GFS Red Active Pickups

[idsnowdog]

Wow! I wasn't expecting much from these pickups but I am thoroughly surprised and impressed by them. These pickups are fully equal to EMG's and Blackouts. I received my Ibanez RGT-42 today and I had bought an EMG-89 and GFS Red Active neck pickup so I could experiment with each to see which I like better in each position. I figured the EMG-89 could work in either position with its single coil mode and that the GFS could also work because the model I bought has three DIP switches on the bottom that let you tweak their EQ and output level. But having played with the GFS a little I think the EMG-89 is destined for the neck position.

I half expected them to be noisy, hairy, fizzy, or constipated sounding but they are every bit as good as EMGs. The three DIP switches allow for a 10db boost, 12db bass boost, or 12db treble boost. You can use any combination of switch settings you like and with the treble boosted it sounds a lot like an EMG-81. Their sound is more akin to EMGs than Blackouts though. Where the Blackouts are big, hairy, and hot sounding the GFS pickups are dry and woody sounding like EMGs. I really like the sound of them with the output boost and bass boost engaged. They excel at heavy, resonant, palm-muted riffs. These would seriously bark through a 4x12 cabinet. At $35 a pickup, these are a steal and go buy some before GFS figure out that they have under-priced them!

 

[Artie]

I've only tried two GFS pups, (Dream 180 and Dream 90), but they're sweet. Great pups at a sweet price.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I used to have one of the OG RedActive bridge pickups without the fancy EQ stuff back when they first came out. Killer-sounding pickup. Not overly noisy (just a smidgen more than EMG's, IIRC), and very nicely voiced. It was kind of ratty/raspy in a very desirable way. Almost felt like someone else's take on an Alnico EMG 81 with a little old school thrown in. I really want to pick another one up, but GFS's international shipping fees are ridiculous.