What do I have here? (PAF-type identification)

[GilmourD]

First, let me start by saying: HELLO, STRANGERS! :wave:

So, I don't have pics at this very moment but I'll take some with all the details when I get home.

That said, I just acquired a set of PAF-style humbuckers and I'm curious what I've got. They're nickel covered, have "PATENT APPLIED FOR" stickers on the bottom, and measure 8.5K and 8.8K, and seem to be wax potted.

I would have assumed that they were a Burstbucker 2 and 3 set if it weren't for the fact that the guy I got them from said the shop installed them in his Les Paul Studio around 1990 and he didn't remember what they were.

I haven't popped the covers off to see what magnet is in there (which, IIRC, there should be some sort of marking or color indication on the side, right), but... Any guesses?

 

[GilmourD]

Just realized that the guy that I got them from posted pics of the pickups, so I don't have to actually take my own. LOL

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EDIT: Not sure why the forum software doesn't seem to like me uploading these images and displaying them at full size, so I tossed them on Imgur.

 

[beaubrummels]

Two '57 Classic Pluses?

 

[Mincer]

Whatever they are, they look pretty cool, anyway.

 

[GilmourD]

Two '57 Classic Pluses?

Any specific identifying marks I could look for to help me tell?

 

[hamerfan]

Thats a tough call. All P.A.F labels are more or less wrong. Wrong Material, wrong surrounding, wrong script type, wrong elevetion of the letters, wrong spacing of the letters. Its an art to recognize them, but i think the wrong spacing of the words look like Gibson reissue. So i support Gibson 57 Classic Plus.

 

[GilmourD]

Thats a tough call. All P.A.F labels are more or less wrong. Wrong Material, wrong surrounding, wrong script type, wrong elevetion of the letters, wrong spacing of the letters. Its an art to recognize them, but i think the wrong spacing of the words look like Gibson reissue. So i support Gibson 57 Classic Plus.

And nothing different/weird that they did at any point to very clearly and purposefully differentiate them from a real PAF but identify them as a particular model? It would be nice if they stamped a number into them or notched something somewhere.

I'm at work, now, but I can always take more pictures later when I get home. I could even pop the cover on one in case there's something telling under there. Might even just be nice to know if they're the expected AlNiCo II bars or something different.

The funny thing is that when I asked the guy his response was "The guitar was used when I got it, I had a shop replace the pickups with these maybe around 1990. But I knew very little about any of this at the time, just did what they suggested. So, they could be the cheapest leftover things they had lying around, or they could be original 1950s PAFs for all I know." I know they're not actually real PAFs, but I'm curious if they are or aren't actually even Gibsons.

 

[beaubrummels]

Any specific identifying marks I could look for to help me tell?

Original pre-1961 PAFs had all the letters of PATENT APPLIED FOR evenly spaced using a Geometric-like font. DCR varied pretty widely.

'57 Classic reissues had a different font (more Helvetica-like), and the FOR had no spacing between the letters, like yours. The regular Classic was around 7.6, the Classic Plus was around 8.5k, +/-0.3k.

The '57 Classics were popular at the time; most all Gibson LP vintage reissue models came with those; there weren't as many alternatives for PAFs back then. A pre-1990 LP Studio I believe would have come with 498T/490R, so Classics would have been a vintage-like crossgrade at the time. Classic Pluses would have kept it hotter to play a wider variety of 90s music.

 

[GilmourD]

Original pre-1961 PAFs had all the letters of PATENT APPLIED FOR evenly spaced using a Geometric-like font. DCR varied pretty widely.

'57 Classic reissues had a different font (more Helvetica-like), and the FOR had no spacing between the letters, like yours. The regular Classic was around 7.6, the Classic Plus was around 8.5k, +/-0.3k.

The '57 Classics were popular at the time; most all Gibson LP vintage reissue models came with those; there weren't as many alternatives for PAFs back then. A pre-1990 LP Studio I believe would have come with 498T/490R, so Classics would have been a vintage-like crossgrade at the time. Classic Pluses would have kept it hotter to play a wider variety of 90s music.

OK, so looking at my now re-posted-from-Imgur pictures, I see what you mean about the "FOR" part of the sticker. Given that and the DCR then '57 Classic+ makes sense.

Definitely interesting considering how it wasn't long before that Gibson was ink-stamping pickups with a model/date code as well as stamping the patent number into the baseplate.

Thanks for the info!

 

[hamerfan]

The Gibson ink stamps were roughly from 1976 to 1984, the 57 Classics with the PAF labels started around 1990.