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Tools for the Task: Gold Foil Pickups

Curious about modern gold foil pickups? Start your investigation by checking out these 10 options.

Historically associated with inexpensive student-model guitars of the 1960s, gold foil pickups are now all the rage. Before you go down the eBay rabbit hole for a vintage set, do yourself a favor and check out one of the numerous modern replicas available.

Gold Foil Surface Mount

These handmade single-coils were designed to offer clarity and power, with a pristine top-end and a wide dynamic range. Nickel, chrome, or gold covers are available.

LOLLAR
$190

Gold Foil Alnico Soapbar

These single-coil soapbars contain flat, alnico bar magnets that are meant to serve up a warmer, rounder high-end than the company’s ferrite versions.

GFS
$38

Gold Foils

Designed to have the same character as an original gold foil at an affordable non-vintage price, these fully wax-potted pickups are housed in standard humbucker-sized cases.

SCHUYLER DEAN
$90

Gold Foil Mustache Grille

These handwound gold foils were designed to replicate those used on late-’50s to late-’60s Silvertones. Made to DeArmond/Rowe specs, these pickups can also be ordered with custom specs.

CURTIS NOVAK
$155

Gold Foil Pickup Set

This affordable set housed in mini-humbucker-sized covers includes a bridge pickup at 10.2k ohms and a neck pickup at 10.8k ohms.

ALLPARTS
$65

Gold Foil

Down to the specialized rubberized magnet, these pickups are exact clones of gold foil pickups from the ’60s and are intended to sound clear, powerful, and harmonically rich.

MOJOTONE
$139

Gold Coil

Taking cues from the originals for clear and thick single-coil tones, these modern-version gold foils will fit any humbucker-equipped guitar.

ARCANE INC.
$185

Mini-Humbucker P-90 Gold Foil

Designed to deliver lots of warmth and clarity with enough output to produce that P-90 grind, this vintage-inspired gold foil comes packaged in a smaller, handsome mini footprint.

KLEIN
$150

Lowrider Gold Foil Standard

Lowrider single-coils are flat-magnet, surface-mount pickups with spacing for a standard Strat-style guitar and are underwound to come in at just under 5k ohms.

VICTORY GUITAR & PICKUP CO.
$58

Dog Ear Gold Foil SC

These custom pickups are wax potted under vacuum (unless requested otherwise) and feature proprietary I-X grounded shielding to reduce noise from external AC electric fields.

VINTAGE VIBE GUITAR PICKUPS
$150

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