GFS Pickups Fat PAF

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.

Pickup features: passive humbucker
Impedence or other specs: not known

Model of guitar or bass: Squire S-73 (formerly branded DeArmond S-73)
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Duncan Designed H-102 set
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): various
Reason for pickup change: Duncan Designed pups, made to emulate Duncan's Jazz/JB combo, were pretty nice, but didn't have the midrange character that i wanted. i already have a single coil guitar that does the bass/treble thing, i wanted sweet mids.

Perceived output level: average
Tone: fat, smooth, just enough edge
Sonic evaluation: using this with a Classic 30 with a Eminence C-Rex speaker and JJ power tubes... i hit the jackpot with these pups, they're exactly what i was looking for - got the bridge model after trying out the neck. they have a great combination of clean definition, warmth, and thick mids. in overdrive, they are just amazing.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: i wanted this guitar for more overdriven sounds, as well as for thicker cleans as opposed to my other guitar. they are really nice for both.

Comments: these are my favorite pickups that i've played on, and would get more for a guitar like this if something happened to them. the combination of thickness and definition really does it for me, and it's hard to believe they can be had for such a price - i'd take them over $75 Duncans for the same price.

Pickup features: Humbucker, Passive, Alnico Magnets
Impedence or other specs: 13 KOhms DC resistance?

Model of guitar or bass: Squier Fat Strat
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock
Other pickups on guitar: 2x Single coils
Artists using this pickup: Er......
You musical style(s): Southern/ classic rock.
Reason for pickup change: guitar needed a tone transplant

Perceived output level: hotter than stock but even though its 13K id still put it in the lower out put range
Tone: Very fat, FAT... I said FAAATTTTT
Sonic evaluation: Squier fat strat into marshall, This pickup is great for a very ballsy distorted tone and sweetens up nicely with the volume wound down a bit. For what is regarded as a budget pickup by many it actualy coil taps better than most top end pickups Ive used. This pickup isnt gonna compete with the dimarzios or duncans but you gets what you pays for and to be honest it isnt really that bad a pickup and will definately be better tha the stock crap they put on budget instruments. You will have noticed I use the word fat a lot and this pick up really is. The only criticism I have (realistic criticism at this price) is that its a bit too fat for some styles and sounds but if you like the fat tones of blues, southern, classic or 70s rock and stick with your basic sound then these pickups will definately please you.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Suits Skynrd Style. Ultra distortion boys neednt bother. (IMO)

Comments: Ive been playing 15 years and have owned a lot of high end shit in that time (most of it sold for family resons) But at the price Id buy the pick up again (I say buy but i was actually given it as a present) It sounds better than what I had before and ultimatly thats the whole point of upgrading. This aint the best PU in the world but you could do a lot worse. I'll give this PU a 7/10.

Pickup features: Humbucking Alnico 5 Mags
Impedence or other specs: 13k

Model of guitar or bass: PRS CE
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: PRS stock
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Blues and rock stuff
Reason for pickup change: Always found the PRS pickups a little to shrill- though it was just cus I had a bolt on- but figured I'd give these a shot- the price was right.

Perceived output level: Hot- a little hotter than the stock
Tone: FAT baby- They call em the Fat Paf for a reason- lots of bottom- nice highs- cool.
Sonic evaluation: Haven't tried anything else in this guitar and didn't want to srop $160 on Duncans- these things absolutely rock- Very fat- the guitar now is fatter, fuller and a bit louder. I guess it's the Alnico magnet thing- but they're really creamy yet still crisp.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Stevie Ray- to Sugar Ray...

Comments: Very cool- Jay at Guitarfetish knows his shit bigtime- good advice- Can't figure out how they can do this pickup for so cheap-