Which GFS pickups for a tele?????

[Pintail78]

Which ones, looking for suggestions. I have a tele setup like a strat now with lace sensors single coil. I was thinking maybe some humbuckers or newer GFS strat single coils. There are sooo many who know what to get?

[toobalicious]

this is MHO, of course, but if you have that thing fully loaded with lace sensors, you could probably do better with any of the GFS offerings. other folks have better experiences, i know, but i have yet to find a lace sensor equipped guitar that i truly connected with.
since this doesnt really answer your question,i will first off mention the great results i have found with the couple of GFS pups i have tried, and secondly will ask you what sort of music you play, and what sort of sounds are you going for? GFS has pups spanning the gap from "vintage-type" with lower output and reputedly "sweet" tone, to much hotter variations.
FWIW, i am in love with a nickel covered dream 90 in the neck spot of my tele. it combines elements that appeal to me (fat almost bucker-like girth and decent output, but with single coil bite on top--- not really a P90 clone, but a great pickup), and it basically sounds nothing like a traditional tele.
a

[Pintail78]

i play blues, rockabilly, grateful dead, ska/reggae stuff
if that helps anyone with good experience with the gfs pickups which ones do you recommend or not???

[Pintail78]

also, how do you interpret the resistivities given for the pickups?

[yankeerob]

My partner's son and I both play Tele's - he'd splashed out on an American Deluxe Ash and after two bridge pups faulted - one under warranty, the second one not... so much for Samarium Cobalt noiseless pups - they're noiseless alright - completely after about 6 mos!!! So we tried the Repro 1960 Hot bridge and once we figured out how reverse the polarity of the neck pup we were away and I'll be damned if it ain't nearly as good as my hand wound Bulldog Classic T - he's over the moon with it - don't worry too much about the DC resistance values - generally the higher they are the muddier the clarity - but if you want a pup with a bit of guts but still has the twang the Repro 1960 Hot's yer man... does what it says on the tin!

[pseudocat]

And if you want a little less juice, I recently put together a tele with the GFS '50s Repro bridge pickup, and it sounded awesome, as well. Very nice snap and twang, clear full bass. More twangy than the '60s model that yankeerob refers to, but a great pickup, too.

It just depends on the flavor you want.

[Spudman]

Not trying to be difficult but I put one of the Repro 60's in my Tele and it sounded worse than the stock pickup. No bottom end enhancement as promised and noticeably more ice pick on the high end. Mine reads at 9.8 ohms too.

I also have one of the Fatbody neck pickups and it doesn't seem to have any mojo going for it either.

Maybe I just got a couple of bad pickups?

[Plugger]

Maybe I just got a couple of bad pickups?

Or they're just not a good match-up for that guitar. Sounds like your guitar might be a naturally "bright" piece of wood... the GFS pups single coils generally are on the bright side, and I suspect that people who report great things are matching them up to guitars that need a brighter pup over stock.

-Mark

[yankeerob]

Orrrrrr...... yer amp's not a good match for your pups - My mate's got a way vintage AC30 that I had to use in a pinch and I hated it - I got nothing out of it - but most of the guys who have used including said mate use HB's (Lester's, Gordon-Smith's, etc...) and get a big soud out of it - said youth with Repro 60's uses a Marshall TSL 100 head and I use my home brew 5F6A - both give loads of balls to said pup - it's horses for courses as they say...

[Spudman]

It's not the amps. Through any of the 10 amps I have they sound the way I described. The body of my Tele is alder and the fretboard maple. Great sounding guitar acoustically just not with the GFS pickups I've tried.

Anyway, this has just been my experience with GFS pickups. Many more people report good results than I've heard of results similar to mine.

[Offshore Angler]

I put GFS P90's in a guitar, liked them for a week, and then realized that the originals were so bad anything was an improvement and that the GFS's were extremely mediocre.

My advice - on a Tele, don't screw around. Buy good stuff. The difference in price between a GFS and say, an Antiquity isn't enough to take the risk.

[pseudocat]

And if you want a little less juice, I recently put together a tele with the GFS '50s Repro bridge pickup, and it sounded awesome, as well. Very nice snap and twang, clear full bass. More twangy than the '60s model that yankeerob refers to, but a great pickup, too.

It just depends on the flavor you want.

The guy that I did the work for on the guitar I referenced still absolutely loves the sound of the '50s Repro. And he's been a dedicated tele player for 25 years, and has owned several of them. And his bandmates love it, yadda yadda yadda...

I was actually surprised at how good it sounded, myself -- and I put it up against the Wolfetone tele bridge pickup I have in one of my guitars. It left me scratching my head and wondering why I paid such a ridiculous price for the Wolfetone. Seriously.

So, my experience with a GFS tele pickup has been positive, as has my experience with GFS strat pickups. Spudman's experience wasn't. It happens. The GFS '60s Repro might not be his cup of tea. And the P-90's weren't OSA's cup of tea either.

I've owned countless replacement strat pickups that people raved about, that absolutely left me flat. It happens.

Opinions are like, well, you know. Everyone's got one.

[Jonnda]

I have:
GFS P90 Black Soapbar, Neck Position.

Brass Bottom Strat Pickup. in the middle

-and-

Repro 1960's HOT Alnico Tele Bridge Pickup.

I'm happy with my choices, if you want I have a youtube vid with sound samples of the guitar they were installed in. interested?

my tele