynor YCV20 Tube combo. The Fat PAF can do ok clean sounds by itself and nice clean sounds with the chorus on. But lets face it, this thing was designed to rock! Crank up the overdrive and this thing sings and I just love the midrange.
I have yet to hear a coil-tapped humbcker that I like the sound of. Just for a little bit more versatility, I will try installing a push/pull tone pot to allow parallel/series wiring to see if that can improve the top end for clean sounds.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I'm mainly into classic rock and blues. This pickup with overdrive/distortion nails the classic rock sound I was after.

Comments: I have been playing since 1981 but was only hit by the "Tone" bug in the last few years. I did a lot of research on the Net before I purchased this pickup and I think it paid off. I got a great sounding humbucker at an amazing price. I would purchase this again for sure.