"Hot rodded" PAF recommendations

Kyrpajyra

Kyrpajyra

Banned
Well-known member
Like the title says, I'm looking for a new Bridge PU for my Superstrat and I'm going for a Hot Rodded PAF. Currently Consider the following:

-BKP Black Dawg
-WCR Gawdwood
-Friedman Classic Plus
-Wolfetone Marshallhead

Any other similar PAF-style buckers that I should check out?
 
For a bolt-neck superstrat with the usual woods? BKP VHII would get my vote. If you want really hot but not fuzzy undefined sludge slamming the front of your amp, the RYs are amazingly versatile hot pups for all fiddles. But with bolt-neck and common Strat woods, the VHII oughta smack it outta the park.

Good luck!!
 
For hot rodded PAF’s those selected have quite a variation between them. Some are potted other aren’t.

I’ve been using a WCR Goodwood bridge, Crossroads neck set for around 8 years and they’re fantastic. I have Wolfetone Legends and Dr Vintage sets so Wolfe won’t go far wrong although you’ll want to check on potting to avoid potential squeals if playing high gain.

The Friedman Classic + has the lowest output of them all at 8.2. DC rating isn’t everything but it does give a general ballpark, where the WCR and Wolfetone are closer to 10. The Blackdog is 9.4.

Don’t forget Suhr pickups.
 
I’ll definitely follow this thread as I’m considering pickups for the two LP’s I’ve got coming in.

I’m a HUGE fan of the Dimarzio PAF Pros that came in all the 90’s JEMs before the Evolutions, I’m actually going to take the Evolutions out of my JEM and put PAF Pros in, much warmer and a bigger bottom end.

Not sure how many of these are PAF-flavored, outside of the PAF Pro, but this is a pretty good demo Micheal Nielsen did-


The Wolftone’s were recommended to me by someone on another forum to drop into the LP’s, I’ve never even heard of them until 2 days ago.
 
Kyrpajyra said:
Like the title says, I'm looking for a new Bridge PU for my Superstrat and I'm going for a Hot Rodded PAF. Currently Consider the following:

-BKP Black Dawg
-WCR Gawdwood
-Friedman Classic Plus
-Wolfetone Marshallhead

Any other similar PAF-style buckers that I should check out?
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I only have experience with their single coils but they sound MASSIVE, so I've been wanting a set from: Planet Tone pickups.

I really dig the BK Silos in one of my guitars. The Pegasus/Sentient was a fun combo but the bridge was a tad too dark for me. Looks like you have some good options already but Planet Tone makes killer stuff. Good luck!
 
Kyrpajyra said:
Like the title says, I'm looking for a new Bridge PU for my Superstrat and I'm going for a Hot Rodded PAF. Currently Consider the following:

-BKP Black Dawg
-WCR Gawdwood
-Friedman Classic Plus
-Wolfetone Marshallhead

Any other similar PAF-style buckers that I should check out?
Click to expand...
Hey man! Some questions for you...

What are the body and neck woods?

Can you describe the uplugged tone of the guitar and what you are trying to achieve with a pickup upgrade?

What amp and setup do you play through?
 
crankster said:
Hey man! Some questions for you...

What are the body and neck woods?

Can you describe the uplugged tone of the guitar and what you are trying to achieve with a pickup upgrade?

What amp and setup do you play through?
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Body's alder and neck is maple.

The unplugged tone has nice amounts of low end with a emphasized midrange thanks to alder and Brass toneblock.

Playing thru a hot rodded marshall type of amp with Greenbacks as speakers. I think the current pickups don't produce enough low end and are kinda ice picky as they're low output PAF clones.
 
If you haven't tried one yet, the Duncan Custom is essentially an overwound PAF without being too hot. It's a great middle of the road pickup. If you want something even hotter, there's the Custom 5. I use both in two different set ups. For high gain stuff the Custom 5 has been my favorite for a while now. It provides a lot of clarity when other pickups get too smeared for my liking.
 
WCR & Wolfetone imo are the 2 best of what you listed. BKP’s imho sound inherently too sterile & 2D and it’s more apparent with their lower output models like that. I personally like the Darkburst more than the Godwood. More pleasing mids and overall voicing to me. The Tone Specific Bloombucker or Virtuoso sets smoke all of these, but are a lot more expensive. The virtuoso would be a more likely choice for alder (I usually prefer the Bloombucker in mahogany guitars)

It also depends on if you really actually want an authentic paf vibe or not. Fwiw, the Wolfetone Marshallhead is the only one of those listed that sounds at all like a real PAF IME, but still different. The Bloombucker is very close. I compared it with 6 real PAF’s in the same guitar. Real PAF’s are not the tightest pickups and are very midrangey (in a beautiful way imo). They’re incredible, but I’m not sure if it would be many guy’s cup of tea on here or not. The WCR’s, BKP’s, & MCP’s lower output pickups are a lot tighter and just quite different voiced than PAF’s. I think a lot of guys because of this misunderstand what a paf voicing really is
 
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LP Freak said:
Wolfetones are great
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Love my Wolfetone Timbre Wolf bridge and Marshallhead neck in my LP R0. Actually just ordered 3rd Power Magfrag Riot Studio and Praxis... love the idea and thought.... we shall see if they dethrone the Wolfetones.
 
Kyrpajyra said:
Body's alder and neck is maple.

The unplugged tone has nice amounts of low end with a emphasized midrange thanks to alder and Brass toneblock.

Playing thru a hot rodded marshall type of amp with Greenbacks as speakers. I think the current pickups don't produce enough low end and are kinda ice picky as they're low output PAF clones.
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Definitely VHII 🤘
 
Where do you even start nowadays with all the options there are out there... duncan sh5 ceramic is simple and might be just what you are after. Aldrich does that thing well too. I like a jb with A2 magnet in it but maybe the paf sound is an A5 magnet.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Where do you even start nowadays with all the options there are out there... duncan sh5 ceramic is simple and might be just what you are after. Aldrich does that thing well too. I like a jb with A2 magnet in it but maybe the paf sound is an A5 magnet.
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Those pickups are not in the paf-ballpark sound or feel wise. From what I understand, with PAF’s, they just used just what they had, so it was kind of random whether it was A2, 3, 4 or 5 (someone correct me if I’m wrong here). Either way, the 6 real ‘50’s PAF’s I’ve gotten to borrow to compare in a few of my own guitars all sounded overall very similar to each other (still had a clear favorite, 2nd best, etc). Many current “paf” type pickups use A5’s in the bridge I think just because they prefer it, but the ones that get talked about on RT don’t sound or feel much at all to me like actual PAF’s, so I think many guys aren’t always getting it right when they think they want a “paf or hotrodded paf type” pickup, I think they often really just want something kinda like their hotter pickups, but lower output and/or DC with just a hint of vintage flavor, which is more what you’ll hear in the BKP, MCP or Wagner models
 
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Ventura said:
For a bolt-neck superstrat with the usual woods? BKP VHII would get my vote. If you want really hot but not fuzzy undefined sludge slamming the front of your amp, the RYs are amazingly versatile hot pups for all fiddles. But with bolt-neck and common Strat woods, the VHII oughta smack it outta the park.

Good luck!!
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Ventura said:
Definitely VHII 🤘
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According to the clips and description of VHII I think it might be a bit spiky and strident for my taste.
 
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