GFS Lil' Puncher "Cool Vintage" Review

[andy__woods]

Hey guys. Recently I had posted a thread about how the Lil' Puncher p'ups from GFS were, and after much consideration and input from you guys, I bought a set of the Cool Vintage.

Here are the specs first (from the Guitar Fetish site):
- A true side by side blade humbucker wound to vintage single coil specs. 4 wire for Coil Tapping.
- Bridge -- 6.5k
- Neck --5.5k

First off, I wired them up just as humbuckers, no coil tapping (not yet at least). Followed the wiring diagram and things went over without a hitch.

Neck
For the neck pickup, I followed the advice on the website, and adjusted the height to be pretty much flush with the pickguard. Oh by the way, the p'up was too big to fit in the pickguard! So I took a knife and gradually carved out enough space for the little guy, no harm, no foul. On first test, it was extremely muddy, and very dark when playing full chords. I adjusted the treble side, to make it a little higher and things balanced out well.
As far as bass goes, it is very responsive, plenty of bottom end. Mids are good, but can be somewhat weak at times. Highs are great for single notes, and leads, but in full chords they blend together well. At first I didn't much care for the tone, but after realizing, "Hey, this ISN'T a single coil, get used to it" I really began to fall in love with it. It provides a great, warm 'bucker tone.

Bridge
This is the better pickup in the set to my ears. It has some really good bite, and twangs pretty well too . I was surprised actually, with how well it took to any country picking I did. I normally don't play country, but like to now and then, and it sounded great. Also, it provides a great driven tone, and has plenty of bass and mid response to keep from being too thin.


All in all, I'm impressed. Coming in at about $50, I'm very happy. I have no experience with higher priced pickups, but these are a great budget choice. Thanks for the input guys, and helping me spend some money!

[TELEkinetic]

Originally Posted by andy__woods

Hey guys. Recently I had posted a thread about how the Lil' Puncher p'ups from GFS were, and after much consideration and input from you guys, I bought a set of the Cool Vintage.

Here are the specs first (from the Guitar Fetish site):
- A true side by side blade humbucker wound to vintage single coil specs. 4 wire for Coil Tapping.
- Bridge -- 6.5k
- Neck --5.5k

First off, I wired them up just as humbuckers, no coil tapping (not yet at least). Followed the wiring diagram and things went over without a hitch.

Andy - A couple of questions. I'm gettin' ready to pull the trigger on a set.

Did you get the "standard", or the longer "XL" version?

Are you now using 250k or 500k pots?

And, what size capacitor are you using? .047 ? .022 ?

[andy__woods]

Hey. I'm not sure what the set is as far as standard or XL, but here is the link http://store.guitarfetish.com/casetcvililp.html

Also, the pots and cap are just the stock MIM equipment. Sorry I don't have better info

[TELEkinetic]

Those are the "standard" size. If your MIM is stock, then your pots are 250K with a .047 cap.

Thanks for the review.

[spankdplank]

I had a 6K neck and a 10K bridge set that I just took out and replaced with Keystones. The rails were too short and the E strings sounded weak. Spend the extra money and get the XL set with the longer rails. Even with 500 k pots, the tone was still too humbucker sounding for me, but I think I'm just not a rail guy.