GFS rail pickups - opinions?

[lordcthulhu]

It's been a long time since I've posted here. I had some cash to burn on a beater guitar late last year, so I got a Kramer XL-6 for $100, which is, you guessed it, a 80's Korean plywood job just like the infamous Striker. I only got it since it's so goddamn comfortable to play! The stock bridge pickups is suprisingly OK, but it's time for it to go now.

Since it's a slanted pickup, I was thinking of replacing it with some sort of rail pickup to bypass any pole-spacing issues. So I'm looking into GFS power rails since everyone seems to be gushing over it on HC, and it's very cheap ($35) compared to other rail pickups. Any opinions on these?
Thanks

 

[Russtopher]

I've got a Crunchy Rails in my old Yamaha Pacifica, and I love it for anything loud and crunchy. Cleans are meh, but if I'm recording anything downtuned and distorted, I love it.

 

[nwright]

I put a crunchy rails in our vocalists beater guitar (basswood body) and I find it muddy and ill defined due to it's bloated low end. It's better tuned to standard than it is any kind of downtuning. However, to contrast this against a rail pickup like the DiMarzio X2N, I find the X2N to be too bottom heavy as well, but it's more defined than the crunchy rails.

 

[lordcthulhu]

Thanks guys. I hear great things about the X2Ns and Bill Lawrence L-500s but yeh, since this is a beater I need something relatively cheap, but with a sound that won't make me uke:. I have no idea why, but the sustain on this plywood is awesome, that's why it's getting a little bit of attention. I don't tune very low, I usually use just standard, drop-D and drop-C (occasionally).

@ Russtopher - is the Pacifica alder or basswood? Goddamn those gits are underrated.

 

[John_C]

EMG active humbuckers should behave fine slanted

 

[Notuern]

Personally, i LOVE rail pickups(Passives with as much separation as actives.), cant say anything about these though.

 

[Russtopher]

It's a Pacifica 112, so it's alder body.

 

[ptschafer]

I bought a pair of them and threw them in a cheap Vendetta XM guitar. I will say that I was expecting an improvement over the original pickups, but I was pleasantly surprised as to how these sound. The P-rails are pretty crunchy, great for distortion, but I like the clean sound of them too. Pretty balanced overall and for $35 each they are an absolute steal in my opinion.