cooltouch
New member
Howdy folks, I'm new here and this is my first post to the forums.
I have a custom guitar that I had SD humbuckers installed into back in about 1981. All I remember about them is they were called "PAFs". They're zebra pickups, normal pole spacing for Gibsons. This has been a fantastic set of pickups for the past three decades. They're every bit as good now as the were the day I bought them. The guitar they went into is a solid body made from rock maple, so it naturally has a bright sound. But the PAFs have such a strong, meaty quality to them that they're able to fill the guitar's sound out so well that it sounds as good as any Les Paul or SG you want to name.
I build guitars nowadays -- so far acoustics only, but I'd like to try my hand at a solid-body electric very soon. And I would like to put the same pickups in this guitar as these ones I have currently. I'm wondering -- I see listings for SH-1b and n pickups as "59 Vintage PAFs" -- are these pups the same as mine? Are there identifying markings anywhere on mine that'll identify them? I'm thinking I probably won't have an answer to that question until the next time I change strings, in case they need to be partially extracted to find the information.
Also! Heh, not done yet. Back around the same time, I had the tech who installed the Duncans in my custom guitar build me a Strat copy. I decided on SD "Hot Stacks" for the pickups, and it was a great choice. The guitar sounded like a Super Strat! The guitar was red and one of the cool things about the Hot Stacks back then was they were available in red. Not anymore, though it seems. But that's beside the point. What I'd like to know is, are today's Hot Stacks the same as the ones SD made back in the early 80s? As I dimly recall, they look different. The single metal rail was thinner back then, or so I thought. Anyway, what I liked about the Hot Stacks so much back then was they gave my strat a very full sound, yet it was all Strat. You know how sometimes a Strat can sound kind of thin if the amp is set for a clean sound, more or less? That was never an issue with that guitar. Even when the amp was set totally clean, that Strat had the fullest, Stratest sound.
I own a '96 American Standard Strat. It is a great guitar, but I can't get those old Hot Stacks out of my head and I'm thinking about swapping out the stock pups for a set of Hot Stacks, provided they're the same pups as SD was making in the early 80s.
So if you're up on the history of SD's products and if you can offer any further information on my situation, I'd sure like hearing from you. Thanks in advance.
I have a custom guitar that I had SD humbuckers installed into back in about 1981. All I remember about them is they were called "PAFs". They're zebra pickups, normal pole spacing for Gibsons. This has been a fantastic set of pickups for the past three decades. They're every bit as good now as the were the day I bought them. The guitar they went into is a solid body made from rock maple, so it naturally has a bright sound. But the PAFs have such a strong, meaty quality to them that they're able to fill the guitar's sound out so well that it sounds as good as any Les Paul or SG you want to name.
I build guitars nowadays -- so far acoustics only, but I'd like to try my hand at a solid-body electric very soon. And I would like to put the same pickups in this guitar as these ones I have currently. I'm wondering -- I see listings for SH-1b and n pickups as "59 Vintage PAFs" -- are these pups the same as mine? Are there identifying markings anywhere on mine that'll identify them? I'm thinking I probably won't have an answer to that question until the next time I change strings, in case they need to be partially extracted to find the information.
Also! Heh, not done yet. Back around the same time, I had the tech who installed the Duncans in my custom guitar build me a Strat copy. I decided on SD "Hot Stacks" for the pickups, and it was a great choice. The guitar sounded like a Super Strat! The guitar was red and one of the cool things about the Hot Stacks back then was they were available in red. Not anymore, though it seems. But that's beside the point. What I'd like to know is, are today's Hot Stacks the same as the ones SD made back in the early 80s? As I dimly recall, they look different. The single metal rail was thinner back then, or so I thought. Anyway, what I liked about the Hot Stacks so much back then was they gave my strat a very full sound, yet it was all Strat. You know how sometimes a Strat can sound kind of thin if the amp is set for a clean sound, more or less? That was never an issue with that guitar. Even when the amp was set totally clean, that Strat had the fullest, Stratest sound.
I own a '96 American Standard Strat. It is a great guitar, but I can't get those old Hot Stacks out of my head and I'm thinking about swapping out the stock pups for a set of Hot Stacks, provided they're the same pups as SD was making in the early 80s.
So if you're up on the history of SD's products and if you can offer any further information on my situation, I'd sure like hearing from you. Thanks in advance.
