School me on Artec pickups

[King IzzO)))]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

Are G&B made by Arctec? I have a G&B "Headhunter" that I guess is a Washburn OEM, but the only other "headhunters" I can find are open coil. Mine is epoxied like an EMG, but it's passive. Whatever it is it's ****ing awesome for any price. Great metal pickup, very Dominion-like.

 

[GilmourD]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

Are G&B made by Arctec? I have a G&B "Headhunter" that I guess is a Washburn OEM, but the only other "headhunters" I can find are open coil. Mine is epoxied like an EMG, but it's passive. Whatever it is it's ****ing awesome for any price. Great metal pickup, very Dominion-like.

I think G&B is the actual manufacturer there.

Sent from my Moto X 2014 using Tapatalk

 

[Darg1911]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

Yeah, I think G&B makes their own. I have an import semi-hollow that had a set of G&B humbuckers. Moderate output. Paf'ish. Nothing special but they weren't bad. Neck was a little muddy though, if I remember.

 

[LtKojak]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

Are G&B made by Artec?

No, G&B is Korea's 2nd largest OEM p'up manufacturer, used for the PRS SE line of guitars, IIRC, just from the top of my head.

HTH,

 

[Darg1911]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

Another Artec line is the Artec Customs, also called Giovanni pickups. Computer wound, not handfed, so probably very consistent from one to another. These have drawn lots of very good reviews. The line offers a few modern sets and three vintage-wound sets: an A5 and an A3 which appear to be similar aside from the mags, and another A5 set that's wound a bit lighter.

That lighter wound A5 is the GVH-59 and I've heard that it's the same pickup as the "Custom 59" in Artecs Milestone line. Difference being that the Milestones aren't potted. I have no idea if it's true or not. I don't own any Artecs other than a couple sets made for GFS and what was pulled from imports and sitting in parts boxes. But, I'm hearing that the 59's are pretty good. I'm interested enough in trying them.

 

[CorkyBristol]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

I've got an Artec hot rails type pickup in one of my strats. The neck and middle pickups are Kent Armstrong vintage Strat pickups, so decent quality. The Artec really holds it's own in that guitar, and I play blues and classic rock, so not a lot of gain used on most of that, so the tone of the pickups needs to be good, and to be honest I'm really impressed with it. In fact, so much so I put one in another of my spare guitars. I normally play a custom built Strat with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails and two Texas Blues pickups in, and the guitar with the Artec in is actually more Fender sounding. I also had a pair of their Giovanni humbuckers in an old Les Paul, they sounded great too.

 

[Gstring]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

Artec make many pick ups for others. Maggot's suggestion that you are better off buying a branded version is very sound advice. Here in the UK Iron Gear pick ups have quite a following and I think they are getting some fans in the US who are prepared to pay the shipping. They use pretty good materials such as fibre board bobbins, 42 and 43 gauge enamel wire and Alnico magnets. I believe some of their designs are closely related to some SD models e.g Rolling Mills =59s ..Torque =JB and Tesla Shark = APH2 Slash model. Guitar magazine in a review said that they were 90% as good as Duncans for less than half the price.
Someone has posted a comparison vid on You Tube of the Tesla Shark bridge against the genuine article which indicates they may be pretty close.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT2aFjv1OcM

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

Don't confuse them for Arcane

 

[exactopposite]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

For those who have used Giovanni GVH1 of GVH2 pickups how would you compare them to Duncan or Dimarzio models? I have some of both and I really like them but I have never used any Duncan or Dimarzio pickups so I have no reference for comparison.

I have a set of GVH1's in an Ibanez AS73 (semihollow sort of like a 335) and I think they are too bright and punchy in that particular guitar. I bought a set of Dimarzio 36th Anniversary pickups for this guitar but I haven't installed them yet. Replacing pickups in a semi-hollow is quite the undertaking so I'm open to any insight that can be offered.

I have had great experience using Artec pickups. As it stands I have Artec Giovanni pickups in all 4 of my guitars and I love them in everything except that ibanez. I have a Hamer SATF with a GVH2 (alnico 3) in the neck and GHV1 (alnico 5) in the bridge. It may seem backwards (isntead of using A5 in the bridge) but it sounds fantastic. I have a GVS1 set in my Strat which I really love. Lastly I have a 2001 Santana SE (first year they were made) with the GVH2 neck GVH1 bridge just like the Hamer. I have had them all that way for 5 years or more at this point. FWIW all of them are set up with 50's wiring and Russian PIO caps.

I'm mainly a blues guy. My main amp is a Boogie F30 with a WGS Invader speaker. When I first found the Giovanni pickups they were something like $40 per set on ebay. I was astounded at how much I liked them so I put them in everything because the tone and the price was right. At this point I'm thinking about changing things up a bit which is how I found this post. I have gotten the itch to try some different pickups in my guitars, and I'm sure you guys know what that is like.

 

[Gstring]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

I have had some experience of Giovanni pups and they are pretty good. My only complaint is that they seem to always have only 2 wires which limits wiring options. B and G pickups out of the PRS SE model also have this problem. Other wise they are another great sounding pick up that used to regularly be available cheap on the second hand market

 

[exactopposite]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

I have had some experience of Giovanni pups and they are pretty good. My only complaint is that they seem to always have only 2 wires which limits wiring options. B and G pickups out of the PRS SE model also have this problem. Other wise they are another great sounding pick up that used to regularly be available cheap on the second hand market

I thought all of the ones I have came with 4 conductor wiring, but I just checked the specs and it looks like I'm remembering wrong.

 

[exactopposite]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

I looked at the electronics of one of my guitars last night and they Giovanni pickups (one GVH1 and one GVH2) have 4 conductor wiring. It reminded me of this post. I guess they changed to 2 conductor after I bought them which was 7-8 years ago now. So, if someone is looking at buying a used set you may want to check with the seller to see which type of wiring they have.

 

[Brandenburg]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

Artec make many pick ups for others. Maggot's suggestion that you are better off buying a branded version is very sound advice. Here in the UK Iron Gear pick ups have quite a following and I think they are getting some fans in the US who are prepared to pay the shipping. They use pretty good materials such as fibre board bobbins, 42 and 43 gauge enamel wire and Alnico magnets. I believe some of their designs are closely related to some SD models e.g Rolling Mills =59s ..Torque =JB and Tesla Shark = APH2 Slash model. Guitar magazine in a review said that they were 90% as good as Duncans for less than half the price.
Someone has posted a comparison vid on You Tube of the Tesla Shark bridge against the genuine article which indicates they may be pretty close.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT2aFjv1OcM

YEP.. im a devoted Iron Gear user.. with 6 of the 14 pups in my guitars being iron gear.. rolling mills,Volts,Smokestack II,Pig Iron,hot slag.. personally I like the rolling mills and Pig Iron the best...and am least pleased with the Volts AND .. shipping is expensive IMO.. well.. $20 on average

 

[bazie]

Re: School me on Artec pickups

I looked at the electronics of one of my guitars last night and they Giovanni pickups (one GVH1 and one GVH2) have 4 conductor wiring. It reminded me of this post. I guess they changed to 2 conductor after I bought them which was 7-8 years ago now. So, if someone is looking at buying a used set you may want to check with the seller to see which type of wiring they have.

I bought GCH2 in 2013-14 and GCH1 in 2016 and all of them have 4-condutor wires. Maybe GVH are 2-wire because of their "vintage" character.
I have used these GCH pickups in Kramer Assault, and they had very nice clean tones. With low gain it was good for playing blues, while with higher gain it turned into a rock/hard rock weapon. For example, Tonerider TRH2 (Generator) are darker when clean.
I think I also saw Artec logo inside some Entwistle humbuckers.