GFS Pickup Data

Pickups, wiring schemes, switch techniques and onboard active electronics for guitars and basses
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mojah63
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Post by mojah63 »

Thought I'd post some specs from a set of pu that I bought from Jay at guitar fetish.

NEO5 1.011H 4.79K

NEO6 1.406H 5.96K

NEO7 1.853H 6.70K

GFS pickups are reverse wound, so if wired with most any other pickup they will end up being out of phase.

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culturejam
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Post by culturejam »

I changed the topic title because I'm adding some data of my own that I requested from GFS.

They don't list the resistance of their Vintage Split Humbucker (Fender clone), so I emailed to inquire and got the following response:

Neck = 7.8K
Bridge = 9K

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Post by .Mike »

mojah63 wrote:GFS pickups are reverse wound, so if wired with most any other pickup they will end up being out of phase.
A question for you (or anyone else) if you don't mind...

I have a '64 Stagger Vintage Grey-Bottom boutique Strat Set in my Am. Std Strat. The middle pickup is not RW/RP.

If GFS pickups are reverse wound, and since my middle pickup is not RW/RP, does it make a difference that I wired the pickups up under the assumption that they were not all reverse wound? Should I open my guitar up and swap the leads for each pickup?

Thanks, :)

Mike
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mojah63
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Post by mojah63 »

It would only be a problem if you pair them with a standard strat pickup or a Dimarzio. If you
have a set it's not a problem. I found out when I paralleled a Neo7 with a Dimarzio Hs-3.
It sounded really thin, out of phase.

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Post by .Mike »

Great, thank you. :)
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Tube2stomp
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Post by Tube2stomp »

There is no convention for winding direction (which is no big deal) or magnet polarity (which IS a "medium" deal) between pickup builders.
If you have two pickups with the same polarity but reverse wound with respect to each other, obviously they will sound out of phase.
You want them in phase? simply wire one of them with its ground lead as "hot" and wire the hot as "ground".
What you don't get? -> noise cancelling

Pedantic audiophiles will say that even though they will be in phase, it's not the same because the coils end<>start are reversed :scratch:
Don't worry, Gibson wind their humbackers the same way and simply reverse "connect" one of them :wink:
Oh, and they do it like that since the 50's :secret:

If the *polarity* between two pickups is reversed and they are wound the same, simply reverse "connecting" one of them will give you in phase sound and noise cancelling.

Now how are those Neo pickups compared to regular alnico singles?
1H - 1.8H is pretty low...
I had and have pickups from Jay but was never able to get from him any inductance numbers (just DCR which doesn't say much).

Enjoy the new pups :thumbsup

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Post by mojah63 »

[quote="
Now how are those Neo pickups compared to regular alnico singles?
1H - 1.8H is pretty low...
I had and have pickups from Jay but was never able to get from him any inductance numbers (just DCR which doesn't say much).

Enjoy the new pups :thumbsup[/quote]

They are about half a standard anico ~ 2 - 3H I measured them with an LCR meter.
Double checked the meter against a choke I knew the value of. I thought they where low too. I guess with the stronger Neo magnets he uses they don't need as many windings.. They are not as sparkly as a good anico, very quite, sound better loud at rehearsal volume than at bedroom volume.

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Post by Tube2stomp »

I Read some more about them, your meter didn't lie, they do have low inductance.
But the thing that amazed me, based on the pictures at the GF store (just the top) I thought they were probably based on either of the few known patents out there, either stacked or side wind. turns out (after seeing a bottom picture) they are simply a dual blade pickup with a cover that fakes rod magnets :slap:
Nothing new under the sun/cover after all :mrgreen:

Blades are what they are (had "S" Bardens) but can't ever be "Strat" sparkly... not even with a fake cool looking cover :lol:
On a Tele blades can "fake" a bit better (at least my "T" Bardens could) because a Tele has less bandwidth.

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Post by RnFR »

i've got some GFS Filtertron copies. i can't remember if they are the nashville or liverpool variety, but i could measure their resistance if anyone is interested, as i think i'm going to be trying them out in one of my guitars again soon. i remember i wired the coils in parallel once, and that had a nice jangly sound. it's been quite a while though.
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Post by skylark44 »

I've been using pickups & other parts/electronic mods from Jay...and I've gotta say, I love just about everything they've got there (especially their GFS pickups :wink: ). I've either bought, or installed almost every pickup they have, over the last several years (in my personal guitars, and for my customer's). I can't say enough good things about Jay, and Guitar Fetish...especially for the prices...you just can't beat 'em. :mrgreen:

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Post by RnFR »

i also bought one of their hot lipsticks a while back. i like it a lot. really cool and different single coil tone. I think it's listed as 8k2, but it's been a while.
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Post by timbo_93631 »

I really dig the new Surf90 I have in the neck position of my strat. Very very good DeArmond like tone. Neck is 7.2k, bridge 7.8k. I have mine paired with a Dream90 in the Bridge position. Good, but I might go for a Surf90 there eventually. Here's some nice youttube links of a great player demoing the Surf90's:

Strat2.JPG
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Post by jtn191 »

hey culturejam,

those Vintage Split Humbucker are like WR humbucker-clones-but-not-really-cuz-we're-running-out-of-cunife, right? how do they sound?

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Post by jtn191 »

and any info/opinions on bass pups?

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Post by Westbury »

jtn191 wrote:and any info/opinions on bass pups?
The pbass pups are pretty good, but I haven't been able to use the bass they are in for a long time. I could measure them though.

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