I have to say I'm impressed with the two sets I've tried... the '64 Staggered Vintage wind, and the '70 Non-stagger Vintage grey bottoms vintage wind. For roughly $70 a set, they seem impossible to beat at this price point and actually liked the sound better than the Fender 57/62's I had in my 62ri.

Anyone looking to upgrade pups should really consider these (IMO)

I was wondering if anyone has had any negative experiences with them... either these sets or other.

I have GFS pickups in several of my guitars. I really like their pickups. I have a Strat copy that I have the lil'killers in, they are all double coils that are basically the same size as Strat pups. They sound great to me but I am considering putting a couple single coils in the middle and neck positions. I use the 59's in my Oscar Schmidt OE-130, a 335 copy and they sound great in that. I also have a FatPAF in the bridge of my Heritage and a 59 in the neck position. This combination sounds great and I would compare it with the SD pups in my friends Hamer. I am in the process of putting a pair of their P-90 styles in another guitar of mine. I guess you could say I like their products.

That's good to know about the humbuckers... I have a Cort Source ( a 335 copy) on order and was thinking about other pickup options... who knows, maybe the stock pups will be good enough but that's good to hear you like the GFS's in your hollowbody. Thanks.

I do not own a guitar with a set of GFS pups in them..Mostly due to the fact that i play on a semi pro level and have the ability to purchase higher dollar options..

I do however suggest these pups for upgrades in several of my students Squire's and have found them very reasonable price wise for the quality of the component and the tone they give...

I have communicated several times with the owner of GFS over on Harmony Central were he is a senior forum member ..I have seen him take care of complaints right there on the forum in the middle of a thread .I say this as a plus ..He seems to be the type to take care of his business however whenever it is needed...

With all that said i would hesitate to use the GFS pups in lower priced guitars ..But if you are talking about putting them in a American Standard i would try to steer you in a different direction..

That's always nice to hear when someone is on top of customer service issues, especially when the item isn't from a boutique dealer... if I spent $200+ on a set of Fralins for instance, I'd expect that sort of reaction and am pleasantly surprised to hear that GFS stands by their products as well.

Again though, I have to say that the sets I've tried have been awesome... I built a '70 Strat clone and used the GFS 70's grey bottoms and they delivered the tone I was after, ala late 60's/early 70's. Lots of low end thump and a crisp pleasant high end w/o the ice picky tone associated with some cheap strat pickups, especially in the bridge pup.

Alot of it is preference I suppose... and your amp & effects. I've got a '65 RI Twin, and a bunch of pretty nice pedals including a Keeley Mod Tube Screamer so maybe that has a something to do with it... I'm pretty hard pressed to get a bad sound out of my rig regardless of what I plug in for a guitar.

Does anyone know how these GFS 70's stack up to the Fender CS '69's? I'd be interested to hear a comparison of the two.

I just installed a lil killer in one of my MIM strats, and so far so good. I have only played at low volumes but it sounds pretty good.

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1994 Standard Strat, Blue
2000 Standard Strat, Black, with GFS block, and GFS Lil Killer pickup.
2004 Standard Telecaster, Black
1971 Gibson SG
1985 Kramer Baretta
1986 Kramer Vangard
Carvin X60B
Marshall 50 watt 2x12 combo

If you dig the GFS pups, then check out TTSpickups.com!!!! Not kidding! the best sounding vintage repros ever, a little more than GFS, but waaaaay better tone!!!!

Hey a little self promotion is cool, huh?

Hotrod Heart

I never seen a Fender guitar with Tyler pickups.

One of my favorite things is to have an American Deluxe Strat HSS LT with a solid jelutong (mamywood) body and a weird hazmat spill "shmear" finish. The problem is Fender does not use jelutong and wacky paint jobs as Tyler does, although i've seen exotic Strats and Teles with koa bodies and pearloid pickguards. And the most annoying was the difficulty to order an abalone-inlaid Custom Shop neck with the late 1959 backshape.

As for the active electronics, I'll use a Demeter mid-boost preamp (which has some similarities with the Clapton one) with the lead/rhythm circuit and the mid-boost preset/bypass switching. The package includes series/parallel switches for each pickup, but I wish to kept the S-1 switch to activate the special capacitor and the TBX tone pot for more brightness and girth.