I'm looking to do a seymour duncan HSS pickguard and pickup swap on my single hum s type. Can you do a video on doing something like that? I'm looking at something crunchy in the bridge and the five-two for the neck and middle
They all have a good vibe .but the ones that stand out is the Vintage Hot . I wouldnt mind an hopped up Epi black beauty with them in the middle and neck with a 490 in the tale ..
I've always been curious about GF pickups. This was a MUCH BETTER shootout than on their website! Love the zebra look, but the last pickup set was my favorite sounding set.
I picked an Ibanez ‘Franken- RG’ a guy made on Reverb. He put two GFS LOUDMOUTHS (14k output!)…and I was surprised. They sound similar to the Gretsch Broad’trons, with that plush sound… and work great with my brass slide.
When ever I have a guitar related question or need help with something guitar related, I always come to your channel first knowing you’d have a video about it. The way you explain things translates so well with how I learn. Thanks for such amazing and informative content!
@@bradrichardson3539 Oh cool! Maybe think about experimenting with parallel vs. series switching in the middle position? Or you could get a 4-way switch and do both. The neck+bridge series combo is pretty cool on a Strat.
@@BryanSim as a broke 17 year old, I’m kinda pissed that I blew all my money and cheaped out on PAF pups that barely look like filtertrons, then I find out not only are there proper replicas on guitar fetish of filtrtrons, they even have dynasonics. Guess I’ll wait till Christmas for some cash.
its convenient but its under the pickup and sometimes if you want to lower the pickup like on the slick55 i just got from guitarfetish, you dont have much adjustment
I gig with Surf 90's. Great tone for live band usage because they don't get muddy with the bassist. It's a blues, oldies, rockabilly band, and these pups fit the style great. Very flexible with pedals in play. I do dial back my treble to compensate for the jangle. I have a Crunchy Pat in the bridge of my travel guitar and it sounds fantastic. I have a guitar with a pair of Hot Liverpools and it's my main 'rockabilly' axe. My favorite rock pups from GFS are the Dream 180's. Just a fantastic humbucker tone. These can really nail the Greenday tone through the right amp. I have a guitar with their Fat Pats, and they are nice and middy and full bodied. These can get a bit muddy in some of my amps.
I got to say overtime the quality of Darryll's videos has not slipped one iota. This is great example. Guitar fetish is a great blend of quality and value. I have a Slick s- style sl57, super guitar. Let's face it all of those pickups in their own way sound great and easily half of the price of Seymour Duncan etc who of course are also great
Darrell your the best man! Always been such high quality, consistent non-biased honest videos that are always pleasure to watch and very educational! Thanks Darrell cheers mate👍🏻☺️
Came here to say this! Seriously though, it's a pretty solid pickup. I dropped a set in 1980 Arian Pro II ThorSound Series guitar and they were an excellent match
@@gregputman I’m going off info from the the guitar fetish website. They can’t call the pickups EVH obviously. Reach out to guitar fetish and tell them .
@@alexandercook9614 Yeah, I believe it.. You really always need to take whatever guitarfetish says in their product descriptions with a grain of salt. They are legendary for exaggerating and hyping. But seriously if they are saying that that pickup is like what Eddie Van Halen used then they are lying. The VEH is a lot hotter of a pickup then what Eddie Van Halen used, at least in his early days
Not all that keen on the bridge PAT but the neck is great. Think I might get a PAT neck and a classic II for the bridge. (added bonus is that my les paul will look like Jimmy Page's les Paul)
I love how the neck pickups really push more than the bridge pickups. The touch of crunch with the GFTrons in the neck was so sweet. Plus, they look sweet in that guitar. I might just pick some of those up for my Epiphone.
I have a set of the 62'? Overwound pickups in my squier II strat and they are a bazillion times better than the cheap ceramic pups that came with it. I actually have a video one my channel of myself playing that guitar
@@leebrown6702 I wish I could have got to those builds. My wife and I lost everything in the Caldor Fire (Sierra Nevada Mountains in California) last year. We relocated to Texas and I am now going back to building some cool new guitars. All the best to you. I love GFS pickups. They do a great job. Your Gretch should sound great.
@@jeffreydooley3745 Oh my, that's terrible! Know a few things about bush fires here in Australia, so glad you and family are safe. All the best and thanks for the vote if confidence in GFS. Good luck with your next build!
Thanks so much for this, Darrell! I've always had a hard time with Les Paul's and their typically darker humbucker tones and have generally preferred single coil guitars for this reason. This shootout gives me some excellent inexpensive pickup options that really transform the stock tone of an LP. Thanks to you, I see an LP coming into my collection in the near future. Keep up the good work, my friend!
Happy to see GFS stuff getting some action! I would love to see your thoughts on some of their weird pickups-- the foils, the tubes, especially the weird form factor ones like the foil p90s or tube humbos.
I've had a set of Surf 90s in my Tokai Les Paul for about 3 years now. Yeh they're great pickups. They're not a low output pickup, I'm pretty sure they're around 7.8 - 8.0k Ohms so kind of similar to the PAFs.....but of course there's much more to the sound of pickups than the DC resistance. Oh and by the way, I'm sure that the screws are just dummy screws, you can't adjust the polepieces with them the same way as you can with the Dynasonics. Nevertheless, you don't need to and they're still a great sounding humbucker sized P90 👍 I like the sound of the GF Trons but I haven't long bought a set of Roswell Filtertrons and sound similar to the GF Trons and were cheaper to buy than the GF version at around £25 each 😮😃 Both of those Filtertrons put my TV Jones Classics to shame, which I've said loads of times, and in my opinion, only a fool would spend about £250 on a set of TV Joneses.....but I'm selling my set of TV Jones Classics if anyone wants to buy them 😆👍
I have the trem version of this guitar and was thinking about trying one of GF's other pickups. Thanks for the sound demo! Happy Holidays and thanks for the great content.
Thank you for this video, Darrell. Just decided to add Classic IIs to my GFS Pro 500 LP order. Keep up the great content! You should have 1M subscribers by now.
Thank you for educating me on the GF pickups! I’m new to electric guitars and I appreciate you always going into hardware details. This is the sort of stuff a green-horn should know: how to put in pick ups without soldering and what a hum-bucker pickup is. Thanks for never talking down to us!!!!
Darrell, just an excellent comparison of these GFS pickups. They get a lot of my business, and I do have 4 sets of their pickups; but only one set in this comparison. As i go through the process of deciding the next couple sets for a semi-hollow and an SG-style, this is extremely helpful. Thanks, man!
Darrell, always enjoy watching you and love your guitar playing. I just can't get away from fender, Gibson, Seymour Duncan pickups. The last 3 were okay. Can't wait 2 see what you do next.
Every pickup needs its own amp setting, so comparisons like this aren't exactly fair and can only tell you so much. And most pickup deficiencies can be fixed on the amp. But still, keeping that in mind, videos like this are still helpful, and huge thanks to DBG. • VEH FTW. Much more balanced than I was expecting. Bell tone cleans. Minimal mud strumming that distorted chord in the neck. • Crunchy PAT neck was a pretty muddy when distorted- typical of neck position- but once again, could possibly be adjusted out. • Classic II: Fine. Maybe a little sterile. Just my impression from this video. Goes without saying. • GF 'Tron: For the Gretschey jangle, I liked it. Might have to try these in my Corvette. • The Surf 90 sounded too ice picky but could probably just dial the tone back or fix that on the amp. Another great video from DBG. Loving this channel.
I had an Epiphone SG with the “Mean 90” humbucker sized P90s and good gosh, that guitar sounded amazing. Sold it to fund a recent Marshall purchase but I’m still kinda wishing I hadn’t.
I love Mean 90s, have them in a couple guitars. One has a Mean 90 in the neck with a Classic II in the bridge and the other has Mean 90s in neck and bridge with a Dream 90 (bridge) in the middle. Lots of fun!!!
The Surf 90's get my first vote. Vintage Extra Hot as second. Darrell, thank you very much for the comparison. I have been looking to buy some GF pickups, This will help me a lot to choose one.
I have to say I really like the Surf 90 pickup. A lot of times, the high E string gets muddied up and drowned out with distortion, but these pickups sound really bright on that string. When I'm strumming a chord I really want to hear that last note.
To my ear, Classic II's sounded best followed by the Vintage Hot's and PAT's. I think they all have their place depending on what sound the player is looking for, but I'm partial to the overdriven humbuckers. Thanks for the video.
Very cool video Daryl! I've been hooked on GFS pickups for many years now and I think they are fantastic! I love how drastically you can change that Les Paul's tone by swapping pickups around.
awesome video Darrell, Surf 90's for the win, they have always been a great upgrade ... GFS Episode II = Dream 90 / Mean 90 / Pro-Tube Lipstick / Little Crunchy Mini Humbucker but you need to that clip in a Jazzmaster style body
Great video Darrell. It definitely shows that the pickups make a huge tone difference. I did not think I’d ever hear a Les Paul do Strat sounds but here we are.
Really glad to see you made this video. I’m a big fan of All the GFS stuff, guitars and pickups. I have a 4 different sets of their pickups with the Kwick plug. It’s awesome to swap out them out. Feels like a new guitar. And at a good price.
@@TimO-wt9sz Yankee money. The VEH is $35 US, and about $45 CAD (not including shipping/import fees, though you're usually not dinged for import fees under $100, at least I haven't been)
For anyone who wants a Dimarzio D'Activator X pickup set, just go with GFS Crunchy Rails, They are almost the same. The Dimarzio are a little better but not worth the price difference.
I put a GF'tron Alnico II in my DeArmond M-55, and I love it. I bought a Kwikplug mini pot kit with it so I could split the coils, which introduces 60 cycle hum but definitely brightens the tone even more. If anyone decides to buy a similar pre-wired harness, be aware that the coil split volume pot has a thicker split shaft on than the tone pot. I had to apply some force to get the stock knob to fit it.
This is the ‘high water mark’ of how to do a comparison video, any other you tubers should use this as as their reference point of how it should be done.
Wow. I'm shocked at the Surf 90s. I've been looking at them for a year or two, but never pulled the trigger because I figured the price was too good to be true. Thanks for the feature, Darrell!
Thanks for this video! I have been on their site looking and just can’t make up my mind for a project build. For me it’s the Surf 90, classic 2 and then the Trons. Love the clarity and jangle
I love tour demos.... but in this one the guitar went from mildly out of tune, to very out of tune. That’s uncommon in you. Thanks for the demo anyway.
Hi JSpic, don’t forget that DB was slackening off the strings for each pickup change and although I’m sure he re-tuned each time, the strings hadn’t settled in and went out of tune as he was playing. 👍🥸
A good pickup is hard to beat for $30, just on its own merits. But, some of these Chinese units are like $16 for a 10k and 14k ceramic humbucker set, that sounds pretty close to a 'real' pickup. One really cool feature of these cheap pickups and especially buying from Amazon, is they have lots of different models that are cheap enough to try them all. I wrecked my hand years ago, so I have to play an Ibanez Mikro and needed to bump up the low and low mid end. I was able to just try different pickups till I found exactly what filled the bill.
Have used GF in 2 upgrade mods, both PUPs and wiring harnesses: 1. Put Texas Hot wound single coils in Squier Strat. 2. Put Gf-Tron in neck, vintage tele bridge in a glarry thin line tele (same model as the red one you reviewed). Very happy with the tone upgrades in both these guitars and pleased with GF PUPs, especially like the kwik plug system. Thanks for the review.
All five of them sound awesome Darrell. But I'm kind of leaning between the Vintage extra-hot and the classic two as being my personal favorites. Thank you for this video very well done.
I like the crunchy pats and the classic two pickups. I’m curious about how much setup work you had to do on this guitar. I bought two of the same model in green after your review of this guitar and it seems the action is a little high (equally on both). I can’t really tell if it’s at the nut or the bridge (or both). When I play a D or C chord the fretted notes are a little sharp. This may also have something to do with the tall frets and lighter feeling gauge strings. (I think these are .009’s). Maybe I’m fretting the notes too hard and pressing the strings out of tune. It would be interesting to know if you also experienced this and if you did what did you do to fix it. What gauge strings do you have on it? Thanks!
Thanks for the video! The VEH, supposedly short for Vintage Extra Hot) is a copy of that 80s "brown sound" from Eddie Van Halen (EVH)... Thank you Eddie and RIP!!! I bought it and it even came it a red box with white stripes. The sounds good!
DAMN GOOD video, Darrell! As a regular Guitar Fetish customer, I thought they were all great but I LOVED the GF Trons the most. Unrelatedly if there was any four-part team-up series I'd like to see involving TH-cam guitar specialists, it'd be you, Guitar Max, Robert Baker and Randy Schartiger. You guys are the most fun and positive cats promoting guitar awareness today!
I will be moding a budget Les Paul for jazz so predominantly looking for clean round tone. The Alnico II was my favorite. Very helpful video in making a choice. Thanks.
I’m keen on that Gretsch sound, so the GF Trons suited me. Next up was the Surf 90s. Great demo, thanks DB! and best wishes to you, yours, and my fellow viewers!
Very cool a way to have your guitar sound pretty much the way you like. Did you do a show that showed converting the guitar to the plug and play system or does the guitar come that way with? Great show as usual!
Let me know which pickups you liked the best!
Hopefully this helps anyone trying to decide between sets!
Enjoy :)
Yeah Darrell, we all know that you actually swapped the tonewood, man. 😂
Please do a review on their necks next time. I'm a big fan of GFS!
I'm looking to do a seymour duncan HSS pickguard and pickup swap on my single hum s type. Can you do a video on doing something like that? I'm looking at something crunchy in the bridge and the five-two for the neck and middle
They all have a good vibe .but the ones that stand out is the Vintage Hot .
I wouldnt mind an hopped up Epi black beauty with them in the middle and neck with a 490 in the tale ..
It would be cool to have some of these, like the filtertrons, compared with the real thing.
10:17 Crunchy PAT
10:27 Surf 90
10:36 Vintage Extra Hot
10:47 Tron
10:57 Classic II
Thanks
I think the Ford F -150 is a great pickup 👍🏻
lol
Maybe, but you don't really want to put one on your expensive guitar, or even your cheap one. LOLOL
hell yeah brother
My thoughts also
😂
I've always been curious about GF pickups. This was a MUCH BETTER shootout than on their website! Love the zebra look, but the last pickup set was my favorite sounding set.
Classic 2
I picked an Ibanez ‘Franken- RG’ a guy made on Reverb. He put two GFS LOUDMOUTHS (14k output!)…and I was surprised.
They sound similar to the Gretsch Broad’trons, with that plush sound… and work great with my brass slide.
When ever I have a guitar related question or need help with something guitar related, I always come to your channel first knowing you’d have a video about it.
The way you explain things translates so well with how I learn.
Thanks for such amazing and informative content!
Wow, those Surf 90s make it sound like a Strat neck/bridge pickup
I’m making a duo jet replica, thinking of picking up a pair.
@@bradrichardson3539 Oh cool! Maybe think about experimenting with parallel vs. series switching in the middle position? Or you could get a 4-way switch and do both. The neck+bridge series combo is pretty cool on a Strat.
@@BryanSim as a broke 17 year old, I’m kinda pissed that I blew all my money and cheaped out on PAF pups that barely look like filtertrons, then I find out not only are there proper replicas on guitar fetish of filtrtrons, they even have dynasonics. Guess I’ll wait till Christmas for some cash.
@@bradrichardson3539 Not too far off! Best of luck with the build!
@@BryanSim thanks
I wish more pickup manufactures would use a system like the kwikplugs.
its convenient but its under the pickup and sometimes if you want to lower the pickup like on the slick55 i just got from guitarfetish, you dont have much adjustment
You can buy the connectors and just solder your own
Straight soldering is more reliable.
@@narvul i would think you'd use the force?
Maybe you'd like EMG.
I gig with Surf 90's. Great tone for live band usage because they don't get muddy with the bassist. It's a blues, oldies, rockabilly band, and these pups fit the style great. Very flexible with pedals in play. I do dial back my treble to compensate for the jangle.
I have a Crunchy Pat in the bridge of my travel guitar and it sounds fantastic.
I have a guitar with a pair of Hot Liverpools and it's my main 'rockabilly' axe.
My favorite rock pups from GFS are the Dream 180's. Just a fantastic humbucker tone. These can really nail the Greenday tone through the right amp.
I have a guitar with their Fat Pats, and they are nice and middy and full bodied. These can get a bit muddy in some of my amps.
I got to say overtime the quality of Darryll's videos has not slipped one iota. This is great example.
Guitar fetish is a great blend of quality and value. I have a Slick s- style sl57, super guitar.
Let's face it all of those pickups in their own way sound great and easily half of the price of Seymour Duncan etc who of course are also great
Good use of “iota” 👍🏾🔥
I liked the Classic II best. Didn't like the Surf. The guitar sure is pretty, and the cream pickup rings look very good on it. Thanks
They all sound good when Darrell's playing them, but I think the Classic 2 sounded best. Another great video Mr. Braun.
Darrell your the best man! Always been such high quality, consistent non-biased honest videos that are always pleasure to watch and very educational! Thanks Darrell cheers mate👍🏻☺️
Vintage Extra Hot = VEH = EVH, it's their take on a Frankenstrat pickup.
Definitely, was anticipating Darrell giving us a little EVH in the demo. Sadly no. 😞
Came here to say this! Seriously though, it's a pretty solid pickup. I dropped a set in 1980 Arian Pro II ThorSound Series guitar and they were an excellent match
The frankenstrat pickup is just a PAF from 335 or something like that
@@mariushebnes5951 Originally, but one that had been modified and messed with through the years.
Correct! I had 1 but it was faulty!
The VEH pickups are actually modeled off of EVH’s pickups or as close as they could get. They switched the letters around for copyright reasons.
They are not. Eddie Van Halen used lower output PAF's. The pickups in his iconic guitar on the first album came out of a Gibson 335.
@@gregputman I’m going off info from the the guitar fetish website. They can’t call the pickups EVH obviously. Reach out to guitar fetish and tell them .
@@alexandercook9614 Yeah, I believe it.. You really always need to take whatever guitarfetish says in their product descriptions with a grain of salt. They are legendary for exaggerating and hyping. But seriously if they are saying that that pickup is like what Eddie Van Halen used then they are lying. The VEH is a lot hotter of a pickup then what Eddie Van Halen used, at least in his early days
Great pickups that are cheap are the best kinds I believe! Cheers man!
I'd love to see this comparison with the GFS single coils
Agrées, I have their go'd foils and Burns style sets, they're greata
Most of the single coils have the same or similar magnets, so just pick a resistance.
The gold foils, p90 etc... are another matter.
He did play some GFS singles a while ago, but I don't think they were pups designed by GFS.
They make flat pole Grey bottom Strat pickups for you guys with non 7.25 necks.
Agreed.
I like the way the GF Trons look and the way the classic II's sound.
Crunchy PAT gets my vote.
I have crunchy pats in my epiphone lp and they sound great
It’s interesting that they have ceramic magnets
Not all that keen on the bridge PAT but the neck is great. Think I might get a PAT neck and a classic II for the bridge. (added bonus is that my les paul will look like Jimmy Page's les Paul)
I'm usually in the neck anyway. I do like to split the bridge and roll off the tone a bit
I prefer the Fat Pat/ALNICO. They are only a couple bucks more. Great Classic Rock Set.
I love how the neck pickups really push more than the bridge pickups. The touch of crunch with the GFTrons in the neck was so sweet. Plus, they look sweet in that guitar. I might just pick some of those up for my Epiphone.
I like the classic 2s. They look good and sound good.
Please test all the GFS pickups! This was the highest quality content I’ve ever seen regarding their stuff!
I like the Classic II. Any chance you can do one of these for single coil pups from GF?
I have a set of the 62'? Overwound pickups in my squier II strat and they are a bazillion times better than the cheap ceramic pups that came with it. I actually have a video one my channel of myself playing that guitar
The Trons and Surf 90's are going into 2 different rebuilds next year. Looking forward to those rebuilds, new paint and Pups on both guitars.
How did you go? I'm thinking of putting in a combo of a neck surf 90 and a bridge GF Tron in a Gretsch 5120 I've picked up. What do you think?
@@leebrown6702 I wish I could have got to those builds. My wife and I lost everything in the Caldor Fire (Sierra Nevada Mountains in California) last year. We relocated to Texas and I am now going back to building some cool new guitars. All the best to you. I love GFS pickups. They do a great job. Your Gretch should sound great.
@@jeffreydooley3745 Oh my, that's terrible! Know a few things about bush fires here in Australia, so glad you and family are safe. All the best and thanks for the vote if confidence in GFS. Good luck with your next build!
Thanks so much for this, Darrell! I've always had a hard time with Les Paul's and their typically darker humbucker tones and have generally preferred single coil guitars for this reason. This shootout gives me some excellent inexpensive pickup options that really transform the stock tone of an LP. Thanks to you, I see an LP coming into my collection in the near future. Keep up the good work, my friend!
Happy to see GFS stuff getting some action! I would love to see your thoughts on some of their weird pickups-- the foils, the tubes, especially the weird form factor ones like the foil p90s or tube humbos.
Three of my guitars have the trons in 'em. Tweak the amp a bit, and they come alive. Real nice clarity. Made a Cabronita with em. Very nice.
The GF Trons had great and unique character, the Classic II's sounded like an ideal Classic Rock Les Paul pickup.
I've had a set of Surf 90s in my Tokai Les Paul for about 3 years now. Yeh they're great pickups.
They're not a low output pickup, I'm pretty sure they're around 7.8 - 8.0k Ohms so kind of similar to the PAFs.....but of course there's much more to the sound of pickups than the DC resistance.
Oh and by the way, I'm sure that the screws are just dummy screws, you can't adjust the polepieces with them the same way as you can with the Dynasonics. Nevertheless, you don't need to and they're still a great sounding humbucker sized P90 👍
I like the sound of the GF Trons but I haven't long bought a set of Roswell Filtertrons and sound similar to the GF Trons and were cheaper to buy than the GF version at around £25 each 😮😃
Both of those Filtertrons put my TV Jones Classics to shame, which I've said loads of times, and in my opinion, only a fool would spend about £250 on a set of TV Joneses.....but I'm selling my set of TV Jones Classics if anyone wants to buy them 😆👍
I have used the GFS pickups in a number of my builds and never had a complaint yet.
They sound really good.
Thanks Darrell, I've been wondering about the trons ... I love all of the gfs stuff ....GFtrons going in my 335 copy !
I have the trem version of this guitar and was thinking about trying one of GF's other pickups. Thanks for the sound demo! Happy Holidays and thanks for the great content.
Did you end up swapping pickups out?
Thank you for this video, Darrell. Just decided to add Classic IIs to my GFS Pro 500 LP order. Keep up the great content! You should have 1M subscribers by now.
For me the classic II .
I liked the touch of warmth and CLARITY of the Classic II's .....thanks for the video..as always Darren...INFORMATIVE !!!! Peace
I liked the dynamics of the GFTrons.
Yep! very balanced.
Yea....try buying them, though. they've been out of stock for months
@@TJEvans98 buy the slick55. comes with a set. lol
i just got mine and its really cool
I was surprised at how good they sound with some crunch.
Agree
It's A Toss between the the Crunchy Pats and the Classic II . Great review! I love that Flame Maple Blue LP !
Yep Adam Jones pickups are awesome.
The Bests : 1st: Crunchy PAT, or Classic II if no stock on Crunchy PAT / 2nd: GF Tron ! Thank you for the test !!!!
The GFTrons surprised me. Sounded great!
I didn't care for the trons I thought they sounded way too brittle and trebley, but that could be the TH-cam compression at play
Thank you for educating me on the GF pickups! I’m new to electric guitars and I appreciate you always going into hardware details. This is the sort of stuff a green-horn should know: how to put in pick ups without soldering and what a hum-bucker pickup is. Thanks for never talking down to us!!!!
Love the Surf 90s and VEH models. I have the Surf 90's in 3 of my guitars. The Classic II's were also nice.
sounds like they would be perfect for a surfier punk sound, I'm very intrigued
Darrell, just an excellent comparison of these GFS pickups. They get a lot of my business, and I do have 4 sets of their pickups; but only one set in this comparison. As i go through the process of deciding the next couple sets for a semi-hollow and an SG-style, this is extremely helpful. Thanks, man!
Beside the look, I love those Surf 90s. They probably are great on a tele.
Darrell, always enjoy watching you and love your guitar playing. I just can't get away from fender, Gibson, Seymour Duncan pickups. The last 3 were okay. Can't wait 2 see what you do next.
1. Vintage extra hot
2. PATs
Sounds perfect with this guitar...
Every pickup needs its own amp setting, so comparisons like this aren't exactly fair and can only tell you so much. And most pickup deficiencies can be fixed on the amp. But still, keeping that in mind, videos like this are still helpful, and huge thanks to DBG.
• VEH FTW. Much more balanced than I was expecting. Bell tone cleans. Minimal mud strumming that distorted chord in the neck.
• Crunchy PAT neck was a pretty muddy when distorted- typical of neck position- but once again, could possibly be adjusted out.
• Classic II: Fine. Maybe a little sterile. Just my impression from this video. Goes without saying.
• GF 'Tron: For the Gretschey jangle, I liked it. Might have to try these in my Corvette.
• The Surf 90 sounded too ice picky but could probably just dial the tone back or fix that on the amp.
Another great video from DBG. Loving this channel.
I had an Epiphone SG with the “Mean 90” humbucker sized P90s and good gosh, that guitar sounded amazing. Sold it to fund a recent Marshall purchase but I’m still kinda wishing I hadn’t.
I replaced my Epi LP Standard's mudbuckers with a dream 90 in the neck and a mean 90 in the bridge, it's killer.
I got a set of the mean 90's to put in my guitar build. Can't wait to hear them!
I have a set of Dream 90 in a home made tele. They sound great.
I had a mean 90 in the neck of an HH strat. Loved it!
I love Mean 90s, have them in a couple guitars. One has a Mean 90 in the neck with a Classic II in the bridge and the other has Mean 90s in neck and bridge with a Dream 90 (bridge) in the middle. Lots of fun!!!
I'm so glad you chose to do this. I love their pickups and have been using them for almost 15 years, but almost nobody I know knows about them.
The Surf 90's get my first vote. Vintage Extra Hot as second. Darrell, thank you very much for the comparison. I have been looking to buy some GF pickups, This will help me a lot to choose one.
I love the little jam you played on the clean neck GFTron pickups! So bouncy!
I have to say I really like the Surf 90 pickup. A lot of times, the high E string gets muddied up and drowned out with distortion, but these pickups sound really bright on that string. When I'm strumming a chord I really want to hear that last note.
Same!
I liked the Vintage Extra Hot pickups the most, but each set sounded good & had their own type of sound. Great video comparison Darrel 👍🎸
Classic II's and the Vintage Extra hot sound great !
Wow. Perfect timing Darrell. I'm about to put the lacquer on some projects and was going to look for pickups to put in these things when I'm done.
And those Tim Shaw Dirty finger copies are the winner.
I'm not really noligable about the guitar. But I think it was 4th and 5th sounds the best .thank you your great
Just when i was thinking about how it would be cool to see more pickup demos on this channel
To my ear, Classic II's sounded best followed by the Vintage Hot's and PAT's. I think they all have their place depending on what sound the player is looking for, but I'm partial to the overdriven humbuckers. Thanks for the video.
I agree
Very cool video Daryl! I've been hooked on GFS pickups for many years now and I think they are fantastic! I love how drastically you can change that Les Paul's tone by swapping pickups around.
Thinking that surf 90 would sound cool mixed with a tele bridge!
It definitely does, I have it in my surf green squire bullet, I love it!
awesome video Darrell, Surf 90's for the win, they have always been a great upgrade ... GFS Episode II = Dream 90 / Mean 90 / Pro-Tube Lipstick / Little Crunchy Mini Humbucker but you need to that clip in a Jazzmaster style body
I’m really surprised but I liked the Crunch PAT and Classic II’s the best
Great video Darrell. It definitely shows that the pickups make a huge tone difference. I did not think I’d ever hear a Les Paul do Strat sounds but here we are.
Considering a Tron PUP for an old Epi LP now. Cool tone option
Really glad to see you made this video. I’m a big fan of All the GFS stuff, guitars and pickups. I have a 4 different sets of their pickups with the Kwick plug. It’s awesome to swap out them out. Feels like a new guitar. And at a good price.
Wow, I was just wondering this today
Is that canadian or American money ???
@@TimO-wt9sz I don’t know
@@TimO-wt9sz Yankee money. The VEH is $35 US, and about $45 CAD (not including shipping/import fees, though you're usually not dinged for import fees under $100, at least I haven't been)
I loved the Trons and the Classic II in this guitar!
For anyone who wants a Dimarzio D'Activator X pickup set, just go with GFS Crunchy Rails, They are almost the same. The Dimarzio are a little better but not worth the price difference.
I agree. I've had several sets of those and they've always sounded awesome.
I'm looking at going with a Crunchy Rail neck and Power Rail in the bridge for my Epiphone Studio.
I put a GF'tron Alnico II in my DeArmond M-55, and I love it. I bought a Kwikplug mini pot kit with it so I could split the coils, which introduces 60 cycle hum but definitely brightens the tone even more. If anyone decides to buy a similar pre-wired harness, be aware that the coil split volume pot has a thicker split shaft on than the tone pot. I had to apply some force to get the stock knob to fit it.
This is the ‘high water mark’ of how to do a comparison video, any other you tubers should use this as as their reference point of how it should be done.
Wow. I'm shocked at the Surf 90s. I've been looking at them for a year or two, but never pulled the trigger because I figured the price was too good to be true. Thanks for the feature, Darrell!
pretty sure the "Classic 2" is just an seymour duncan pearly gates copy. Btw those pearly gates djent really well if you're a djent kid
I loved the Surf 90!
Would be nice to have this test with Single Coils on a strat as well
The Quick Plug system is ingenious!
"Classic IIs were my Favorite"
Love GFS pickups, I've had a few sets myself. I'd really love to see another video with their single coil sets!
Dont sleep on the Crunchy Rails. You can buy a blemished set of 2 for under $30. I ordered some and saw nothing at all that was blemished!
Thanks! I got a zebra set
Great comparison. I have to say my favorites were the crunchy PATs. But then I’ve always been a les Paul guy. 😁
I have no idea why, but the whole time I was waiting for the 'Cold Gin" riff with the hotter set
Ha ,i was thinking the same thing..
Thanks for this video! I have been on their site looking and just can’t make up my mind for a project build. For me it’s the Surf 90, classic 2 and then the Trons. Love the clarity and jangle
I love tour demos.... but in this one the guitar went from mildly out of tune, to very out of tune. That’s uncommon in you. Thanks for the demo anyway.
Hi JSpic, don’t forget that DB was slackening off the strings for each pickup change and although I’m sure he re-tuned each time, the strings hadn’t settled in and went out of tune as he was playing. 👍🥸
@@malcolmwindust3888 you’re probably right
@@jspic4907 Thanks. You have a very good ear. All the best for the festive season. 👍
Glad I'm not the only one who noticed but Malcom made a fair point too.
Great vid I've been a fan of them for a while. I've got a FAT PAT in the bridge and dream 90 on the neck pickup of my telecaster.
Irongear pickups from the UK are brilliant and theyre only about £30 each - you should try them
But where can you buy then in the USA?
A good pickup is hard to beat for $30, just on its own merits. But, some of these Chinese units are like $16 for a 10k and 14k ceramic humbucker set, that sounds pretty close to a 'real' pickup. One really cool feature of these cheap pickups and especially buying from Amazon, is they have lots of different models that are cheap enough to try them all. I wrecked my hand years ago, so I have to play an Ibanez Mikro and needed to bump up the low and low mid end. I was able to just try different pickups till I found exactly what filled the bill.
The classics II followed by the trons for me. Perfect timing on the video as I was just researching these pickups and tone emporiums
Please tune and intonate the guitar. The G chord highlights it.
I'm not sure if you can intonate a hardtail
@@moufuzz2759 Its got a tune-o-matic bridge!!
@@GetawaysandGuitars ahhhh I see. Thanks😊
Have used GF in 2 upgrade mods, both PUPs and wiring harnesses:
1. Put Texas Hot wound single coils in Squier Strat.
2. Put Gf-Tron in neck, vintage tele bridge in a glarry thin line tele (same model as the red one you reviewed).
Very happy with the tone upgrades in both these guitars and pleased with GF PUPs, especially like the kwik plug system.
Thanks for the review.
All five of them sound awesome Darrell. But I'm kind of leaning between the Vintage extra-hot and the classic two as being my personal favorites. Thank you for this video very well done.
Surf90 sounds really nice! Vintage extra hot are great on overdrive channel. Rest of them sounds really decent. Another great video Darell!
I like the crunchy pats and the classic two pickups. I’m curious about how much setup work you had to do on this guitar. I bought two of the same model in green after your review of this guitar and it seems the action is a little high (equally on both). I can’t really tell if it’s at the nut or the bridge (or both). When I play a D or C chord the fretted notes are a little sharp. This may also have something to do with the tall frets and lighter feeling gauge strings. (I think these are .009’s). Maybe I’m fretting the notes too hard and pressing the strings out of tune. It would be interesting to know if you also experienced this and if you did what did you do to fix it. What gauge strings do you have on it? Thanks!
Great job on this Darrell !! I've used there stuff for years & have had a few of there single & humbucker sets in that time.
I love me the crunch of a humbucker, but, damn, there's just nothing like a filtertron under some gain. I just love that tone.
Imgot to say the trons for me. Great sound. Sustain and enhanced vibrato seemed
Like. Nice job and thanks Darrel!! Ordering some now!!
Thanks for the video! The VEH, supposedly short for Vintage Extra Hot) is a copy of that 80s "brown sound" from Eddie Van Halen (EVH)... Thank you Eddie and RIP!!! I bought it and it even came it a red box with white stripes. The sounds good!
DAMN GOOD video, Darrell! As a regular Guitar Fetish customer, I thought they were all great but I LOVED the GF Trons the most.
Unrelatedly if there was any four-part team-up series I'd like to see involving TH-cam guitar specialists, it'd be you, Guitar Max, Robert Baker and Randy Schartiger. You guys are the most fun and positive cats promoting guitar awareness today!
I have a Samick Royale that I have been toying with the idea of tron style pickups. Thank you for the demo.
I will be moding a budget Les Paul for jazz so predominantly looking for clean round tone. The Alnico II was my favorite. Very helpful video in making a choice. Thanks.
I’m keen on that Gretsch sound, so the GF Trons suited me. Next up was the Surf 90s. Great demo, thanks DB! and best wishes to you, yours, and my fellow viewers!
I put some pickups from guitarfetish in my epiphone SG a few years ago. They're pretty damn good and I like the quick connects. I got the crunchy PATs
my favorite were the crunchy pat all around tbh
Very cool a way to have your guitar sound pretty much the way you like. Did you do a show that showed converting the guitar to the plug and play system or does the guitar come that way with? Great show as usual!