GFS tele bridge recommendations/advice

Somehow or other I ended up ordering a lil' pucher 6K tele bridge pup.
Not horrible, but no so impressed either. Sent back for credit (per their ebay deal).
Any advice on
1) "vintage voiced" I think it's supposed to be their Broadcaster pup
2) "50's"
3) "60's hot."
This so I can decide to get a replacement pup or other stuff like tuners and hardware.



Thx-
Mike

Somehow or other I ended up ordering a lil' pucher 6K tele bridge pup.


What does that mean?:roll:
Anyway, my advice would be to NOT get another GFS. With the price of Toneriders & Bill Lawrence Keystones there is no need to go with GFS. I have 2 GFS pickups & they are just OK. I've got the 60's repro bridge. Decent tone but not great. Do a little research on the Toneriders & Keystones.

Yeah....
lil' PUNCHER

my bad

MS

I have a GFS 60's repro that should be here today. This is the first GFS pickup that I have bought. It's going into an esquire project I'm working on. I'll let you know how it goes.

I also have a set of Keystones in another tele and they sound great. I would recommend them if you're looking for a cheap set, just make sure you call Becky if you want to get in touch before placing your order.

I put an Alnico Vintage 50s in my Affinty. It twangs. I liked it so much I put another in my MIM Standard.

I have a GFS 60's repro that should be here today. This is the first GFS pickup that I have bought. It's going into an esquire project I'm working on. I'll let you know how it goes.

I also have a set of Keystones in another tele and they sound great. I would recommend them if you're looking for a cheap set, just make sure you call Becky if you want to get in touch before placing your order.

Hey Maches, chime back in & let me know what you think of your GFS 60's repro. It is advertised as having enormous bottom end. On mine, that is really the one thing that is missing. It is very thin sounding.

I have a 50's in my 69 thinline that I like a lot better than what came in it.

Hey Maches, chime back in & let me know what you think of your GFS 60's repro. It is advertised as having enormous bottom end. On mine, that is really the one thing that is missing. It is very thin sounding.

I will report my findings. I was hoping it would get here before I left for work, but I'm just about to leave now and haven't seen the UPS guy yet. If it gets here today then I might install it later tonight.

I have used both the GFS 50's and 60's, Keystones and the Tonerider Hot Classic. The Keystones are superior in everyway, with the Tonerider being perhaps slightly better, but it's more a matter of taste. The Toneriders are very vintage correct in look and construction, if that is a concern. If you need to go with GFS for the trade in policy, both the 50's & and 60's are good pickups and sound very similar, although neither are close to vintage correct in constuction. The 60's is wound with 43 AWG wire to a little over 10K, with the 50's being 42 AWG and and a little over 7K. Because of the difference in wire gauge, the 60's doesn't sound much, if any, hotter than the 50's. It might have a tad more bottom and mid punch, and the 50's may be slightly twangier, but they are extremely close in output and tone.

Thanks guys. I have Tonerider humbuckers in a Heritage 170CM (a great guitar) and may look into their tele set. Website sound clip is good!!
I spoke with Becky several months ago, so may follow that route instead.

I think the GFS's are out.

Mike

I have used both the GFS 50's and 60's, Keystones and the Tonerider Hot Classic. The Keystones are superior in everyway, with the Tonerider being perhaps slightly better, but it's more a matter of taste. The Toneriders are very vintage correct in look and construction, if that is a concern. If you need to go with GFS for the trade in policy, both the 50's & and 60's are good pickups and sound very similar, although neither are close to vintage correct in constuction. The 60's is wound with 43 AWG wire to a little over 10K, with the 50's being 42 AWG and and a little over 7K. Because of the difference in wire gauge, the 60's doesn't sound much, if any, hotter than the 50's. It might have a tad more bottom and mid punch, and the 50's may be slightly twangier, but they are extremely close in output and tone.

Hey Spank - have you tried both the Hot Classic and the Vintage Toneriders?

JG806--Nope. Just the hot classic. BTW, when I wrote that the Tonerider was "slightly better", I meant better than the GFS, not the Keystones. IMO, the keystones are some of the best modern sounding pickups around.

I bought the Repro 1950'S ($30.95) and it was bright. Not harsh but glassy overtones out to where dogs only hear. I was trying for something with a more mid-range Redd sound. I figured that the Repro 1960's HOT ($32.95) would have higher inductance with 43 gauge wire versus 42 gauge. Using 30% as an estimate for the higher wire resistance, the number of turns is about the same but the all the wraps are closer to the magnets. And it sounded that way. More bottom and less of the glassy highs. It was closer to what I wanted and did a pedal steel sound quite well.

The GFS pickups have a copper base plate. After reading the Bill Lawrence baseplate post, I decided to try a copper covered steel baseplate at my next string change. Someone here sent me some links to baseplates and I bought one from Mojo ($6). It deepened the tone quite a bit. The E, A, and D strings were a bass knob number or two deeper but I had been using treble=3 and bass=7 on my old Princeton so that normalized the Fender tone controls. Probably much more balanced like an older Fender pickup at that point. I also noted that my GFS Alnico Fatbody Oversized Polepiece neck pickup seemed lower in the balance and needed one full turn on the screws to rebalance it. The bridge pickup apparently got a volume knob number or two higher with the steel baseplate.

I like the GFS construction with the beveled pole pieces and matte finish. It's a good looking pickup and for under $40 total, it's a good sounding pickup. If you get the baseplate at Mojo, buy a bag of precut rubber tubing for the pickup mounting to replace the springs that GFS ships.

I have a GFS Vintage Alnico 50 bridge pickup in one guitar (with a Fatbody at the neck) and I'm quite happy with it. Others have reported good results with the 60s equivalent and also particularly the Fatbody bridge pickups, both the regular (7K) and overwound (10K) varieties. Certainly the neck-position Fatbody is a great pickup and teams nicely with the V. A. 50 at the bridge.

Hey Maches, chime back in & let me know what you think of your GFS 60's repro...

Installed the pickup into my Squier Affinity Esquire project this afternoon with a 4-way switch. 1. No tone 2. W/ tone 3. W/ .0047uF 4. W/ .0022uF. Came in at 9.89k on my multimeter which is a little hotter than advertised. The pickup has a nice, full bottom end with a lot of bite. I especially like the sound of the 3rd position. I don't have a whole lot of experience with aftermarket pickups. The only other pickups I own is a set of Keystones which sound more open and twangy to me (not a bad thing), but I wanted something with a bit more bass and this pickup does the trick quite nicely for under $40.

Installed the pickup into my Squier Affinity Esquire project this afternoon with a 4-way switch. 1. No tone 2. W/ tone 3. W/ .0047uF 4. W/ .0022uF. Came in at 9.89k on my multimeter which is a little hotter than advertised. The pickup has a nice, full bottom end with a lot of bite. I especially like the sound of the 3rd position. I don't have a whole lot of experience with aftermarket pickups. The only other pickups I own is a set of Keystones which sound more open and twangy to me (not a bad thing), but I wanted something with a bit more bass and this pickup does the trick quite nicely for under $40.

Thanks. Nice to know. I guess I got a bit of a lemon. Wish I'd known. Don't get me wrong it does have decent tone.

Keystones FTW!