gfs pickups

Haven't used those, but have tried several other GFS pups & bought other stuff from them and will say that they are good value for money.

 

i know not a thing of their bass pups, though i would like to (cheap prices if they are worth a crap). however, i *have* tried a small handful of their gui**** pups, and pretty much across the board, i think they are pretty neato. i particularly am in love with the older-design covered "dream 90" (before they had all of these ___90 options---- not sure if they are the same nowadays or not). while it has just a twitch of that hi-fi brittleness on top that lots of folks maybe dont like, it gets closer to a P90 sound than pretty much anything else that isnt a P90 (or clone), IMHO, of course, and YMMV. it absolutely provided a new and interesting voice for my application, which was the reason i swapped it in to start with. if you happen to try the bass pups, please post your experience. i was thinking that the J models might make an inexpensive step-up from something like an sx or mexi-fender. they definitely *seem* to have all of the right stuff going on....

 

I've tried both GFS P basspickups.

I started with the Hot overwound one.I put in a Fender 50's classic P body with an Allparts jazz neck.I didn't like it too much. It was the loudest P bass pickup I ever used.Real fat bottom & low mids.The highs were kind of harsh.I had to dial a bit of high mid(presence) in.Granted a P bass isn't known for it's high end but there was no sweetness at all in the upper end. It didn't have any focus to the tone.It was heavy sounding however.It could turn the air to creamcheese.Might be a good choice for drop D tuning.Someone's going to like this pickup,but not me.

I forgot that most overwound pickups do lose something in the highs.I didn't like the various Duncan hot bass pickups I tried over the years either.

A local luthier/repair guy had a GFS vintage P pickup he wanted to swap me for the hot one.I went for it & had him install that in the same bass.I think this one sounds a lot better.Nice tight lows,mids & sweet snappy highs.Sounds a lot more focused.Lives up to it's hype on the Guitar Fetish site.I figured I'd put something more expensive in but this one suits me fine.I like it! This one sounds as good as a lot pricier pups.Vintage sounding with balls.

This luthier guy dropped the GFS overwound P in a fretless bass he made with a Duncan hot Basslines Jazz pickup by the bridge.It's the ballsiest fretless I've ever heard!

 

I recently put one of those in my OLP MM2 and I love it. It has very good presence, it's hard to describe.

I have a Seymour Duncan alnico SMB4A that I intend to put in my other OLP MM2. I'm curious about comparing both pickups, the GFS is a lot cheaper and I don't think the SD will be any better, honestly. But until I test it, I don't know.

I bought the SD first, I must say. If I hadn't, and tried the GFS first, I'd have simply bought another for the other bass.

 

Blast from the past...
Just to update: GFS pickup went away and I have since used SD alnico ones in various other basses, much better in my opinion.