GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
So does anyone play heavier/more high gain stuff with these? Does Artec make them yet? I prefer to give them my business. Years ago, when Harmony Central was the big guitar board and GFS was new, I asked a question about having trouble getting GFS on Ebay to combine shipping. It became a multipage thread of insults, with GFS joining in to call me names. I avoid them when I can, because with Ebay and Amazon, there are cheaper places to get low end hardware from Asia.
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
Hey guys, got a couple of question for the P90 owners (single coil with ferrite magnet, ideally, but I assume any SC would do):
- what is the pole piece spacing (bridge and neck)?
- what are the pole screws dimensions? (I assume a M3 thread, as often in import pickups)
I've emailed GFS about the matter, and their reply was to get one and mesure myself, as they didn't know for sure... Thanks in advance.
- what is the pole piece spacing (bridge and neck)?
- what are the pole screws dimensions? (I assume a M3 thread, as often in import pickups)
I've emailed GFS about the matter, and their reply was to get one and mesure myself, as they didn't know for sure... Thanks in advance.
- littlericky
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
Wow!Gordon wrote:
I've emailed GFS about the matter, and their reply was to get one and measure myself, as they didn't know for sure... Thanks in advance.
- Soselo
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
This is my favorite kind of guitar. Super budget designed to be disposable then completely modified. How do you like the results?solderfumes wrote:Long time listener, first time caller. This isn't an offset, but this forum thread was very helpful to me in deciding whether or not to try the Gold Foils, so I thought I'd post this here.
Epiphone Les Paul Special II purchased for $100 on Craigslist, three HB-sized ferrite single coil Gold Foils, a bit of woodwork from my guitar guy, a handful of components from eBay, and about 6 hours of wiring. It's got Dan Armstrong Super Strat pickup switching, and a G&L-style PTB tone circuit. You can reverse the phase of the neck and/or middle positions with push-pull switches. The volume pot is 500k, but if you pull the bass cut knob it adds another 510k in parallel with the volume pot so as to simulate a 250k pot.
It being the OffsetGuitars forum and this being my first post, I suppose I had better post my bonafides:
- funkyeah!
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb.
- jvin248
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
+1 on my favorite type of guitar too. Those Epi LP Specials are a great value mod platform. I have a knock-around Special Jr that is a lot of fun with the humbucker I dismantled to split and dropped in there on a push/pull that the second side tweaks the tone cap from 0.047 to 0.022.Soselo wrote:solderfumes wrote:...
Epiphone Les Paul Special II purchased for $100 on Craigslist, three HB-sized ferrite single coil Gold Foils, a bit of woodwork from my guitar guy, a handful of components from eBay, and about 6 hours of wiring. It's got Dan Armstrong Super Strat pickup switching, and a G&L-style PTB tone circuit. You can reverse the phase of the neck and/or middle positions with push-pull switches. The volume pot is 500k, but if you pull the bass cut knob it adds another 510k in parallel with the volume pot so as to simulate a 250k pot....
This is my favorite kind of guitar. Super budget designed to be disposable then completely modified. How do you like the results?
I like the clever volume pot transformation you mention.
- solderfumes
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
Sorry I missed these messages last week -- haven't checked in on this board in a while I couldn't be happier with the result. The pickups sound great! Lately I'm all about the space between Strat/Tele single coils and humbuckers, and the Gold Foils are a really cool option. I feel like this is the guitar I'm going to reach for any time I previously would have reached for a Strat. They're chimey but round and sweet. The Dan Armstrong super switching is awesome, as well, and I intend on putting it into my Strat as well as a project bass I'm currently working on. I call it my Red Special, because the switching and phase reverse stuff give you the kinds of combinations that Brian May's guitar can do (and more). Since I posted about it, I had the frets dressed because there was a nasty dead spot right around the 12th fret. Those are the perils of the cheapo Epiphone, I guess. Since the fret dress it is silky smooth and wonderful to play.jvin248 wrote:+1 on my favorite type of guitar too. Those Epi LP Specials are a great value mod platform. I have a knock-around Special Jr that is a lot of fun with the humbucker I dismantled to split and dropped in there on a push/pull that the second side tweaks the tone cap from 0.047 to 0.022.Soselo wrote: This is my favorite kind of guitar. Super budget designed to be disposable then completely modified. How do you like the results?
I like the clever volume pot transformation you mention.
Originally I bought this guitar to install P90s in, but literally within two days of buying it, an Epi Les Paul Special with P90s -- one that's much nicer than this one -- became available on Craigslist for $130. I snapped that one up to be my P90 guitar, and decided to have some fun with this one. Glad I did!
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
I took apart the humbucker and they are SURPRISE! HUMBUCKERS!
- tommycarlos
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
I just ordered two single coil ferrite soapbar sized GFS gold foils. I play kinda noise pop/shoegaze/punk stuff and there is some pretty high gain stuff there (RAT into a maxed out Ram's Head Muff, etc)... so I can report back once the guitar is built (it's a partscaster of sorts). I went for the GFS "kwikplug" harness so I could easily switch them out for something more traditionally p-90 if they aren't working in that situation.added wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2016 3:34 pmSo does anyone play heavier/more high gain stuff with these? Does Artec make them yet? I prefer to give them my business. Years ago, when Harmony Central was the big guitar board and GFS was new, I asked a question about having trouble getting GFS on Ebay to combine shipping. It became a multipage thread of insults, with GFS joining in to call me names. I avoid them when I can, because with Ebay and Amazon, there are cheaper places to get low end hardware from Asia.
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
I recently got a P90-sized Gold Foil humbucker, and thought I'd share my experience with it:
It's a very simple construction, two small coils with bar magnets inside (kinda like a Firebird pickup), no baseplate or anything. It has adjustable "pole pieces" but they are just for show (since they're positioned between the coils and have no connection to the magnets). It comes with a 4 conductor wire, but it's very low output in full humbucker mode, so I don't really see many useful applications for splitting and such.
The sound is very clear, and fit's pretty well into the general Gold Foil realm, but it definitely sounds like a humbucker. The closest thing I can think of is a Filtertron, but it's got less bark in the lower mids, and overall feels like a lower output pickup.
I was easily able to dial in convincing Jesus Lizard and U.S. Maple sounds, something I've been looking for for a long time.
It's definitely not a pickup for most people's general needs, but if you're after a certain thing, it's great.
It's a very simple construction, two small coils with bar magnets inside (kinda like a Firebird pickup), no baseplate or anything. It has adjustable "pole pieces" but they are just for show (since they're positioned between the coils and have no connection to the magnets). It comes with a 4 conductor wire, but it's very low output in full humbucker mode, so I don't really see many useful applications for splitting and such.
The sound is very clear, and fit's pretty well into the general Gold Foil realm, but it definitely sounds like a humbucker. The closest thing I can think of is a Filtertron, but it's got less bark in the lower mids, and overall feels like a lower output pickup.
I was easily able to dial in convincing Jesus Lizard and U.S. Maple sounds, something I've been looking for for a long time.
It's definitely not a pickup for most people's general needs, but if you're after a certain thing, it's great.
- Big in Japan
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Re: GFS Goldfoil pickups - now with comparison clips!
I apologize for reviving an old thread. This seems to be the most exhaustive source of real world info on these pickups.
I have a set of these GFS Gold Foils incoming (alnico single coil in humbucker case) to drop into a Squier Jagmaster that I'm hoping to breathe new life into. Is the general consensus here that these pickups sound best when installed "backwards" (pole pieces facing away from the bridge and neck)?
I could experiment; but if it's pretty unanimous that one way sounds better than the other, I'd rather just do it once. Your input is appreciated.
I have a set of these GFS Gold Foils incoming (alnico single coil in humbucker case) to drop into a Squier Jagmaster that I'm hoping to breathe new life into. Is the general consensus here that these pickups sound best when installed "backwards" (pole pieces facing away from the bridge and neck)?
I could experiment; but if it's pretty unanimous that one way sounds better than the other, I'd rather just do it once. Your input is appreciated.
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