Re: Pickup Terminology
PAF literally means "Patent Applied For" which was the sticker you found on the bottom of the original humbucker pickups, which were invented by Gibson in 1955, in particular by one of their engineers, Seth Lover. The humbucker first appeared on Gibson guitars in 1957 and have been with us ever since, though it's now hard to find a humbucker that captures that PAF tone.
Real PAF's varied quite a bit in both output and tone but there is a certain quality the vast majority have in common, a clear, articulate but at the same time full and sweet tone.
To my ear, a good PAF bridge pu has a certain "bark" to it in the mids that some might describe as "honk" but to me not quite. It's a slightly higher pitched than that, which is why I say "bark". Some overwound PAF's could be described as "honky" though.
The classic "honk" tone to me is Jimmy Page on most of the first Zep album, Communication Breakdown being an obvious exception. Dazed and Confused, How Many More Times, Good Times Bad Times all have classic Page honk to me.
As for how to describe "honk", it's just what the word implies. A strong midrange quality that's somewhere between a goose or car horn.
