Growler Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Anyone have both? Notice any tonal difference between the two? The GFS P90 is 8.8K and The Gibson is 8.9K...for the price the GFS sounds great. I am just curious if anyone owns or might have tried both and what your opinion would be in comparing the two in tone (using the same amp of course ) Thanks in advance! (BTW Im talking specifically bridge only here for a Junior.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growler Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Sorry, Growler...I've only got the Gibson P-90's...so, I can't contribute. CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carverman Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Anyone have both? Notice any tonal difference between the two? The GFS P90 is 8.8K and The Gibson is 8.9K...for the price the GFS sounds great. I am just curious if anyone owns or might have tried both and what your opinion would be in comparing the two in tone (using the same amp of course ) Thanks in advance! (BTW Im talking specifically bridge only here for a Junior.) Well they are not Gibson P-90s, so you have to experiment with the guitar that you are intending to put them on. Here's what some users of GFS Fat Alnico P-90s have to say about them.. http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Electric+Guitar+Pickup/product/GFS+Pickups/Fat+Alnico+P-90/10/1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
layboomo Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 The GFS are good bang for the buck as with most(not all) of their pickups,but the Gibby's are clearly better pickups. The real question IMHO is for approx. the same $ as a Gibby P-90 do you go with a Jason Lollar P-90........I say YES! In that price range I think the Lollars are the best sounding P-90 out there FWIW. Having said that for the bridge on an inexpensive Junior the GFS would be a good economical choice. Like everything else it comes down to what you want to spend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JefferySmith Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Anyone have both? Notice any tonal difference between the two? The GFS P90 is 8.8K and The Gibson is 8.9K...for the price the GFS sounds great. I am just curious if anyone owns or might have tried both and what your opinion would be in comparing the two in tone (using the same amp of course ) Thanks in advance! (BTW Im talking specifically bridge only here for a Junior.) I'm interested in the answer, but have neither. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growler Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 I'm interested in the answer' date=' but have neither. [/quote'] Yeah man, I have always heard that P90's in general are the most similar sounding of any pickups regardless of brand, a little tough to believe. But still, a nice A/B test of a few of the more "popular" ones would be a great thing! In the last couple of years there has been a big buzz on-line about 'BG' P90's as well (hand wound). That's the thing, they should all sound different if they are wound different, right? I would love to hear em all!!! But people chiming in on this would be the much less expensive way of finding out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
layboomo Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Yeah man' date=' I have always heard that P90's in general are the most similar sounding of any pickups regardless of brand, a little tough to believe. But still, a nice A/B test of a few of the more "popular" ones would be a great thing! In the last couple of years there has been a big buzz on-line about 'BG' P90's as well (hand wound). That's the thing, they should all sound different if they are wound different, right? I would love to hear em all!!! But people chiming in on this would be the much less expensive way of finding out. [/quote] The thing about many of the audio clips is that there are sooooooo many variables involved from amps to guitars to mic's to recording technique etc..etc... that it becomes very hard to know exactly what you are hearing.....and reviews on harmony central are pretty useless being that the vast majority are from 13 year olds giving everything a 10! to to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carverman Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 But still' date=' a nice A/B test of a few of the more "popular" ones would be a great thing! In the last couple of years there has been a big buzz on-line about 'BG' P90's as well (hand wound). That's the thing, they should all sound different if they are wound different, right? I would love to hear em all!!! But people chiming in on this would be the much less expensive way of finding out. [/quote] All pickups are "handwound" to an extent..unless you are talking about a robot making them..similar to what they use in the auto industry to put on wheels etc... With several thousand turns required per bobbin and times 2 for a humbucker..I doubt that anyone is seriously sitting down actually "spinning" them. They load the bobbin on the coil winder, dial in the # of turns on the digital counter and let the machine do the job. The manual part is assembling the p_up and dipping it in wax..or hot chocolate.. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricochet Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 All pickups are "handwound" to an extent.. IMO...the term "handwound" is a complete horse manure... NO one in his right mind is winding a PU by hand...another prime addition in the "Bulltique"-dictionary! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
layboomo Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 IMO...the term "handwound" is a complete horse manure... NO one in his right mind is winding a PU by hand...another prime addition in the "Bulltique"-dictionary! Very true Ric....they should probably replace handwound with scatterwound...but it doesn't sound as expensive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carverman Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 IMO...the term "handwound" is a complete horse manure... NO one in his right mind is winding a PU by hand...another prime addition in the "Bulltique"-dictionary! "horse feathers"?..of course there is the "bulltique manufacturer" "Magic Mirror Enterprises" that employ tireless handwinding pickup specialists: "Sleepy, Happy, Bashful, Grumpy, Sneezy, Dopey..and Doc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron G Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 "horse feathers"?..of course there is the "bulltique manufacturer" "Magic Mirror Enterprises" that employ tireless handwinding pickup specialists: "Sleepy' date=' Happy, Bashful, Grumpy, Sneezy, Dopey..and Doc.:( [/quote']And let's not forget The Busy Bumblebee Buzztique Capacitor Conglomeration Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougg330 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I have a 1966 Gibson ES-330 with (duh) Gibson P-90's and I just put a set of GFS Vintage P-90's in my Epi Casino. I prefer the GFS bridge version - it's rougher, with more growl and snarl than the Gibson. The neck PU comes close to the Gibson, but it's unfair to compare a new guitar and pickup to a 42-year old: the combination of old wood and old electronics produce an airy quality the new ones can't match. Still, the GFS pickups wowed me and the luthier who installed them. They have great presence, nice string-to-string clarity, and a great tonal range. I was happy with the stock Epi P-90's in my Casino until I scooped a pair of the GFS P-90's on EBay and had them installed in a '62 Gibson ES-120 - they turned a nice guitar with a wimpy Melody Maker single coil into a great guitar wiht incredible tone. So when another pair of GFS P-90's turned up on EBay, I grabbed them and into the Casino they went. I'm very happy with them, and for the $ they sure can't be beat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron G Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 My buddy lent me his newly-acquired Gibson SG while he was on vacation, a 3-mini-humbucker model which had the bridge pickup replaced with a custom-wound soapbar P90. The SG was, of course, a very nice guitar but the GFS Mean 90 in my Dot Studio kicked the soapbar's ***. I understand this is not a direct comparison to an OEM Gibson pickup but it is a testament to the GFS pickup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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