Guitarfetish site for cheap parts

[Slobrain]

http://store.guitarfetish.com/index.html

I found this site after a buddy telling me about the pickups they sell from this site. They have the EVH copy humbuckers there. And cheap prices too. I may want to order some parts from them but I wonder how good these parts are?

Anyone here ever try anything from this site? They sure do have a lot of parts that look great, pricing is better than most places I have found too.

SLO

[trevorus]

Originally Posted by Slobrain

http://store.guitarfetish.com/index.html

I found this site after a buddy telling me about the pickups they sell from this site. They have the EVH copy humbuckers there. And cheap prices too. I may want to order some parts from them but I wonder how good these parts are?

Anyone here ever try anything from this site? They sure do have a lot of parts that look great, pricing is better than most places I have found too.

SLO

I used some tuners from them. They were good stuff. I'm thinking of getting some 60's AlNiCo pickups soon.

[Ben N]

So far I have only actually used their alnico strat pups, so I can't speak to your question exactly, but they were AMAZING! Not just for the price (which is incredible)--they absolutely nailed the vintage vibe I was after and then some, and the build quality is quite good, nothing cheesy about them (I love the color coded cloth-covered leads). A friend told me that he liked their Filtertrons as well. I have also used one of their active circuits for guitar (a seepable filter, like a wah), and while it did not turn out to be my cup of tea, it was still very nicely done, worked well and easy to install, and cheaper than if I had sourced the parts myself. Only good stuff to say about GFS.

[Jag]

I've used a bunch of stuff from them. Overall, I've been happy.

I used their vintage style tuners and Jimi PUPs on a Strat project. I've got one of their PAF style PUP's in one of my spare guitars and a Dream 90 in the neck of one of my main Les Pauls. Happy with all of it!

I don't think they blow away some of the higher end products. For instance, I've got Nordstrand pickups in one of my guitars and they are more articulate/defined sounding. I usually use Duncan PUPs and I'd say that the Duncans are a little better in the clarity department. For the price, I think GFS is a good value.

BTW. I like the GFS PAF sytle better than the Burstbucker that was stock in my Les Paul Standard.

[frankjc]

I have been checking out that site too, and the prices are almost too good to believe. I was particularly interested in the lil puncher and lil killer pickups. I think I might order a tremelo block too.

[Slobrain]

Well I have placed two orders already and got some of the VEH humbuckers and strat MIM tremolo with the thick steel block. The VEH bridge is supposed to be the same sound as the EVH pickup from Eds famous strat. The bridge pup is only 11k but does sound damn good, the matching neck pup sounds really good and when switched into both HB at the same time I can nail SRVs tone to a T on a alder body strat. Go figure...

I placed a second order for some parts and got the stainless steel saddles and put on the tremolo I got from them and they fit perfect and sound good too, they take of a slight touch of highs off and give a bit better sustain. The one problem I did find was I ordered three different Stratocaster pickgaurds with the humbucker cut in the bridge and I notice they cut the HB bridge pickup a quarter inch closer to the trem bridge than my warmoth or chandler strat pickgaurds so that worries me as I feel this will give the strat a too trebly sound with the humbuckers. I might send them back but the price for the three was about 34 bucks which is much cheaper that the 25 bucks I would have spent with Warmoth. I got some 6 inline keys that look like Gotoh copies and they seam decent. I also got a pair of the crunchy PAFs and will try them out in a few days. The prices are good but the pickguards concern me with the slight bit difference in the HB placement. The pickguards look great, just the HB being closer to the bridge, who know... maybe it will be OK.

SLO

[jrfrond]

Most of the GFS pickups I've tried, which are made in Korea by Artec, are pretty good, especially for the money. My most recent purchase was a vintage Strat set for a Gilmour-clone I built, and they are pretty nice, albeit with a bit of unrefined edge to them. Not a BAD thing, but they are NOT Lollar, Fralin or Barden. They are also a fraction of the price, which will get you into the neighborhood of where you want to be, but perhaps not the same address. Still and all, they have a great variety and I've never had problems, so I recommend them

Most of the GF hardware is by Sung Il, a Korean company which supplies hardware to Fender and other companies, as well as Wilkinson. The stuff is pretty good and I have no issues with it, plus it is reasonably-priced.

[Slobrain]

Hey Jrfrond,
Thanks for that info. I looked up Artec and here is a site I found of some really cool pedals. I'm now gonna have to try a few of these pedals as I like a few of what Im hearing on their site.

http://artecsound.com/effect/index.html

[Steve17]

To carry on the theme of this thread, I too have had great luck with GF. I have their Mean 90's in the bridge of my SG. Great complement to my homemade neck pickup. I also put their roller bridge on my SG and its a pretty solid piece too. Also, great service. Orders ship quickly and they respond so fast to email (for technical as well as sale questions.)

[Slobrain]

Well to give an update, So far I have tried the VEH humbuckers and the Crunchy humbuckers and both sound really good for the price. These may not be Seymour D's but they sure sound pretty close and got the two strats where I wanted them to sound. I do have one strat with all single coils when I want to get straty but I also dig having a dual HB strat as well for the rock stuff.

I just rebuilt a 2008 Squire Bullet for a buddy as he wanted a cheap beater and I used the GF strat tuners and these are really smooth and actually feel better than the Gotohs I have been using. Suprisingly the bullet strat came out really well in tone and playability for a $99.00 guitar. But the key to these are stripping them down parts wise, plugging all the holes and re-drilling every thing as the Chinese do not know how to assemble a guitar very well, or at least in whatever factory they build the new bullet strats in ...The thin basswood bodies do sound good though.

The GF pickguards are OK but they cut the HB to close to the bridge for my taste in hi's, I wound up going back to the Warmoth pickgaurds and they serve me well in the tone. They cut their HB Bridge position a bit further back from the bridge for a smoother hi end.

BTW, The Warmoth parchment color pickguard looks really good on a white strat. Too bad I didn't find Guitar Fetish sooner... Oh well...

Cheers

[Faux Hog]

I have found GFS unbeatably easy to deal with. Prompt and accuarte. I have not been brave enough to try the pick ups yet but the hardware is real nice.
I bought the vintage wilks tuners with the conversion bushings for a mim neck I picked up. They were very nice and arrived in 36 hours with 5 extra mounting skrews!!! (per usual I stripped 2 mounting up the tuners. When its for me I tend to rush.)

Its terrible that we are all so skeptical of a company that offers reasonable prices.

[spud1950]

I bought some stuff from them years ago. I wanted to put a guitar together as a learning experience and didn't want to spend a whole lot on it. Got a surprisingly nice import Strat clone ,minus the pickups,real cheap off eBay.Took it all apart.Scraped the paint out of the neck pocket down to the wood so that the neck mates better to the body.I stripped the finish of the neck and refinished it with tung oil and put on a Graphtech graphite nut. From Guitarfetish I got the real nice Wilkinson vintage style trem,new pickguard,full size Alpha pots, and pickups.I got the Premium Alnico Vintage Strat set. The pickups sound quite good and look well made. Very decent set of pickups for $59.95.It's a really good looking,playing and sounding guitar for little money. I also emailed them a couple of times with questions and got responses within 24 hours. Good customer service.

[Gern]

I have been buying items from GFS for a while now. I started with their stainless steel trem replacement for strats, and the change in my tone and sustain was fantastic! Since then, I have purchased some of their pups and other misc electronics and I will continue to purchase from them in the future. Great products at great prices.

[David Schwab]

I just bought a dual rail Tele lead pickup from Guitar Parts Resource that's actually very good, and it was even cheaper than GFS. $18.99.

Looks like it's made by the same company as GFS, only GFS have theirs custom made.

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/pickups_other.htm

[Jag]

I'm still really diggin' the GFS Dream 90 in my main Paul!

[catstrat]

I tried a couple of sets of those and found that they really didn't give me the sound i was looking for. It wasn't GFSs problem, it was just me mis-judging what tone i was after. I heard so much hype about alnico magnet strat pickups i thought i would try them. I found them to be too clean and too much like Stevie Ray's tone ,which i don't really care for, and i was playing into a modified Peavey Triumph and they just wouldn't dirty up enough for me. If Stevie Ray tone is the tone you're looking for then these pickups should be it for you. I found the Mighty mite ceramic single coils much more to my liking. However i still have a GFS alnico in the neck position on one of my strats. To sum things up, GFS make a good pickup. You can go on Ebay and you'll find a multitude of pickups. Another pickup that i really like as far as a humbucker goes is the Guitarheads Z-bucker. I bought 2 sets of those and they are in 2 of my Les Pauls. But always remember, when buying pickups it's best to do all the homework you can and have a good understanding of the tone you're after.

[vince76]

I know about to nothing about PU, so pardon me for the stupid question.
I have a mexico strat with (I think) original PU and I'm not happy with them.Just to explain the type they have a sort of bar under the magnets (in the part non visible).
In your opinion buying the cheap vintage strat from guitarfetish
(http://yhst-50206111187217.stores.ya...tsewhwobl.html) will traduce in improving the quality of my set up?

V.

[David Schwab]

Originally Posted by vince76

I know about to nothing about PU, so pardon me for the stupid question.
I have a mexico strat with (I think) original PU and I'm not happy with them.Just to explain the type they have a sort of bar under the magnets (in the part non visible).
In your opinion buying the cheap vintage strat from guitarfetish
(http://yhst-50206111187217.stores.ya...tsewhwobl.html) will traduce in improving the quality of my set up?

V.

The "bar under the magnets' is a cheap ceramic magnet, and the poles are just steel rods.

I'd think the GFS pickups would be quite a bit better than the stock pickups.

[Dave Kerr]

Regarding the Mexi-Strat pickups, I've rewound a couple per Steve Kersting's site and they ended up sounding pretty good, a huge improvement over the original for very short money.

[vince76]

thank you David I supposed the thing that everything is better than my PU :-)
Dave what do you mean with very short money?

V.

[Dave Kerr]

The wire and the means to wind the wire on the bobbin is the only significant expense - the rest is a few pennies for filister head pole screws, crazy glue and the plastic inserts.

[spud1950]

"The "bar under the magnets' is a cheap ceramic magnet, and the poles are just steel rods.

I'd think the GFS pickups would be quite a bit better than the stock pickups."

I know for a fact that those "blowout" pickups in the GFS link are typical generic cheap pickups with steel pole pieces and a ceramic bar magnet under the poles,so don't expect them to really sound that much different then the ones you already have.If you want something inexpensive and more traditional Strat sounding,then consider these Alnico pickups.
http://store.guitarfetish.com/stvialstpise.html

[vince76]

Finally I dcided to buy those PU from the site, but it would be useful to me if someone of PU gurus give me a opinion. I whish to buy the overwound rather than standard set. I think that overwound means more output, more vintage sound but little less highs. Am I missing something??

V.

[telemoxy]

Originally Posted by vince76

Finally I dcided to buy those PU from the site, but it would be useful to me if someone of PU gurus give me a opinion. I whish to buy the overwound rather than standard set. I think that overwound means more output, more vintage sound but little less highs. Am I missing something??

V.

Vintage pickups tend to be lower output. The sound of most Classic Rock from the 60s is the sound of vintage pickups. They are good for clean, crunch and distorted sounds.

Because of manufacturing mistakes occasionally a pickup would get through with too many windings yielding higher output but less treble. This was great for distortion sounds so these guitars were valued by players seeking a heavily distorted sound. Larry Dimarzio and Seymour duncan to name two picked up on this and started deliberately making pickups with higher output which were great for distorted sounds.

Generally you have to choose the pickup that matched the sounds you are after. Pickup makers are still trying to create a pickup that is great for clean and distortion but they are fighting basic physics so it is largely a work in process.

[BrJLa]

http://store.guitarfetish.com/costupelcoki.html

Does anyone have any opinions on this package?

I've just started my first effort at messing with the electronics in my strat. I'm replacing the pickups, and I thought I'd shield it and re-wire it for star grounding while I was at it. And, for kicks, I thought I'd put in new electronic components, assuming they'd be an upgrade. I went ahead and ordered this because I saw it referred to on another forum (while reading up on shielding). But the more I've read, the more I've become worried about the purchase. The Alpha pots seem okay. But it has ceramic disk capacitors, which I've read are inferior, in addition to the .047uf value maybe being too high. And I read something else that suggested that five way switches like this, with the wiring connectors all on one side, might be cheap or inferior. It has me re-considering whether this is stuff I want to put in my guitar. Any opinions?

[LtKojak]

Originally Posted by BrJLa

http://store.guitarfetish.com/costupelcoki.html

Does anyone have any opinions on this package?

Considering what you're paying for, it's a good deal.

Just be careful with your iron in that PCB. In a even better made PCB switch (Schaller), using an 40W iron almost killed it. Use a 30W max and you'll be OK.

Don't worry 'bout the cap either, the ceramic .47uf is standard in a lot of well-known guitar makers.

I use orange drops .22uf on all my guitars, just to have something to brag about, not because they sound "better". (but mostly because I got'em nearly for free)

HTH,

[catstrat]

I'm pretty sure that it will be of a decent quality. All the pickups they sell,even if i'm not crazy about their Alnico strat pickups, are pretty good items. Like you said using a better quality cap. will be better. I personally don't like ceramic caps due to a wide tolerance in the values. When i run across them in a mod i'm doing, i'll replace them every time. In my amp repair business i generally use Spragues, 715s,716s or 225s. There are a lot of good caps you can choose from. Some suggest the Sprague vitamin Q caps. Since i don't use my tone controls that much i'm not to concerned with cap type in my guitars. I also use a 30 watt soldering iron. It seems to me the lower wattage irons take too long to heat the parts you need to solder and i've damaged boards waiting on the thing to get hot enough. Good luck.

[Faux Hog]

Try the ebay store called "guitar fuel".
This appears an american distributor for ARTEC components.
Which, as I understand, is the some comany that manufactures the pickups and onboard stuff for GFS in Korea. They don't have everything that GFS has but they have a good selection of pickups plus piezo's for around 14usd.
Free shipping to boot. I haven't tried anything from them as yet but at these prices I sure I'll find an old flat top to stick a transducer in soon enough.
I like the 3 band EQ they stuck in half a P bass cover. It's got a real garage job look to it.

[vince76]

dear friends,
The PU from guitarfetish are just arrived and as they come w/out a schem I don't know how to wire them.
the wires coming out from the PUps are

black/red
black/yellow
black/white

It seems to me that the black yellow has reversed polarity respect the other two and I expect to be the middle PU. (it rejects the other two...)
but the other tho pick ups are equivalents?
Is there a way to know wath to put in bridge position for example?
I guess higher impedence goes bridge?
For the wiring I think to follow the way the actual PU are wired... black where black is connected an so on....

Thank you, V.

[Guitarist]

I just took a GSH pickup out of my Koa superstrat. It was in the neck position but wasn't balanced to the Lynch Duncan in the bridge. They recommended it so I bought theirs. It was always too muddy and not articulate; it reads around 10K. Did the swap two days ago and dropped in some type of Fender humbucker that reads 7K. Now the highs and snap are back PLUS the single coils sounds is very woody and strat-like. For 3.5K of windings this is so surprising. Way more strat than my Bill Lawrence in single coil mode.
I was going to comment in the strat-discussion down a bit on this page, but nah.

Moral of the story, 50% (or less) of what we hear from dealers et al is hype and sales BS.

GFH bridge mini-humbuckers are working well in some of my students Jay Turser strats.

When settling on a pickup, I'd recommend resisting the "overwounds" and go the direction of vintage.