Anyone tried Artec pickups?

Really cheap pickups which would work for my two builds.

Anyone tried them?

I put a pair $9.99 Artec ceramic P-90 pick-ups in a DIY guitar (60's Norma body).
While not up to Lollar or SD standards.....not bad for the money IMO.

Steve

I put a pair $9.99 Artec ceramic P-90 pick-ups in a DIY guitar (60's Norma body).
While not up to Lollar or SD standards.....not bad for the money IMO.

Steve

I would not expect them to be as good as Dimarzio or SD maybe not
even GFS. Very cheap pickups, do you think they are generally better than
stock pickups on cheap guitars like J&D, Squire and such?

It depends on the Artec. I am reasonably certain that the GFS "fatbody" pickup with the oversized alnico pole pieces is made by Artec. They look identical and the specs are identical. I bought an Artec "fatbody" neck pup on Ebay for $15 and it is one of my favorite tele neck pickups.

I also have an inclination to believe that GFS pups are actually repackaged Artecs. BUT, I do NOT want to start one of the flame wars I have seen on other sites when the GFS/Artec similarities were discussed! I'm just sayin' that I have a pair of the discontinued smaller-sized GFS Retrotron Nashvilles, and bought an Artec that looked quite similar - and with both pups in hand, I can find no difference. To ME, the three pups seem identical - two GFS, one Artec.

Can't comment, tone wise, I as I haven't mounted the Artec in the anticipated project. I DO have another set of the disco-ed GFS Retrotrons mounted in an Epi Sheraton, and I like them very much (ergo, my pursuit of more). Gives it a very Gretsch-y vibe, IMHO.

http://www.deaf-eddie.net/guitars/bigsby-1.jpg

I just picked up the Artec Tele neck pickup. It's an alnico and I got it to replace the stock Yamaha Pacifica pickup that was muddy and had no life to it. For the money, it's a decent pickup. I'm tempted to buy the Artec bridge pickup as well as some Wilkinson's to finish the Yamaha and a Fretlight tele that needs life.

I've used some Artec humbuckers with success on a Les-Paul copy, but can't comment on their tele-relevant offerings. I have dealt with Artec directly and they do quality pieces with both alnico and ceramic magnets out of factories in Korea and China. My understanding is that Artec builds GFS pickups to Jay's unique specs, as they have also done for Dean Markley(West Coast Series), Hagstrom and Gretsch. I'd definitely consider them an upgrade to many stock pickups- don't let the low price fool you.

The advertised polepiece spacing on the Artec AlNiCo Tele bridge pickup looks right for typical Teles, 54mm (2.12") between the two outermost polepieces.

I just bought a minibucker that looked very close to a GFS pickup in the picture, (sellr didn't really know)in myneck position, sounds great! couple of days later found out it is an artec..for the price, I really can't complain, am I really gonna spend 150 $ for a pickup on a 350 fender telecaster? Most of your sound is through the amp, pickups do make a difference, but c'mon, trying a mod out for 15 $ ain't a bad start