Classic Gear: Gold-Foil Pickups

By Guitar Player Staff

October 27, 2020

For the past several years, enthusiasm for vintage gold-foil pickups has remained one of the
most consistent micro-trends on the electric guitar scene. Thousands of players have discovered the
sonic appeal of these components from B-list and catalog-grade guitars, but rarely is this pickup
adequately explained and, hence, fully understood.

As a result, the humble gold-foil has acquired a mystique. Meanwhile, a pair of originals are
now often worth more than the entry-level guitar they came with. Lusting after vintage pickups is
nothing new.

Guitarists have long paid a premium for pre-CBS single-coil Fender Stratocaster and
Telecaster pickups. Early 1950s Gibson P-90s have long been prized, and a good pair of original
PAFs from the late part of that decade might cost you as much as a low-mileage used car these days.

More recently, though, many players have discovered that a low-budget contemporary of
these hallowed components from the ’50s and ’60s can deliver about as much aural magic and
touchy-feely playability as any of the A-list coils. And thus the cult of the gold-foil has made its
place among us.
 Several different pickups from the late ’50s to late ’60s are generically referred to as gold-
foils, but here we’ll concentrate on one particular and popular type, while touching on a few others
to note their similarities and differences.

These pickups get their name from a foil-like piece of gold card that covers the plastic plate
above the coil and is visible through the cutouts in the metal cover.

Although this material looks similar to the foil that covers the blades of an electric shaver, in
most instances it isn’t really foil at all but an embossed paper stock of the type that might have been
used for holiday decorations or greeting cards from the era.

The perceived appearance results in the gold-foil descriptor, which today is used to describe
several different makes and models of pickups, including some that are similarly constructed but
otherwise different and may not even feature the decorative foil card.

Under the microscope this month are the pickups made by Rowe Industries for DeArmond.
These were used on many Harmony and Silvertone guitars from the late ’50s through the mid ’60s,
on which they were often billed as Golden Tone pickups.

They are generally seen with the gold-paper top beneath a partially cut-out chromed-metal
cover, often called an S cover for the wiggly piece that bisects the opening. However, some models
have silver-foil tops and covers with diamond cutouts, while others feature black tops and are often
referred to as blackjack pickups.

Regardless, all are constructed in the same fashion and sound the same, although
theoretically, like most vintage pickups, their tone can vary quite a bit, depending on how much
wire was wound onto the coil and the relative strength of the magnet.

In principle, these are extremely simple creations, but they also represent something of a
lucky accident, as they sound superb in many applications.

Construction of this type of Rowe/DeArmond gold-foil involves winding several turns of

thin, 44-AWG wire around a thick magnet of rubberized ferrite, a chunkier version of the type
found on those semi-flexible refrigerator magnets.
 These pickups have no real bobbin as such, just the wire wound around the magnet, plus
bottom and top plates made of thin plastic, a metal baseplate and the decorative card and cover
sitting above. Stack it all together and this gold-foil pickup is only about 1/8-inch tall, making it
well suited to surface mounting on a guitar’s top.

Many players who connect a multimeter to this type of gold-foil come away thinking it’s a
fairly hot pickup, thanks to its average DC resistance reading of roughly 9.5 to 12 k ohms. That
spec is somewhat misleading, however, since the use of thinner wire results in a higher resistance
reading relative to signal output.

Even so, these pickups drive an amp well for single-coils, pushing into edge-of-breakup
tones more readily than the average vintage-wound Strat or Tele pickup, while retaining a lot of
clarity and articulation.

There’s a certain undefinable magic in a good gold-foil that has led to the craze for these
things – a seemingly contradictory ability to be simultaneously clear and biting in the pick attack,
while also slightly soft and compressed; to deliver thick and creamy lows and mids, as well as clear
and expressive upper mids and highs that are never spiky.

Apply distortion, and a more gnarly, raw character shines through, with an admirable
retention of articulation. Just call it “personality” – gold-foils have a lot of it, which simply makes
them a delectable vintage tone generator by any standards.

When set up correctly, the department-store and catalog-grade guitars that carried these
pickups can be genuine tone monsters, thanks in large part to the gold-foils. Unfortunately, while
some Harmony and Silvertone guitars played better than others, these low-cost brands were the
downfall of the pickups’ reputations.

Yet, as Ry Cooder discovered several decades ago about his favored Teisco model, a good
Rowe/DeArmond gold-foil can sound sublime when mounted on a better-built guitar.

For the sound of gold-foils used with original vintage guitars, check out the playing of Tom
Brenneck with the Dap-Kings, or Dan Auerbach with the Black Keys, who cover the clean-to-mean
spectrum, respectively. Other breeds of gold-foil pickups differed somewhat, though most have a
little something in common with this architecture.

The coveted Hershey-bar pickups on late-’50s Harmony Stratotone guitars were very similar
but constructed beneath an enclosed metal cover, without any gold card showing. Rowe/DeArmond
also supplied a pickup that was similar, aside from a row of adjustable pole pieces running down the
center of the unit and a cover with four f-hole-like cutouts, commonly referred to as a moustache
cover.

These are great-sounding gold-foil pickups as well, and are wound with somewhat less wire
and have lower resistance readings as a result.

Japanese makers Teisco and Guyatone also made versions of gold-foils that players have
enjoyed over the years. The more popular renditions of these sport six adjustable pole pieces off to
the side of the main coil, which are in fact largely for show and tend to make the pickups look a
little like a mini-humbucker, although they are definitely single-coils.

The craze for gold-foils, and the scarcity and skyrocketing prices of good original vintage
examples, has led many contemporary replacement-pickup makers to offer reproductions of some
favorites. Other manufacturers have extrapolated from the format to produce modified renditions
and even humbucking gold-foils.

Curtis Novak, Jason Lollar, the Creamery and the U.K.’s Mojo Pickups are all good sources
for contemporary interpretations of various cult classics, while Lindy Fralin is a longtime maker of
the custom OEM gold-foils Joe Yanuziello uses in his guitars, as reviewed in our September 2020
issue’s “New and Cool” department.