GFS VEH pickups

[diggum12]

I helped my friend wire up a guitar last night and he bought a Guitar Fetish VEH for the bridge.  I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised.  Pretty good little pickup there.  Without dialing it in much, we were getting some very sizzling tones, especially from the Dr. Boogey. 
For the price, you can't beat those guys. 

BTW, the guitar was an early 80's (we think) Hondo II Les Paul.  A very good guitar overall.  Loved the neck. 

[Gurraboy]

Thats interesting to hear.
 I was considering getting their "boston blues" set for a strat Im putting together, just because its fun to try something new sometimes.
Im guessing you should take them for what they are though, really cheap but high quality for the money? I mean, they sound great, but should not be compared to high end pups, like Suhr or Lollar etc? I could be wrong (that would be great:)) but I have tried pups similar to these before, (like tonerider) and thats the conclusion I came to.

/G

[diggum12]

I just ordered one of these for myself.  I'm not trying to cop the VH sound at all, but they seem like the perfect fit for a Les Paul after hearing them.  I'll report back when it's installed. 

[simpleman]

They have some crunchy rail too. These sound as good as the 80.00 duncans, and for 50.00 less per pu. I heard these both back to back on a youtube vid. Same equipment dif pu's. A comparison vid. If anything they were a little better than the emg's. I was surprised! If my guitar needed better pu's I'd have bought the crunchy rail myself. These GFS pickups are really impressive for the price!
And I find that the guy who owns guitarfetish finds good stuff cheap items. His ads often say they are as good as "%$$#@$#@%@" whatever is the better one as for rep. And I figure too that being an ebay seller, he depends on feedback rating to sell. So he can't just sell inexpensive stuff that isn't good. He would have feedbacks that say, "I bought these because he said they would be as good as blank, and they stink! Or these were lousy. This would cut his sales and consumer confidence. But he doesn't have those kind of feedbacks. He has to keep it honest with the ebay ratings being so important to future sales. So when he says something is very good and costs less than the leader, you can trust that I guess. And hey, 30.00 for a humbucker that good is crazy man! Why spend 80.00 or more. GFS gets squeling harmonics, hard crunch, all you need.

[diggum12]

I just ordered one of these for myself.  I'm not trying to cop the VH sound at all, but they seem like the perfect fit for a Les Paul after hearing them.  I'll report back when it's installed. 

So in my Epi Les Paul it's... Meh.  So so.  Definitely a cool sound, I'm just not sure if it's "me" yet.  I'll give it a few days and see if I like it any more or less.  One thing I will say is getting the pickup tweaked is a good experience.  You can really dial it in to get a lot of different sounds out of it. 

[Paul Marossy]

Just curious, what pickup would you compare the VEH to?

[diggum12]

Geez, uhhhh, I can't say for sure. 

Kinda like a PAF pro but with a little more low mids maybe?  It would be more of the post-VHII but, pre-1984 sound.  The really saturated sound like on Women and Children First.  (That one seems to be mixed a bit more weirdly than most of the other ones.) 

[Paul Marossy]

Cool, thanks. That satisifies my curiousity. 

[diggum12]

I've got it dialed in more the way I want now.  I will say it's growing on me.  One mistake I made was using the only pack of strings I had handy which were 10 1/2's (10.5 - 48 gauge) instead of 10s.   It's on my Epi Les Paul and that guitar doesn't need anything thicker than 10s.  (9's would probably be better but I can't play those.)

That heavier E string definitely gives it more bass.  I think something like a 42 would be best on there to help control the bass.

Anyway, it all sounds fine but I still say it would sound better in a Strat.  Which makes sense since Eddie doesn't typically play a LP, right?    

[Paul Marossy]

Anyway, it all sounds fine but I still say it would sound better in a Strat.  Which makes sense since Eddie doesn't typically play a LP, right?    

Yeah, I have never seen him even once with anything other than his frankenstrat creations with his signature red, white and black striped paint jobs or the Ernie Ball signature model that he had at one time, or the new signature model he plays these days. But I am not really a fan of his, so don't consider me an expert on EVH's guitars. 
 
I do know that he has a pretty big guitar collection, I'm sure that there must be a few Les Pauls in it.

[JSchwalls]

[Paul Marossy]

This picture is probably more akin to Bob Dylan holding a Fender P-Bass in an old Fender ad as opposed to him actually using it for any gigs or whatever. I wonder if he started out with Les Pauls and then switched when he discovered the whammy bar? Who knows. That's the first picture I have ever seen of him with a Les Paul type guitar. Looks like it's from the mid-70s...

[diggum12]

Which makes sense since Eddie doesn't typically play a LP, right?

I knew it was just a matter of time before the internet police came a knockin'.  ...and that's Liberace on the keys...

There's quite a few pics out there w/ Eddie playing a LP w/ Roth on stage.  But that's not my point.  I think this GFS pickup isn't really the greatest for a LP.  But like I said, ees growing on me....


...okay, so I've been playing it all afternoon.  I confess....  Hehe.

[JSchwalls]

that pic just looks wrong...  haah

[dan5150]

I have the GFS Vintage '59 in my LTD GL-256, and the Crunchy Rails in the bridge position of my Jackson Dinky.

I also installed thier "Crunchy PAT" in an guitar I have since sold.

I have been very happy with the sounds/tones from them.