By Mike Wohl

Spend any time looking at unique and boutique guitar builds from the 2010s and 2020s, and you are certain to notice the increasing prevalence of Gold Foil pickups of all sorts of different makes, shapes, and sizes. While once relegated to the pickup cavities of inexpensive 1950s and 60s “student” model guitars from companies like Teisco, Harmony, or Kay, the Gold Foil reconsidered has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years. This has led many pickup manufacturers to offer a modern take on this unique historical pickup. Big and small, single-coil or humbucking, and often bedecked with ornate Art Deco touches, these sometimes-perplexing pickups have characteristics entirely unique to the Gold Foil style, offering something at once different and familiar.

Gold Foil pickups have their origins in the 1950s, with some debate as to whether the DeArmond company or the Japanese brand Teisco came up with the design first. In either case, both manufacturers became well-known for their foil pickups featured on guitars bearing names like Silvertone, Harmony, Kay, or Guyatone.

Few guitar pickups garner responses as polarizing as Gold Foils. Players tend to love ‘em or hate ‘em, with far less middle ground. To detractors, they’re a fad — an outdated idea best left in the history books. Considering the quality of many vintage instruments that used Foils, along with the wild inconsistency of original examples, it’s easy to understand how someone might reach that conclusion. But looking a little deeper, we can see that modern foil-style pickups are versatile, exciting, and much better made than their predecessors.