AGILE AL3100 pickup comparison- GFS vs L-500 blade

[sild123]

when you demoing sound, please turn off all the delay, especially distorted sounds, i can't even hear the base tone properly. thanks :)

[guitartec]

@sild123 It's not a professionally produced demo. Sorry. 

[sild123]

@guitartec hey, no worries. i just wanted to really hear the difference. but then...yeah. thanks anyway :) cheers :)

[guitartec]

@stubaru Nope, the GFS we temporarily installed in the lead position was a GFS Crunchy lead pup.

[Zeupater]

I thought the GFS sounded much better. The words I would use for it are "up-front" and "full"-sounding. To my ears the BL was "distant" and "thin" sounding, almost like a phasing problem.

[roadtonever]

Probably Bills idea regarding the epoxy. Just speculating but perhaps that particular L500 was intended for the neck position. Might just be the youtube quality. I have a different model BL humbucker L90, standard set. The bridge pickup is well phat but still cleans up nicely.

[guitartec]

@roadtonever Yeah, possibly. Not all BL's are as bright as this. I hear Dimebag used L-500' almost exclusively for their tremendous cut

[leachim6]

do all of GFS pickups suck? :( I've been eyes some of their vintage soapbards for a Frankentele

[leachim6]

@leachim6 wow, I definitely meant *eyeing and *soapbars

[guitartec]

@leachim6 Idunno. I've installed about 25 GFS pups in my customers guitars (at their request). They seem to like them, but they aren't my cup of tea.

[leachim6]

@guitartec which ones are the biggest requests?

[guitartec]

@leachim6 Which GFS are the biggest requests... Is that what you're asking? If so, it's hard to say. I've installed a lot of the filtertron and P90 styles I guess. I installed a set of the Dream 180's in black pearl the other day into a custom built jag-style guitar. Sounded unusual. Duncans and EMGs are what I mostly install.

[Zeupater]

@leachim6 I only ever switch pickups when I'm unhappy with stocks or when I'm building or repairing a guitar. I try to keep an open mind, but whenever I have installed GFS (or Lace, my other favorite) pickups I've had good results. I'm actually building a "frankentele" at the moment and have a couple GFS "vintage split" ready to go when all the parts arrive and have been assembled.

[JCole1369]

I love the sound of that L500. Much better clean sound than the GFS, and high output at the same time. You can dial in distortion with a pedal, but you can't dial in clean. To tame some of the high end of the L500, roll off the tone pot a bit. The L500 actually delivers convincing PAF tones, and Strat-like chime, all in the same noise free pickup! Bill and Becky's new ones are the best Bill has ever made

[guitartec]

@JCole1369 Yeah, the L500 would definitely need some tonal adjustment at the amp as well as the guitar for most players. It's like a Tele lead pickup with the balls of a Humbucker. At first, I thought I wired it wrong.

I'd just like to know whose idea it was to epoxy the windings :)

D.

[roadtonever]

The GFS sounds downright honky. Have you tried the L500 in the neck position perhaps?

[guitartec]

TO @roadtonever. Well, no. That wasn't part of our test. The point was to compare pups instantly in the same position so you could here the differences back to back. Thanks for the suggestion, tho.

[guitartec]

@Magnitude2 Check my video now. All the words are there. Click on the description.

Thanks for watchin' man.

[guitartec]

@Magnitude2 I just posted this video an hour ago and the title and description I wrote disappeared. Utube sucks!