Giovanni (artec) pickup experiences?

[Jericho75]

Bought a set of their Vsoap p90's a few years back and never installed them until recently. I was pretty shocked and amazed with the tone of both pickups. Comparing with my 60's Les Paul tribute's stock pups, they were about the same in output but had more clarity and top end(glassy?), yet still warm and rounded. I was so impressed, I just bought a set of the Giovanni GCS-1 strat sets and will soon be getting those installed my MIM.

Has anyone else had experience with this line of pickups? If I end up loving the strat set, I may get the set of GVS-1 buckers for my Flying v.

[Jericho75]

No one huh? Am I the only one?

[GigsbyBoyUK]

Afraid not, although I have used a few pickups in a similar price range (probably from the same factory) and been pleased. Getting these budget pickups can be a bit of a risk but so far they have all been OK. The Mighty Mite Strat pickups I have are fantastic.

I still go for Bare Knuckle Pickups when I can afford them but often these after market Chinese ones are an improvement on many stock pickups in very cheap guitars, and it seems even the odd Gibson!

[Jericho75]

Well for what it's worth, I installed the Giovanni gcs-1 set in my mim strat today. Instantly amazed by every aspect of these pups. I have owned lawrence(Wilde) keystones, 280's, 290's, 298's, 1 GFS offering, tex mex, and hot noiseless. Out of those, it would be real hard to remove these "cheap" budget pups to replace with one of those. Sure they may not be lollars or BKP's, but I'd love to hear an a/b and see if the extra $$ is actually worth it. Honestly, I seriously doubt it.
Anyway, it's only my opinion and (Gump's voice) that's all I gotta say about that.

[Old_Skool_Noma]

I wanted to get their tele set but the US dealer doesn't sell them, Ive heard that GFS PUs are made by Artec though, Ive been sorely tempted to get a set of the GFS PUs

[Jericho75]

Gfs is made by artec as far as I know, and I have had gfs pups. But even though this "series" or whatever are artec made, they are very different in construction. FWIW the only GFS pup I liked was the mean 90.

[telepath]

GFS, Artec, Giovanni, some Kent Armstrong, Entwistle et-al
I suspect they have a lot in common. Price and marketing seem to differ a fair bit mind...
Artec usually being the lowest cost. What with being the actual manufacturer and all.

There may be more fundamental differences, but its hard to imagine what, or why even.

[songofthewind]

I put some Giovanni 60's pickups in my Fender Japan Strat, replacing the ceramic originals. I think they are pretty good.

[hwestman]

I got some artec t0@$ters for my Ric 360 as a replacement for the higains. The improvement is huge but I didn't get any thumbs up at the Ric board I tell you...

They are staying in though and I feel no need to go for the genuine thing, so I guess that's a thumbs up from me.