GFS Pickups H-120 Crunchy Rails

Humbucking rail-style passive pickup intended for the bridge position.

The claim is 16.5k output - I have not measured it, but it certainly is very hot.

I installed this in the bridge position of an Agile Ghost III to replace Agile's in-house pickups. The pickups that shipped in the Ghost III were the AL-HOT pickups, and frankly they're really not bad at all (tonally similar to a set of Seymour Duncan Jazz and JB in the neck and bridge, but without the definition and clarity of the Seymour Duncans - I'd put the AL-HOTs easily above Epiphone stock pickups, and anything "Duncan Designed" or the like).

In the neck of this guitar, I have a GFS Dream 180 which I will review separately.

I installed this pickup because I wanted an uncompromising, hot sound with defined tonal qualities but did not want to go with active pickups.

The output I would characterize as extremely hot, for starters. This is not a laid-back pickup, and it doesn't pretend to be - the product prose on the Guitarfetish site tells you straight up that it is their hottest, highest gain pickup and in fact if you're looking for a less intense sound you ought to go with the Power Rails. I, for one, am glad that I chose this pickup, because it has exceeded my expectations in every way.

Before I get to the qualities of this pickup, I'd like to give a brief background. My main guitar is a Fender Stratocaster which I have heavily modified. It has had a great many pickups in its time in my possession, but I've settled on a combination of Lace Blue in the neck, Lace Red in the middle, and a Seymour Duncan JB Jr. in the bridge. I've used pickups from a variety of manufacturers, mostly name brand but one or two boutique. I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I would not consider myself a definitive expert on pickups by any stretch of the imagination, I have used enough that I'm not going to be suckered in by a polished piece of crap.

The Crunchy Rails bridge humbucker is astounding. Its output can be characterized, broadly, as hot and heavy - there is significantly more midrange than the Seymour Duncan Dimebucker, but the general tonality emphasizes bass and treble a bit. It isn't scooped, and it has a very full-bodied quality to the sound, but the thick, heavy "chunk" of palm mutes comes through in perfect balance with the staccato pick attack, and everything from low-frequency riffing to solos on the upper half of the neck come through with equal clarity and punch. I was astounded with how much better artificial harmonics come through on this pickup than with any other bridge pickup I have ever used. This is genuinely the perfect metal bridge pickup in the passive pickup arena.

That may suggest that its utility is limited to metal. That is not the case. This pickup works synergistically with any amp to bring out the best characteristics of the gain available. That said, I definitely wouldn't pick this out as the world's greatest Delta blues pickup (although if you're a Chicago blues player, you just might like it!). It is not intended for, nor does it work well with, low-gain styles of music. In fact, unless your amp's clean channel has a wealth of volume headroom, you may be surprised to find that you can't even obtain a completely clean tone without making effective use of your guitar's volume control. This is one of the necessary trade-offs in order to get the benefits of a genuinely screamin' pickup.

In short, keep your goals in mind when shopping for pickups. If you're after something that will push your amp as far as it can go and deliver you into the tonal territory of the metal gods, this pickup may be just what you're looking for. If you're into mellower music, you would be well-advised to steer towards one of the other fantastic pickups available targeted towards that audience.

I have already addressed most of the questions in this section in the previous two, so I'd just like to add that not only would I be happy to buy this pickup again, but in fact I will be purchasing one just like it for the next guitar I buy.

Some of the more quantitative aspects of this pickup that I didn't address earlier:

1. This pickup, like the GFS Dream 180 that I bought to pair with it in the neck, is extremely well constructed. All technical aspects are on a par with the best of the best name brands. There are no corners cut, and as a result you'll never have to deal with problems like poorly waxed coils vibrating and giving your guitar a case of the squeals, or badly wired and poorly shielded components cutting out on you when you're counting on them to work. The workmanship of these pickups is evident. Great QC, apparently.

2. I have this and the Dream 180 wired in the old-fashioned way, but it has the same connectivity options you'd expect from the big boys. In fact, the wires are color coded so as to be compatible with Seymour Duncan wiring diagrams. It's easy to reverse the phase or coil tap the pickup.

3. This is less of a note about the pickup specifically, and more a general observation about the company (frankly, as important and sometimes more revealing than using the individual product): the customer support at GFS is phenomenal. I had a minor problem with a pickguard I purchased from them earlier in the year along with some bass pickups and some Strat hardware. Now, months later, I ordered these pickups, so I decided to ask them about it and they shipped me a free replacement for the pickguard no questions asked. They stand behind their products, and that makes them a pleasure to buy from.

Passive Humbucker, 15.2K ohms. 4 wire.

Bridge position of an inexpensive BC Rich Bronze Mockingbird, basswood body and fixed bridge.
Replaces stock pickup. Stock pickup was pretty good but I wanted to try something hotter.

High output, very high.
Tone is balanced. More than I expected.

I wasn't sure what I was going to get with this pickup. I was not suprised by the high output but the tone really suprised me, in a good way.
Very tight and punchy bass, with real nice treble bite for pick attack and harmonics. GFS says the midrange is a bit relaxed but I think there is plenty of nice warm mids, great for single notes and soloing.
This pickup has me really excited and I usually hate high output pickups. I usually find that they compress my tone and sound crap clean. This one is different. The frequency balance is just right, it responds perfect to pick attack and volume knob adjustments. The main thing I like here is that there isn't any weird frequency bumps or valleys, it is just even and balanced but loud as heck. Like taking a PAF and adding a preamp boost to it is the best way I can explain it.

I am a classic rock and blues guy and just a bit of a closet metalhead. I normally go with PAF style humbuckers and I love Tele singlecoils. All of my guitars are vintage styled but I came accross this BC Rich for real cheap and thought, why not? I thought it might be fun to have one metal guitar. I am glad I did this, It sounds amazing and not just for metal, for any music.

I would and will buy again, this pickup is a very useful instrument.
I have been playing 20+ years. Most of my stuff is vinatge type.
I love everything about this pickup, even the look is cool.
I chose it mainly for the output and the real good price ($35).

I am very satisfied with this pickup. It is staying in this guitar and this guitar is staying with me.