Yeah I can hear you now- "Has GFS gone nuts?? 70's Pickups? Didn't the 70's SUCK??"
Ummm- yeah they pretty much did. Fender® made some of their worst instruments, Disco ruled and we began our inexorable climb towards $20 a gallon gas. So Imagine my surprise when I found a guy with a bunch of mid 70's Strat Frankensteins, bastard neck from one guitar, body from another- you know "Player's Guitars". Put em all together, soldered up some new pots and caps, and I checked out my new babies. HOLY CRAP!! HUGE tone, big, fat bottom, crisp, clean highs- stunning midrange snap- and above all a great sense of POWER! More power than my 50's and 60's Strats, more power than my GFS vintage sets, more power than I'd experienced in a while.
Sure the 30 year old wood helped, but it was the pickups- all grey-bottom fender® alnico pickups. A trip to the GFS CSI labs revealed a few little tricks in the construction that accounted for the big-ass, full range sound. We reverse engineered them and here they are. We have 3 sets- these are the Vintage wound (if you consider July 1971 vintage). The NON-STAGGERED straight pole-pieces give you more low end grunt- These are OUR BEST Strat pickups for Aerosmith style chugging rhythm, Mick Taylor style singing leads and Gilmour-esque ethereal harmonics.
Meet the new GFS 70's Greybottoms. Put a set of these in your Strat and you'll be BLOWN AWAY by the ballsy power, the crisp, clean high end and the round, warm bottom end! These are the "Vintage" set- Compared to our already legendary Vintage Alnico Premium Staggers these have about 20% output at the bridge position, and about 10% more at the neck and mid- plus a LOT more pick attack, harmonics and midrange power- you know- the stuff that really drives an amp- Well worth the extra $10. This is the OVERWOUND set- Louder, Fatter, Thicker.
These are our finest Strat pickups- No joking here- We've build them with real fiber bobbins, Real vintage correct Grey fiber bottom plates, authentic 42 gauge plain enamel wire, Vintage style black and white cloth leads, even premium beveled German alnico rod magnets. To create a "Humbucking" effect, the middle pickup is reverse wound- now positions 2 and 4 on your 5-way are NOISELESS.
We have spared no expense in designing these pickups-with all the vintage accouterments:
- Bridge Pickup 10K
- Middle Pickup 8K
- Neck Pickup 7.2K
- 60's style black fiberboard top plate
- 60's style grey fiberboard bottom plate
- Alnico 5 Magnets
- Vintage style Beveled, non-staggered pole pieces
- Cloth covered leads
- Wound like "Hot Surf" pickups to really drive an amp
- Accurate plain enamel wire
- Potted in real Beeswax
For that round, sweet, fat vintage Strat tone with plenty of midrange bite. These brand new GFS "70's Greybottoms" are custom designed to provide all the great vintage tone with some of the best classic rock, country and blues tones I've heard yet!!
I've installed about a bazillion pickups in Strats in the last 25 years, and I assure you that these pickups can hang with the best of the "Boutique" handmade pickups out there- really!
These pickups come with a STANDARD SOLDER LEAD, and may be soldered directly to your existing wiring with no modifications. You may also order a matching “Solderless” pre-assembled wiring harness for quick and easy “pain-free” installation! Click here to add a harness to your cart.
Need help wiring? Check out our interactive wiring instructions!
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