« Not a bad vintage sounding humbucker. »

The Vintage 59 Humbucker from GFS is a slight step down from their Fat Pat’s in my book, and also a slight step up in cost. They use a variety of cover colors so finding a classy looking match to your guitar isn’t a problem. They use Alnico V magnents, Delrin bobbins, Formvar 42 gauge enamel wire and nickel polepieces, so the quality of the pickup is really good for the money invested. These pickups sound very close to a Gibson Patent Applied For pickup, but the tone isn’t fully there. They aren’t a set of Classic 57s. They wind these just a tad bit hotter than a standard PAF at 8.5-8.8k for the bridge pickup and 8.0-8.2k for the neck, so they are not super high output and that’s a good thing. The clarity of this pickup is tad better than the Fat Pat, but the overall feel of the pickup is just a little bit warmer and thinner in my opinion. It lacks some of the rawness that the Fat Pat has, and just sounds a little smoother overall. This can be a good or a bad thing depending on the player. They impregnate these pickups with beeswax, so feedback and outside electrical noise is not a problem like other pickups in this price range. Another big perk of this pickup for the price range is the four wire shielded cables. Like the Fat Pat, this allows you access to the single coil tones as well as the humbucker tones via a coil tap switch. The single coil tones are about equal with the Fat Pat, neither great nor horrible. The pickups come with a wiring diagram to help you install them and the mounting screws and a set of black trim rings. Overall this pickup is pretty much on par with the Fat Pat from GFS, and around the same price point. If you want a very slightly hotter, more raw sounding pickup go for the Fat Pat and if classic gain and smooth sounds are your bag go with the 59. For around 35 dollars US you can’t go wrong with either choice.