"Professional Quality"

[jason lollar]

If you get vintage guitar magazine May 2001 - the newest issue check out the pickup ad on the bottom of page 52- its says "professional Quality with the best wire, magnet,s flatware and assembly practices sold direct at wholesale prices" Look at the photo and check out the solder job at the eyelets- great big blobs of solder and you can see some loose coil wire at the bottom of the coil.
I see this sort of thing in ads all the time and on websites for us made handwounds- "botique pickups and we use the best materials availible- yah yah yah" Who doesnt use the best they can? anyway the photos often show frayed cloth on the ends of the lead wires, lead wires sticking way up above where they pull through the bobbin- loose coil wires, bad beveling you name it- start looking at ad photos real close.
Anyway this ones particularly funny because its a 1/4 page ad and you can see it plain as day.

[ken]

Thanks Jason... another one for my collection.

I gotta ask... I didn't see the ad yet. How much for the pickups?

ken

[Mark Hammer]

April's just showed up at the newsstand yesterday, so I'll ignore the page reference, pass on asking the name, and keep my eyes peeled while I flip through on the commuter bus.

But I'll tell ya, startup pickup makers have nuthin' on pedal-makers when it comes to throwing around a lot of snappy phrases about an amateur build.

I'll bet you didn't know that the phrase "true bypass" could cure cancer!

[LtKojak]

If you get vintage guitar magazine May 2001 - the newest issue check out the pickup ad on the bottom of page 52- its says "professional Quality with the best wire, magnet,s flatware and assembly practices sold direct at wholesale prices" Look at the photo and check out the solder job at the eyelets- great big blobs of solder and you can see some loose coil wire at the bottom of the coil.
I see this sort of thing in ads all the time and on websites for us made handwounds- "botique pickups and we use the best materials availible- yah yah yah" Who doesnt use the best they can? anyway the photos often show frayed cloth on the ends of the lead wires, lead wires sticking way up above where they pull through the bobbin- loose coil wires, bad beveling you name it- start looking at ad photos real close.
Anyway this ones particularly funny because its a 1/4 page ad and you can see it plain as day.

Well... the guy doesn't say " I can solder", even though it should be a given within the "best assembly practices" line, but hey, nobody's perfect.

[David King]

If 2001 is the latest issue it really is a "Vintage" guitar magazine...

[Mark Hammer]

And if we just got the April 2001 issue, that says something about postal service around here.

[jason lollar]

err 2011 that is!
its one of those companies that doesnt really make pickups they just import them and sell them as botique quality. Some guys think they are a really good deal- you pay something like $40 for one but they dont realize what you can buy those for wholesale- anywhere from $1.50 to $4 a pickup.
I bought one once just to look at it- it was sort of a filtertron copy- i turned the pickup upside down to look at the bottom and half the pole piece screws fell out!
seriously though- I know amp makers went through flooding of the market a while back - I dont know the pedal makers as well but with amps- its one thing to build an amp from scratch and if everything comes out right then its great but if something goes wrong you have to be able to trouble shoot it which means you have to know a thing or two and if you are going to get it certified by UL thats another level

it all balances out in the end

[frankfalbo]

pro·fes·sion·al [pruh-fesh-uh-nl]
–adjective
1. following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain.

Good news: You ALL build professional quality pickups! Pat yourselves on the back.
'cept you noobs who haven't sold any yet. You build amateur quality pickups. Too bad, too. I've seen some first attempts that look better than pickups people have paid for.

[jason lollar]

Thats a viewpoint I hadnt considerd Frank- its professional quality if you get paid for it!

[copperheadroads]

I don't subscribe to that magazine ,but are they these
GFS Professional Series- OUR BEST!

[salvarsan]

I don't subscribe to that magazine ,but are they these
GFS Professional Series- OUR BEST!

Their kwallity looks purty perfeshunel to me.

What does "fetish" mean?

[Mark Hammer]

I'm certainly not going to rush to the defense of whoever soldered the lead wires on, but I've had the opportunity to correspond with GFS owner Jay Abend on a business matter, and found him to be a straight-up guy.

They import a line of rebranded budget pedals from China, and the company that produces them has been producing a pedal without my knowledge using my design that I posted unprotected several years back. I'm shrugging that off, simply because it probably took me longer to draw it and post it than it did to think it up, and if they did all the legwork to do a PCB layout, machining, graphics, etc., let them earn something for their efforts. I also get a kick out of the thought of thousands of Chinese kids rockin' out with something I thought up.

I wrote Abend and inquired whether they would be including that pedal in their inventory, explaining the situation, though not really requesting anything of them. Jay responded very understandingly, noting that he had been burned in similar fashion several times in past, and out of respect and empathy would not carry that particular pedal in their line. I go to their site now and then looking for bargains, and he has kept his word.

So, like I say, whatever quality control they do or don't impose on the jobbers who make the pickups for them, at the very least, they deal honestly and I'll give them that.

[Ronsonic]

Jay's a right guy. Been on the guitar gadget scene a long time.

As for GFS products and quality, in a world of crappy $8 OEM pickups, his $25 pickups fill a worthwhile market niche with more than fair value for the dollar. In all products there's a dollar/goodness curve, most of us gear hounds are over the top of the knee of that curve, his stuff is on the knee. Which for the guys down at the bottom of the curve is a good step up.

[David Schwab]

As for GFS products and quality, in a world of crappy $8 OEM pickups, his $25 pickups fill a worthwhile market niche with more than fair value for the dollar.

Except those are $8 OEM pickups, probably made in the same factory as the rest. He just marks them up enough to not look so cheap.

I bought one of these for my Tele, and it actually sounds pretty good.



Guitar Parts Resource: Pickups Other

At the time it was $14. Now they are $22. I'm sure it cost about $8 from the factory.

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Yeah, it is all about the price point. I do think they need to advertise a bit more reasonably, though. They're going for a "great bang for the buck" sort of thing, but as Jason noticed, they advertise like they are direct competition for a guy like him for a lower price. It is like a TV dinner trying to pass itself off as fine cuisine for $4.99 a meal.

Personally I like the idea; lots of players have cheap guitars that they want to soup up just for fun or just because they think they are neat guitars (some Squiers are not all that bad in their own way) but have a hard time justifying a set of pickups that'll cost more than the guitar itself. In everything I design I pay attention to cost because I want to keep as many of these people within a clientele as possible. Having said that, I don't think GFS is QUITE cheap enough and most people would just as soon go with something a bit fancier.