An acoustic for non electric practice

[JimN]

It's interesting to see you're using yours electrically

I'd better own up at this point and tell you that I loved the shape, the build quality, the finish, the colour, the trem and the action, but I was not keen on the sound of the pickups. They are medium-output humbuckers - fine for jazz and soft strumming, but I wanted more 'twang' and output so I replaced them. I wish I could remember off-hand what I replaced them with, but I did mods on several guitars at that time and certainly these replacement had all that I required.

They were a GFS ("Guitar Fetish") model, weren't they, Ray?

They are either the same pickups as, or very similar to, the ones fitted to many Alden guitars, of which I know you have more than one example.

See:

http://store.guitarfetish.com/GFS-Retrotron-Series_c_99.html

By the way, anyone looking for the DeArmond 200 sound, and who might be tempted by the look of the "GFS Surf 90 Alnico II Rockabilly Pickups": be warned.

They look similar, but those screws don't adjust the bar magnets up and down (which is the case with the genuine DeArmonds). The screws are just a rudimentary polepiece adjustment method (the screws themselves being the adjustable poles).

JN

[RayL]

Hi Jim

You spurred me into checking through my 'Pickup Graveyard' in Eaves Cupboard West and the answer is . . . . . . that 'Dream 100' humbuckers that I bought from GFS were used on my Shergold 6-string bass. The empty boxes have got a pretty colour picture on each of them so I can be sure about that. The replacements for the Ibanez must therefore have been one of those sets of 'Last Few Left - Special Offer High Output Humbuckers' that Axesrus were flogging off a few years ago.

Alden Guitars are made at the factory of Muse R&D Inc. in Korea. From the look of their website it seems they do quite a bit in-house, so that may include the pickups. Certainly the blurb suggests the Alan Entwhistle designs the pickups individually for each guitar. The MVH single coil ("voiced with clear highs, depth and punch" "Classic split coil pickups with Alnico magnet structure and double row poles" "authentic enamel wire") on my TV Cruiser DLX are and the MVH Nashville Star humbuckers ("custom wound") on the Corsair are both non-standard sizes compared to, say, Gibson PAF and would not work as generic replacements in other guitars

Incidentally, Jim, I've boiled those dead strings that you took off your Jagmaster after last nights rehearsal and they're ready to give you years and years more playing pleasure

Ray