I was wondering what brand makes the closest to a real paf. I'm looking for a smaller magnet paf type pickup thats wound somewhere around 8-9. Or if anyone knows of a good custom shop that could replicate a paf.
I was wondering what brand makes the closest to a real paf. I'm looking for a smaller magnet paf type pickup thats wound somewhere around 8-9. Or if anyone knows of a good custom shop that could replicate a paf.
which P.A.F?????
i am serious they all sounded different!
for a 1959 version the duncan is grteat cause it uses a alnico 5 like the original did in 59-60
for a 57' go with a seth or a holmes 455
Antiquities and Seths sound great to me. I'm kinda curious about all these Rolphs, Voodoos, Timbuckers, WCRs etc, but I don't have sufficient time, money, guitars or talent to follow it up. I had a set of Gibson '57 Classics for a while, and they sounded more "modern" to my ears - great rock tone, but a little hard and flat for cleaner bluesy stuff.
I've played a number of real PAF's and they certainly do vary. Some are rich and warm sounding, and some are bright and lifeless to my ears (most of these later ones I found in 1961 Les Paul/SGs). For the most part, I'ld still say that the Seths/Ants are by far the closest to the richer sounding ones, with the Seth having a tad more "brightness" to it, and the '59 a dead ringer for the post-'59 PAFs that had A-5 magnets in them and are therefore more bright sounding.
i just last week had the opportunity to put a meter to a handful of paf's
all were between 7k and 8k, except one was 8.58k.
earlier pafs are generally considered to have alnico II
later have alnico V
the wagner crossroads, rolfs, voodoos are all cool but i love the antiquitys for a warm paf tone.
Check the book "Beauty of the Burst". The author goes into minute detail about PAF construction and changes. I think that by 1961, they were using the smaller magnet, and probably the A-5 by the next year. However, I'm sure you can find A-5's in some earlier PAFs, as well as A-3's, etc...
We had a discussion of this a few months back when we were trying to get info on the pups in Clapton's SG (Cream era).