Timing for this video is great! I have a set riding along I-95, somewhere, on the way to me. I’m looking forward to comparing them to a set of GFS Classic II Alnico 2 Vintage Wound Humbuckers and a set of the stock Crunchy PAT’s in three GFS LP style Pro 500’s.
I have these VEH pickups in a Schecter Damian FR and I absolutely love them. These sound great clean as well as with heavy distortion. You definitely have sustain for days. GFS pickups are amazing....I am still trying to decide on which ones to buy next.
Guitarfetish sells great stuff that when selected carefully produces great guitars for the money. I have a LP that is 100% GF and it plays and looks awesome! Even had 2 UK guitarists (I live in Belgium) offering me double from what I payed the parts after they played it live. GF rules!
id like to see some more of the partscaster builds you have on facebook here in videos showing step by step how to and sound test after. it would get more people interested in your parts. you had a great looking strat with filtertrons, tele and les paul on Facebook and they've seemed to turned out great in the sound videos. You have some really cool looking bodies and your pickups are awesome, show us what can be done with them!
I've bought that many GFS pickups over the years, sometimes I can't remember what I've got in the guitars. I believe I did get a set of these and installed them in a guitar and found them to be thin sounding. Never got around to checking the wiring again - with so many guitars who has time! But I've been revisiting some pickups that have been in the drawer that weren't what I was looking for at the time, but seem to suit other guitars. I love their Alnico II PAFs.
for sure there is more clarity, top end chime and sparkle with the gfs veh pickups. I've been using GFS pickups a long time. I've played on countless stages next to old gibsons, new gibsons, old fendrs new fenders. When I was teaching my nephew he was using one of those Mexican Charvels and with duncans. pretty sure its rocking a JB in the bridge and 59 in the neck and I was able to A/B those pretty extensively. I have a few guitars with GFS in them and next to the crunchy pat or fat pat, its different but for sure the GFS don't sound bad, worse. In fact, the JB is a warm pickup and both the Crunchy pat and fat pat are more open and brighter. The 59 though. it doesn't really balance well with the JB. It's usable when the tone and volume are wide open, but the minute you roll it back, its mud. The neck humbucker from both crunchy and fat pats are far more open and have tons more clarity ESPECIALLY when you roll it back. GFS makes great pickups that can stand up next to anyone else. that' doesn't mean you might not find a Dimarzio or Duncan set that's better for YOU..but in my experience they are on par with anyone.
GREAT COMPANY, always fast at questions, Kevin in Customer Service is AWESOME Thanx Kevin. Always top notch bunch there great Products and help/ Thanx Rob
I have the VEH pickup in 2 of my guitars and the others have GFS as well. I have used DiMarzio and Duncans etc. I will never waste money on a SD or Dimarzio or any other high dollar pickup again. FIshman and EMG included. Never again.
Installed neck and bridge GFS-EVH into one of my trem equipped tele knockoffs.. coil splits on both pickups, volume and one tone knob. Also, the coil splits allow me to choose which coil of which pickup I use. so top, both, bottom.. on both. 3 way tele switch otherwise gives me MANY options.. I'll say the thing RAWKS!!!! Also, single coils are SO close to sounding like my true tele's! It's a multi-usage guitar
Is this the same adapter that is used with a pre-wired harness that is KP? I ordered a harness, and someone from support suggested I use the adapter for pickupups that are not KP, that way I won’t ruin that system. The reason I’m asking is because this is not a guitar that will be using coil splits, and I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing with the coil split wire.
Hey Jeffrey, If you're using a Kwikplug pickup on a regular soldered harness, you would use the detachable solder lead to install it and simply tape back the white wire if you are not planning on coil-splitting. If you have a Kwikplug harness and want to install a non-Kwikplug pickup, you'll want to use either our pigtail or block Kwikplug adapters. The adapters will have wiring diagrams in the photo sections of their respective listings.
@@GuitarfetishTV I bought a couple pigtails. The diagram shows red/white wires are split coils. The harness itself is KP. Do you guys have a KP harness that fits full size 335 style semi hollows? I’ve got an Ibanez AS73 I want to upgrade.
Hey man, great demo. Listen, I got GFS zebra pickups and I have a green wire and a red/white wire intertwined together. Going to a push/pull pot. But I can't figure out which lugs to solder those wires to. Can you help?
Most likely the green wire is full hum-bucking and the red/white intertwined is the coil split. Depending on which coil you want out of the circuit on the push/pull you'd either 'jumper' the red/white to the green, or 'jumper' the red/white to ground.
I have a set of the 63’ professional series pickups in a line telecaster I made. Love GFS and don’t get why more people don’t like them. I’ve bought a xgp neck and jazzmaster body and everything fit perfectly. I have a few of their pedals, flanger, phaser, and tremolo and they’re top quality and sound great.
I'm looking for a cheap set of cream/blk pickups so I can swap out the chrome covered ones on my LP. Im happy with my current tone fyi, I just want a differnt, "zebra" looking aesthetic. In my band, I play out of a dimed JCM800 half stack with an overdrive pedal. It is a LOUD, crunchy meat and potatoes sound. That said, tonal differnces among differnt pickups for me at least, arent a real dealbreaker since that is what ( I assume ) EQ/gain knobs on amps are designed for. I also ride my vol and tone knobs on my guitar throughout a set, as well as pick attack makes a huge differnce and is way too often overlooked. This is my long winded way of saying that unless your pickups are completely weak/noisy and utterly a POS, tonal differences are MOSTLY a marketing schtick. Yeah they sound a tad differnt in some cases, but if a p/up sounds bright to me, I'll lower my amps treble; if it's too weak, I'll riase the gain or pickup height. It's just common sense. Who just leaves their amp settings etc in a static position and calls it a day after going throught the process of re-installing pickups? People assume too often that a new gadget is gonna turn them into Van Halen in seconds. I get that every small item is a part of a greater whole and can contribute to an overall increase in muscial inspiration/performance, whether real or percieved-, but I cant tell you the amount of times Ive been on stage where a string broke or a pedal failed or some unexpected gear mishap occured and we still pulled a great show out of our ass because we were hungry for it. It's 90% about the heart you put into it; gear and stuff is a distant 2nd. Having said that, I'll prolly get a set of these since they are indeed affordable and look cool af (to me). If need be, I'll adjust my amp/pedals as necessary to where it sounds good to my ear. No sense in spending $200 + on essentially the same thing just cause they have a famous guys name on them. Sorry for the rant- Signed, Old Fart
My guess is you would like the ones with the closest out put rating to the ones in your guitar now if you already like how it sounds but want a different look. Maybe check around for a set of used stock LP pickups that look right to you. I just got a Set of VEH and a wiring harness w/ coil tap. I’m just relearning you play, but I like them. They put out more sound at lower volume than the stock pickups in my Chibson. Idk if they are intrinsically better, but they are louder through my gear.
@@TheBoondoggler You're welcome! I feel the need to share, Aggressive Elevator Music's long review video video is what sealed the deal on the VEH set for me, when I get better and want to play heavier, I am thinking the loud mouth set. I hope you can find what you are lookin for!
@@juliankirby9880 thanks. I'll def switch up to something soon. One thing I am going to do ASAP though, is switch out 2 of my 4 cab speakers from 12t75s to V30s. I think that will have a huge impact on at least tonal difference. I do wanna check out the VEHs too.
I would not say the new pickups are a huge improvement but they are not a step dawn either so when we consider the cost vs / the name brand pickup Guitar Fetish for the huge win! And this is not the first time either, I heard a shootout with Burst buckets and Seymour Duncan Slash pickups 2 reputable pickups for sure and I’m pretty sure the vintage pats sounded the best of the three to my very jaded ears. I really like the Guitar Fetish Strat pickups a lot. Lots of “ clang” to the sound, don’t want them sounding too polite!
I could tell the pickups sounded different, but it is easier for me to hear the difference when the sound samples directly follow each other. I definitely enjoyed the playing on this particular video, but for me, the playing quality is not important in pickup comparison videos. Open strings work. One other thing, when the quick plug system is set up, there is no soldering. He could have explained that there would be no more soldering when switching out quick plug pickups in that particular guitar.
Honestly, to my ears the VEH don't sound that much different. So, if it's between a boutique pair of pups like those from Chicago at $300.00 to $500.00 a pair or the GFS VEH at around $77.00 a pair ($38.00 ea.)...well then I'm going to choose the GFS pups. It's a no brainer really! Just my 2 cents worth. Peace.
What we really need are specs on the pickups. The website does not mention magnet type or out put rating in this pickup. Info that is critical to making a informed buying decision. Please resolve this as soon as possible. Thanks!
Thanks for your comment! If you go to the product page (www.guitarfetish.com/KP--VEH--Vintage-Extra-Hot--The-BROWN-Sound-Chrome--Kwikplug%E2%84%A2-Ready_p_21915.html) all of this information is available!
"The VEH pickups are made with Alnico 5 magnets, four wire cables for easy coil tapping, and come in a retail box with mounting screws and our illustrated GFS wiring manual." " What we did is take the great traditional "Patent Applied For" recipe, wound each coil to a very specific number of turns with 43 gauge wire on non magnetic German Silver baseplates, got the mechanical aspects and geometry all right and then potted the just perfectly with pure paraffin. The VEH's are BIG sounding... Bridge is wound to 11.2K, Neck to 9.4K but they FEEL bigger...Bottom end is VERY big."
Guitar fetish TV? YES!!! Cool.
I've put the veh bridge pickups in a couple strats. They sound great. I have a 3rd one for my next build.
So glad you're making more videos! Can't wait to finally hear what the Surf 180 pickups sound like, since I love my Surf 90s.
Love my VEH on my 78 franky build
That is good to know. I am building a 78 replica and will use VEH.
@@hawleybrowder4083 I actually like the tone more than my EVH Frankenstrat pickup
Timing for this video is great! I have a set riding along I-95, somewhere, on the way to me. I’m looking forward to comparing them to a set of GFS Classic II Alnico 2 Vintage Wound Humbuckers and a set of the stock Crunchy PAT’s in three GFS LP style Pro 500’s.
I have these VEH pickups in a Schecter Damian FR and I absolutely love them. These sound great clean as well as with heavy distortion. You definitely have sustain for days. GFS pickups are amazing....I am still trying to decide on which ones to buy next.
Guitarfetish sells great stuff that when selected carefully produces great guitars for the money. I have a LP that is 100% GF and it plays and looks awesome! Even had 2 UK guitarists (I live in Belgium) offering me double from what I payed the parts after they played it live. GF rules!
Yep, genuine improvement.
id like to see some more of the partscaster builds you have on facebook here in videos showing step by step how to and sound test after. it would get more people interested in your parts.
you had a great looking strat with filtertrons, tele and les paul on Facebook and they've seemed to turned out great in the sound videos.
You have some really cool looking bodies and your pickups are awesome, show us what can be done with them!
I've bought that many GFS pickups over the years, sometimes I can't remember what I've got in the guitars. I believe I did get a set of these and installed them in a guitar and found them to be thin sounding. Never got around to checking the wiring again - with so many guitars who has time! But I've been revisiting some pickups that have been in the drawer that weren't what I was looking for at the time, but seem to suit other guitars. I love their Alnico II PAFs.
The new Pups sound brighter for sure.
Nice improvement in clarity, this is a good start for video content on this channel, subbed... Does David Spade have a guitar playing cousin?
Lol. That's what I was gonna say hahaha
for sure there is more clarity, top end chime and sparkle with the gfs veh pickups. I've been using GFS pickups a long time. I've played on countless stages next to old gibsons, new gibsons, old fendrs new fenders. When I was teaching my nephew he was using one of those Mexican Charvels and with duncans. pretty sure its rocking a JB in the bridge and 59 in the neck and I was able to A/B those pretty extensively. I have a few guitars with GFS in them and next to the crunchy pat or fat pat, its different but for sure the GFS don't sound bad, worse. In fact, the JB is a warm pickup and both the Crunchy pat and fat pat are more open and brighter. The 59 though. it doesn't really balance well with the JB. It's usable when the tone and volume are wide open, but the minute you roll it back, its mud. The neck humbucker from both crunchy and fat pats are far more open and have tons more clarity ESPECIALLY when you roll it back. GFS makes great pickups that can stand up next to anyone else. that' doesn't mean you might not find a Dimarzio or Duncan set that's better for YOU..but in my experience they are on par with anyone.
It would also be great if there were any of the pickup demonstrations that could highlight sounds for the metal guys.
YES! PLEEEASE!
Yup
GREAT COMPANY, always fast at questions, Kevin in Customer Service is AWESOME Thanx Kevin. Always top notch bunch there great Products and help/ Thanx Rob
I know this would be a monumental task but it would be great if you could make sound demos of all your pickups.
I’d like to se you do a Nashville Tele style.
I bought 1 of those some years back, and it was faulty! the ONLY GF pick up I ever got that had a problem! Every other set I ever bought worked great!
Great Video Jesse
I have the VEH pickup in 2 of my guitars and the others have GFS as well. I have used DiMarzio and Duncans etc.
I will never waste money on a SD or Dimarzio or any other high dollar pickup again.
FIshman and EMG included. Never again.
guitar fetish rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Installed neck and bridge GFS-EVH into one of my trem equipped tele knockoffs.. coil splits on both pickups, volume and one tone knob. Also, the coil splits allow me to choose which coil of which pickup I use. so top, both, bottom.. on both. 3 way tele switch otherwise gives me MANY options.. I'll say the thing RAWKS!!!! Also, single coils are SO close to sounding like my true tele's! It's a multi-usage guitar
Is this the same adapter that is used with a pre-wired harness that is KP? I ordered a harness, and someone from support suggested I use the adapter for pickupups that are not KP, that way I won’t ruin that system. The reason I’m asking is because this is not a guitar that will be using coil splits, and I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing with the coil split wire.
Hey Jeffrey, If you're using a Kwikplug pickup on a regular soldered harness, you would use the detachable solder lead to install it and simply tape back the white wire if you are not planning on coil-splitting. If you have a Kwikplug harness and want to install a non-Kwikplug pickup, you'll want to use either our pigtail or block Kwikplug adapters. The adapters will have wiring diagrams in the photo sections of their respective listings.
@@GuitarfetishTV I bought a couple pigtails. The diagram shows red/white wires are split coils. The harness itself is KP.
Do you guys have a KP harness that fits full size 335 style semi hollows? I’ve got an Ibanez AS73 I want to upgrade.
Hey man, great demo. Listen, I got GFS zebra pickups and I have a green wire and a red/white wire intertwined together. Going to a push/pull pot. But I can't figure out which lugs to solder those wires to. Can you help?
Most likely the green wire is full hum-bucking and the red/white intertwined is the coil split. Depending on which coil you want out of the circuit on the push/pull you'd either 'jumper' the red/white to the green, or 'jumper' the red/white to ground.
I have a set of the 63’ professional series pickups in a line telecaster I made. Love GFS and don’t get why more people don’t like them. I’ve bought a xgp neck and jazzmaster body and everything fit perfectly. I have a few of their pedals, flanger, phaser, and tremolo and they’re top quality and sound great.
I agree... GFS pickups can hang with any of the brands out there.
Super-high quality pickups ..... amazing value!
Excellent video!!
Huge difference. Sold!!!!
Glad it was helpful!
When you going let us hear the Kustom amp
I'm looking for a cheap set of cream/blk pickups so I can swap out the chrome covered ones on my LP. Im happy with my current tone fyi, I just want a differnt, "zebra" looking aesthetic. In my band, I play out of a dimed JCM800 half stack with an overdrive pedal. It is a LOUD, crunchy meat and potatoes sound. That said, tonal differnces among differnt pickups for me at least, arent a real dealbreaker since that is what ( I assume ) EQ/gain knobs on amps are designed for. I also ride my vol and tone knobs on my guitar throughout a set, as well as pick attack makes a huge differnce and is way too often overlooked. This is my long winded way of saying that unless your pickups are completely weak/noisy and utterly a POS, tonal differences are MOSTLY a marketing schtick. Yeah they sound a tad differnt in some cases, but if a p/up sounds bright to me, I'll lower my amps treble; if it's too weak, I'll riase the gain or pickup height. It's just common sense. Who just leaves their amp settings etc in a static position and calls it a day after going throught the process of re-installing pickups? People assume too often that a new gadget is gonna turn them into Van Halen in seconds. I get that every small item is a part of a greater whole and can contribute to an overall increase in muscial inspiration/performance, whether real or percieved-, but I cant tell you the amount of times Ive been on stage where a string broke or a pedal failed or some unexpected gear mishap occured and we still pulled a great show out of our ass because we were hungry for it. It's 90% about the heart you put into it; gear and stuff is a distant 2nd. Having said that, I'll prolly get a set of these since they are indeed affordable and look cool af (to me). If need be, I'll adjust my amp/pedals as necessary to where it sounds good to my ear. No sense in spending $200 + on essentially the same thing just cause they have a famous guys name on them. Sorry for the rant-
Signed,
Old Fart
My guess is you would like the ones with the closest out put rating to the ones in your guitar now if you already like how it sounds but want a different look. Maybe check around for a set of used stock LP pickups that look right to you. I just got a Set of VEH and a wiring harness w/ coil tap. I’m just relearning you play, but I like them. They put out more sound at lower volume than the stock pickups in my Chibson. Idk if they are intrinsically better, but they are louder through my gear.
@@juliankirby9880 sounds good, thx
@@TheBoondoggler You're welcome! I feel the need to share, Aggressive Elevator Music's long review video video is what sealed the deal on the VEH set for me, when I get better and want to play heavier, I am thinking the loud mouth set. I hope you can find what you are lookin for!
@@juliankirby9880 thanks. I'll def switch up to something soon. One thing I am going to do ASAP though, is switch out 2 of my 4 cab speakers from 12t75s to V30s. I think that will have a huge impact on at least tonal difference. I do wanna check out the VEHs too.
@@TheBoondoggler Good plan! better speakers = better sound, better pickups sometimes just means more loud.
Originals seem a bit more "round" sounding. More string separation, IMO.
I would not say the new pickups are a huge improvement but they are not a step dawn either so when we consider the cost vs / the name brand pickup Guitar Fetish for the huge win! And this is not the first time either, I heard a shootout with Burst buckets and Seymour Duncan Slash pickups 2 reputable pickups for sure and I’m pretty sure the vintage pats sounded the best of the three to my very jaded ears. I really like the Guitar Fetish Strat pickups a lot. Lots of “ clang” to the sound, don’t want them sounding too polite!
lol you weren't kidding, the old pickups were muddy as hell. That "boutique" pickup manufacturer should be named and shamed.
I could tell the pickups sounded different, but it is easier for me to hear the difference when the sound samples directly follow each other. I definitely enjoyed the playing on this particular video, but for me, the playing quality is not important in pickup comparison videos. Open strings work. One other thing, when the quick plug system is set up, there is no soldering. He could have explained that there would be no more soldering when switching out quick plug pickups in that particular guitar.
At 5:14, you'll see that we have back to back samples between the original pickups and the VEH's. Thanks for the thoughts!
If you called it the EVH pickup you probably would have gotten jumped by Ed and Alex in the parking lot at Namm.
Honestly, to my ears the VEH don't sound that much different. So, if it's between a boutique pair of pups like those from Chicago at $300.00 to $500.00 a pair or the GFS VEH at around $77.00 a pair ($38.00 ea.)...well then I'm going to choose the GFS pups. It's a no brainer really! Just my 2 cents worth. Peace.
Personal preference of course, but I think the originals sounded better.
What we really need are specs on the pickups. The website does not mention magnet type or out put rating in this pickup. Info that is critical to making a informed buying decision. Please resolve this as soon as possible. Thanks!
Thanks for your comment! If you go to the product page (www.guitarfetish.com/KP--VEH--Vintage-Extra-Hot--The-BROWN-Sound-Chrome--Kwikplug%E2%84%A2-Ready_p_21915.html) all of this information is available!
"The VEH pickups are made with Alnico 5 magnets, four wire cables for easy coil tapping, and come in a retail box with mounting screws and our illustrated GFS wiring manual."
" What we did is take the great traditional "Patent Applied For" recipe, wound each coil to a very specific number of turns with 43 gauge wire on non magnetic German Silver baseplates, got the mechanical aspects and geometry all right and then potted the just perfectly with pure paraffin. The VEH's are BIG sounding... Bridge is wound to 11.2K, Neck to 9.4K but they FEEL bigger...Bottom end is VERY big."
all the info is on there, plain to see, easy to see.
Didn't sound much brighter to me! I think your plectrum is blunt. Also, IMHO, the originals sounded great, although lacking bite. That plectrum...
Better headphones.
GFS sound much better!
Originals = better