The Gold Foil pickup comeback

[jp]

Has anyone else noticed the rising interest in gold foil pickups? GFS, Lollar, and Mojotone are all making their own variations of them now, and there are a multitude of reviews on the net. I've watched a bunch of youtube vids, and I'm intrigued. They definitely do sound distinctive, but I think I'd have to play through them for a while to get used to them. Like any piece of gear, get the right combination of guitar, amp, player, and song, and anything can be made to sound good.

As far as I know, Teisco and DeArmond were the only ones who made them back in the day. Premier Guitar and ProGuitarShop's Tone Report have both done some interesting articles on them.

More flavors is always better in my opinion. While both Mojotone and Lollar make single coil top mounts, GFS offers a dizzying array of humbuckers, single coils, Strat drop-ins, soapbars, etc. The top mounts seem to be about the same size as Dearmond Dynasonics, and I wonder how they'd sound in my T-100D.

Is anyone into these? Any thoughts?

 

[txbumper57]

I personally haven't tried them JP. But I do remember that when Guild had the Dearmond line of Guitars out of Korea that some of those came with Dearmond USA Gold Foil topped Humbuckers. If you look for them on Ebay and reverb they usually pop up pretty regularly for between $60-$150 a set in great shape. Also wanted to let you know I posted a couple of Demo videos of the Phat Staples pickups in the other pickup thread here in this section for you to get an idea of what they sound like. Have a good one!

TX

 

[jp]

I personally haven't tried them JP. But I do remember that when Guild had the Dearmond line of Guitars out of Korea that some of those came with Dearmond USA Gold Foil topped Humbuckers. If you look for them on Ebay and reverb they usually pop up pretty regularly for between $60-$150 a set in great shape. Also wanted to let you know I posted a couple of Demo videos of the Phat Staples pickups in the other pickup thread here in this section for you to get an idea of what they sound like. Have a good one!

TX

That's right! I almost forgot about those Dearmond humbucker variations. I don't seem to recall many here on the forum saying anything much about them. I'll check out the demo vids too. Thanks, TX!

 

[dbirchett]

My first guitar had these pickups and they sounded great.

I would think there would be some interest in a reissue of them.

 

[Quantum Strummer]

I love the Teisco gold foils. Sonically they have a lovely combo of clarity and richness. Here's a pic of my ET-300:

The old DeArmonds have a similar look but I think they're different beneath the covers. They sound different too: hotter. The Teiscos use a magnetized rubber-ish material, like the stuff used to pin notes on refrigerators. And Teisco called the pickups "mics." From what I've read they just wanted something cheap & easy to make, and accidentally stumbled into a great sound.

The three pickups are wired in series. With all three going you get a truly massive sound. I've since replaced the original bar bridge on this guitar with a Melita type. Note also that the tone control is out of circuit (that is, lets treble frequencies pass through) when set to 0.

Dunno if the GFS gold foils use either old design or are just a cosmetic thing.

-Dave-

 

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

I'm looking for two of the foil pups that Guild used on the M-65 freshperson around 1959.

 

[Quantum Strummer]

I've wondered if that M-65 foil pickup is the same beneath the cover as other DeArmond foils. Haven't (yet) heard one in action. The Harmony & Silvertone variants are IMO really good.

-Dave-

 

[mavuser]

Curtis Novak makes some gold foil pickups as well, and so does Ronin Guitars.

 

[jp]

Curtis Novak makes some gold foil pickups as well, and so does Ronin Guitars.

I had no idea. The Novak versions are pretty sexy and come in all kinds of custom variations. So cool!