Peoples PAF Journey - Experiences

camerondavidsonmusic

I swapped out a SD-JD in a les paul for a Bare knuckle Black dog, which was a hot PAF. It sounded good, but it was so hot and drove the amp so hard, I eventually took it back out. Would love a set of Shaws but in the end, put in the 490-498T set you find in a Les Paul Custom. I know people moan about them, but I really cannot find fault...

normula1

I saw a pair of Throbacks somewhere recently at £600... I totally appreciate the skill that's involved in hand making pickups and Ash's rebuilds show a real dedication to the art, but £600... really?

TTBZ

camerondavidsonmusic said:

I swapped out a SD-JD in a les paul for a Bare knuckle Black dog, which was a hot PAF. It sounded good, but it was so hot and drove the amp so hard, I eventually took it back out. Would love a set of Shaws but in the end, put in the 490-498T set you find in a Les Paul Custom. I know people moan about them, but I really cannot find fault...

The 490R/498T are great rock and metal pickups imo, they balance really nicely in an SG. If anyone has some they want to get rid of let me know I found the BK Black Dogs better in my Les Paul though, the Gibson ones sounded a bit muddy and dull in comparison.

designerseye88

I've been through alot of PAF pickups from lots of winders. At the end of the day thier is no specific 'PAF' sound, All modern boutique options are just a slightly different flavour. Rather like original PAF's they all sound a bit different (And I've played some good PAF's and bad ones!). I personally really like the old Japanese DryZ's and found them more harmonically richer than the Wizz's and Throbaks but it's also worth noting that the amp contributes alot to the classic PAF sound we hear on those old records. 
I do enjoy chasing the tone but at the end of the day there are so many other things to consider when trying to get the right PAF tone (Magnet types, amp, pedals, guitar).
I've currently settled on a 50's special with original p90's which gives me a lovely tone. sometimes the hardest part is knowing when to stop chasing!.....

Winny_Pooh

normula1 said:

I saw a pair of Throbacks somewhere recently at £600... I totally appreciate the skill that's involved in hand making pickups and Ash's rebuilds show a real dedication to the art, but £600... really?

I never would, but if you are a guitarist that spends over £3-4k on a LP or replica then it's not that much for the biggest influencer on tone besides the guitar itself. 

Dominic

I've tried most;
liked OX4 and Seth Lovers the least...................thin,weedy and very bright
Wizz .....probably the most articulate
Lollar Imperials ..............sweetest and most harmonic
but overall ,I realise I don't particularly like the lower wound PAF sound..........I like a hotter,warmer pickup
Maybe if I was playing at huge volume in a big hall with a band the true PAF types would cut through better and not sound so bright

dts67

Ok, tried a lot of PAF types over the years but learnt that playing a guitar acoustically first is critical. If the wood isn’t good then pickups will not help. Anyway, here is what I’ve found sorted by guitar - feel free to agree or disagree;

Collins CL;
Lollar Low Wind -  found them a little lifeless, tried two sets in two CL’s
OX4 Beano’s - great PAF but not in this guitar, put them in an Eastman 335 and they were awesome. 
Lollar Standard wind PAF - best PAF tone in this guitar, more harmonics and more sensitive than the low winds (current)
Wolftone Marshalheads - a great hotrod’d PAF. Brighter and tighter. 

PRS SC Artist
Sheptone Vintage - a bit ‘vanilla’ but worked well live, used for some years. 
Haussell 59 - awesome fat mids, smooth top, warm bass, wish I’d kept them.
OX4 Hot Duane - great hot PAF but lacked mids in this guitar, worked really well in my Knaggs Kenai
Bulldog FAT PAF - warm, fat, articulate, amazing value
Current - BK Pain killers

Knaggs Kenai T2
Seth Lovers - nice but a bit vanilla
OX4 Hi Wind A5/A3 - awesome, bright, tight, warm

Mojo PAF’s - best vintage style PAF to date. Warm yet bright, articulate etc. 

Various Les Pauls:
Shed PAF’s - Gold dust, if you find them keep them or better- sell them to me.
Amber crosspoint - great quality but not as exciting as others
Wolftone Dr Vintage - great PAF’s but lost out the the Shed’s
BK Mules - warm and mushy, lacking top end but consistent

Best vintage PAF (to my ears at least) Shed, Haussel, Mojo, OX4 - but the guitar matters. 

Top tips - play with the magnets, degaussed A5 bridge with A3 neck are my favourite. Gibson BB1/2 come alive with decent A5 magnets in place of the A2’s. Honourable mention to Tonerider for consistency, quality and outright value. 

thegummy

Cranky said:

I don't even know what PAF stands for

It stands for "patent applied for" which was written on old Gibson humbuckers in the 50s.

But really the term is used these days to generally mean vintage (low output) humbuckers, similar to those in the old Les Pauls.

I don't know if there are many people who pay for boutique pickups with the goal of getting closer to any specific historical pickup, mostly it's just to get a good pickup in its own right.

Whether the difference between mass produced and hand wound pickups is big enough to pay more for or if doing so is foolish really just depends on what that difference is to each person and how much money the person has.

If Jeff Bezos paid double the price for a guitar that was half a pound lighter, it wouldn't be foolish cause the money wouldn't even be noticeable to him.

If someone who can barely feed his family bought a brand new fender over a used Squier, that could be foolish.

hotpickups

meltedbuzzbox said:

Man there is some magnificent bollocks on this thread. Superb!

I’m with you mate lol

SteveF

I had a set of OX4s in a Tokai 335 that I had briefly.  The pickups sounded great but the guitar itself wasn't for me so I moved it on. 

I don't like the pickups in my Les Paul Std, so I have ordered a set of Monty's PAFs as I liked the other "PAF-type" pickups I have had.  I don't care how authentic they are particularly, as long as they sound good.  These have a good reputation and I am keen to support small British businesses where possible in the current climate so I went for it.   With his current 20% off code, it was a reasonable discount too.  

March

I've had a few sets, not really chasing the PAF sound, just chasing a nice low output tone. One thing I had been able to do is compare a few PAF style pickup loaded guitars with a proper old LP with actual PAF's in it. That day the R9 I have with OX4's wound to my requested spec won, they sounded remarkably close to the real PAF's. Second was a set of Wizz pickups in my friends Collings. Bulldog's Hot PAF's were also close, with a bit more output than the others. Overall we had around 9/10 guitars with PAF style pickups including Mojo, Montys, PRS 58/15, Custombuckers, Wolftones...

I've also owned a set of Throbak's that never did it for me, a decent sounding pickup but given that the materials and techniques are similar to many other winders, how much are you paying for marketing hype?

I currently have a set of Cream T BFG Bangers in the LP that formerly had the OX4's in, just to test. So far I like them. Not as smoky as the OX4's, a little brighter and more 3D sounding. I also have a set of Monty's in my recently acquired Eggle that I will be honest, I am currently on the fence about. 

But agree with quite a few others here, PAF is really a general term as the Gibson recipe was so prone to change, it's about whether you like what you hear and how they make you feel/play. Lots of hype though, that's just the nature of marketing. 

Musicwolf

I've been looking at a new pair of humbuckers, and leaning towards some sort of PAF-alike, for a while now to put on my Patrick Eggle berlin Pro.  The stock Kent Armstrong's just weren't doing it for me but I wasn't sure whether a new set of pickups would be sufficient to bring this guitar back to the fore and I was reluctant to invest if it was just going to end up back in the rack.

Last week I spotted that @jaymenon was selling a pair of Burstbuckers so I took the plunge.  These hadn't featured on my list of options, the bridge spacing was too narrow (although the same as the Armstrong's) and they had shiny chrome covers where I would have preferred aged nickle, but the price was significantly lower than the Bareknuckle's that I'd been eying up.  The pickups arrived at lunch time and within 45 minutes they were in (I'll tidy up the wiring at a later date).  They have absolutely brought the guitar back to life.  Now I just need some gigs.

andy1839

I've just put a set of Cream T Scan 1 into an R8 this morning.

https://www.creamtpickupsdirect.com/

I'd only ever seen them in some new Eggle guitars.

They're very nice sounding pickups. I prefer them to the Burstbuckers and even the Mules in my other two LPs, definitely have a lovely tone to them. Clean or with gain they're really impressive. 

Moleman

I’ve had: DiMarzio PAF’s (original 1970’s), Fralin 9k-8k set, Lollar Imperials, Manlius Fat Dianes and RD Pickups (now Deacci) P2’s plus another Deacci custom set. They all have something different about them and it varies from guitar to guitar but I would have to say that my favourites are the Fralins and Deaccis - just more complex sounding somehow.

smfacer

Went from the stock Burst buckers in my 2008 R7 to a set of Monty's PAFs, sounds like a blanket had been lifted off the amp with the Monty's, I updated the wiring to 50's spec from the stock modern wiring as well which may had contributed to the increased clarity.

It sounds damn good to me and is enough for me to end my PAF journey.