GFS (or other) Wide Range Humbucker clones...

[Jay]

In doing an eBay I ran across these.  Anyone know if they're any good?  Apparantly they're sized like a standard humbucker but made like a vintage wide range jobber.  The prices are dirt cheap too.

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

[Coronado]

Yeah, I saw those a while ago. But it's not made with alnico, those are ceramic hb... :-\ A friend asked them by mail.

[Jay]

Yeah, I saw those a while ago. But it's not made with alnico, those are ceramic hb... :-\ A friend asked them by mail.

The originals weren't alnico though either no?  They were Cunife...

See here.

[i love sharin foo]

Yeah, I saw those a while ago. But it's not made with alnico, those are ceramic hb... :-\ A friend asked them by mail.

The originals weren't alnico though either no?  They were Cunife...

See here.

Yeah, the originals were copper, nickel and iron.

Justin

[Jay]

I spoke to Curtis Novak a bit today regarding a wide range hum clone. He said it was okay to relay some of the info along...

I have had quite a bit of requests to retrofit the reissue wide range pickups.  The problem is that there is NO WHERE in the states to get CuNiFe magnets all production of that has been moved to China, and I have not been able to source it.  I have a line on a very close substitute, but it has not arrived yet.  I have however rewound and upgraded the current bar magnet in the Fender Reissue version, and have been told I VASTLY improved the tone.  I recently bought a new Set of the Fender wide range pickups from Angelia's so I can do my own tinkering on.

It's nice to know he's actually working on it!  Hopefully we'll have some options for true repalcements sometime soon. 

[i love sharin foo]

That's good news indeed! I wonder what he was charging for his mods on the current reissues. If it was reasonable, I wouldn't mind sending them out to him at some point. If he doesn't start making closer replicas, that is.

Justin

[enormous]

Awesome!  I really hope he finds some way of getting the CuNiFe, the world needs more Jazzblasters.

[scottme]

That sounds very promising. I'm rather excited, and I think that if / when he nails it, they would be in rather high demand.

[aen]

In doing an eBay I ran across these.  Anyone know if they're any good?  Apparantly they're sized like a standard humbucker but made like a vintage wide range jobber.  The prices are dirt cheap too.

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

That's quite tempting, even wihtout a guitar to stick them in...

[Jay]

Some further web searching revealed that they're really not anywhere close to accurate repros of the wide range HBs.  They may sound decent but my guess is that you get what you pay for with these so I'm going to stay away for now.

[mjet]

I think you'll find that most people qualify their praise of GFS pickups as being good FOR THE PRICE. Admittedly, they might be good for $30 a pickup, but they're not going to compete with higher end production like Duncan, DiMarzio, Fender etc. They're just well-marketed, imported pickups. They do have some cool designs, though.

[rabidhamster]

you can find some cunife mgnets at the industrial supply firms, but they want you to order a serious crapload of magnet it looks like.  I've been trying to find some cunife magnets for some time. 

I've never had an original widerange open, but didnt they also use magnet-screws instead of plain screws and a bar magnet?  This may be some misinformation Ive gotten, but if its the case, that adds even more difficulty.

I'd certainly buy em if he can get em done.

[Stereordinary]

What about these?

http://www.warmoth.com/pickups/pickups. ... ups_fender

[mjet]

What about these?

http://www.warmoth.com/pickups/pickups. ... ups_fender

Those are just the reissue pickups, which look like the original 70s WRHP but are significantly different "under the cover".