E
Evh5150
New member
What vintage sounding PAF's are fairly accurate and not $800 each. I was considering Jason lollar pickups or seymour antiquity. Anyone own either.?
King Guitar
Banned
New member
Evh5150":276qf05e said:
Throback by Grundy. They are going in my R9 as I type this at Historic Makeovers.
H
Heritage Softail
New member
King Guitar":1nym981e said:
Are you going SLE, SLE PLUS, or DT?
The DT sounds interesting with the A2 neck and unoriented A5 bridge. Probably hard to go wrong with any of them. The efforts to make these perfect reproduction is over the top.
EyesOfTheSouth
New member
Check out Skatterbrane and Smits. I use both and they are both fairly priced IMO. My favorite set is the Skatterbrane Metalbrane (misleading name IMO). They clock in around 8k and sound perfect in my LP. I decided on these after trying 57 Classics, BKP Mules and a WCR Darkburst.
bonedarrell
Active member
I dig Sheptones for that vibe.
AmpliFIRE
Well-known member
Tim Shaw PAF's for sure.
King Guitar
Banned
New member
Heritage Softail":q40sbwdk said:
SLE Plus
glip22
Well-known member
$900-$1000 for Timbuckers now.
Features:
Pair of humbuckers by Tim White known as Timbuckers. 7.76 neck 8.34 Bridge uncovered.
Instrument:
0;I have a really nice Gibson Les Paul in which I have tried 3 sets of Tom Holmes 450 & 455 Rolph 59 PAF clones, Wolfetone MarshalhHeads, every type of current Gibson's (several of them as they do not sound the same) 59 long magnet PAF's 63 PAT#s 64 pat#s all trying to regain the great sound I had when I first started playing some 40 years ago. I had bought a 59 gibson 355 (which was only 7 years old then and not a great rarity) and a used Marshall original bluesbreaker amp. I have never achieved as great a sound since. I owned 3 other 59 335s over the years but they were nowhere near as good as my old 355. I learned that PAF's varied a lot and what was in my early teen rig would today cost me 40 to 50 k and I would have to be willing to go through maybe 20 to 30, 40 thousand dollar guitars to find one perhaps nearly as good. But you don't think things like that when your a kid you just figure people will do things better as time goes by. Today I have almost as much money tied up in pickups as guitars I think, because while the wood matters it never sounds great without really good pups. And that's where Tim White comes in, of ALL the pups I own none is better than the Tim White's as far as making music. It doesn't really sound like my old really great PAFS in my 59 355, but in its own way is almost as enjoyable to play. If I had to choose I think I would choose these pickups over any other I currently own. They are just great. The wolfetones I would say actually sound the most like my old PAFs but not as sweet or rich in harmonic overtones. My favorites are in this order Tim White, one of 6 Burstbucker 3's I own which just happens to sound incredibly good, the other 5 I found to be pretty bad overall, the Tom Holmes, then Wolfetones, real PAFs I think are so much of an expensive crap shoot unless your really rich, chances are the ones you might find are usually just not very good and definatley not even in the league of Tim White or Tom Holmes pickups, which are SO much more consistently good. Only a really few old PAFs had the magic I think we all look for, the ability to raise up your music to where you can raise the hair on your arms by the sheer beauty of the sound of the guitar. Early 60's PAT # make really nice neck pups, because they can deliver a really nice jazzy tone if you like that and will mix well with the aforemention pups in the bridge. These things are of course a matter of taste. People say I play pretty well and for 40 years of trying I would hope I had managed to achieve some measure of proficiency. I have messed around with modding guitars for 40 years now and I am trying to help people by writing all this. What I try to achieve is a great blues tone or perhaps classic rock. That is what my selections are oriented towards. The pups you use are really important. But you usually need to rewire new guitars, I like old bumblebees for caps and I always use Wonder Solder its amazing stuff in guitars. I have A B'ed guitars with the wiring done in traditional solder and Wonder Solder (2% silver) and the wonder solder takes a guitar from sounding ok to sounding really great. It pushes harmonics and emphasizes the mid range really well. Anyway thats what I've learned in 40 years of trying to regain what today would cost an awful lot of money. How close did I get, I'd say maybe 85% of the way there. I would say though that my current guitar sounds much better than all the other 59 gibsons I owned, just not like the one I started with which was superb. Also I would add guitar tone is only 60% of great tone AMPS are incredibly key and very very few of them have the old time magic and thats why an old bluesbreaker might run you 8-12k, but thats a whole other chapter and I am talking pups here. Tim White pups are an unbelievable value. If you get the chance buy em.
Features:
Pair of humbuckers by Tim White known as Timbuckers. 7.76 neck 8.34 Bridge uncovered.
Instrument:
0;I have a really nice Gibson Les Paul in which I have tried 3 sets of Tom Holmes 450 & 455 Rolph 59 PAF clones, Wolfetone MarshalhHeads, every type of current Gibson's (several of them as they do not sound the same) 59 long magnet PAF's 63 PAT#s 64 pat#s all trying to regain the great sound I had when I first started playing some 40 years ago. I had bought a 59 gibson 355 (which was only 7 years old then and not a great rarity) and a used Marshall original bluesbreaker amp. I have never achieved as great a sound since. I owned 3 other 59 335s over the years but they were nowhere near as good as my old 355. I learned that PAF's varied a lot and what was in my early teen rig would today cost me 40 to 50 k and I would have to be willing to go through maybe 20 to 30, 40 thousand dollar guitars to find one perhaps nearly as good. But you don't think things like that when your a kid you just figure people will do things better as time goes by. Today I have almost as much money tied up in pickups as guitars I think, because while the wood matters it never sounds great without really good pups. And that's where Tim White comes in, of ALL the pups I own none is better than the Tim White's as far as making music. It doesn't really sound like my old really great PAFS in my 59 355, but in its own way is almost as enjoyable to play. If I had to choose I think I would choose these pickups over any other I currently own. They are just great. The wolfetones I would say actually sound the most like my old PAFs but not as sweet or rich in harmonic overtones. My favorites are in this order Tim White, one of 6 Burstbucker 3's I own which just happens to sound incredibly good, the other 5 I found to be pretty bad overall, the Tom Holmes, then Wolfetones, real PAFs I think are so much of an expensive crap shoot unless your really rich, chances are the ones you might find are usually just not very good and definatley not even in the league of Tim White or Tom Holmes pickups, which are SO much more consistently good. Only a really few old PAFs had the magic I think we all look for, the ability to raise up your music to where you can raise the hair on your arms by the sheer beauty of the sound of the guitar. Early 60's PAT # make really nice neck pups, because they can deliver a really nice jazzy tone if you like that and will mix well with the aforemention pups in the bridge. These things are of course a matter of taste. People say I play pretty well and for 40 years of trying I would hope I had managed to achieve some measure of proficiency. I have messed around with modding guitars for 40 years now and I am trying to help people by writing all this. What I try to achieve is a great blues tone or perhaps classic rock. That is what my selections are oriented towards. The pups you use are really important. But you usually need to rewire new guitars, I like old bumblebees for caps and I always use Wonder Solder its amazing stuff in guitars. I have A B'ed guitars with the wiring done in traditional solder and Wonder Solder (2% silver) and the wonder solder takes a guitar from sounding ok to sounding really great. It pushes harmonics and emphasizes the mid range really well. Anyway thats what I've learned in 40 years of trying to regain what today would cost an awful lot of money. How close did I get, I'd say maybe 85% of the way there. I would say though that my current guitar sounds much better than all the other 59 gibsons I owned, just not like the one I started with which was superb. Also I would add guitar tone is only 60% of great tone AMPS are incredibly key and very very few of them have the old time magic and thats why an old bluesbreaker might run you 8-12k, but thats a whole other chapter and I am talking pups here. Tim White pups are an unbelievable value. If you get the chance buy em.
E
Evh5150
New member
Glip22, thank you for your input. All of you thank you. I got some valuable info out of this thread. I'll try to post pics of my vintage resto mod gibson when I'm finished. Glip22, I may be buggin ya later on a couple things you mentioned earlier!
Quickdraw
New member
Duncan- Joe Bonamassa's
AmpliFIRE
Well-known member
Timbuckers pop up for $400 used from time to time. There are MANY others in the same league though, but I would even pay that much.
Scumback Speakers
Well-known member
Just my 2 centavos...
PAF's like any other pickups, have good and bad ones. You need to hear them in your guitar to see if they're right. I've bought around 20 (10 sets) of them over the last 11 years. I kept two sets, and I have a PAF from a 61 SG and an early Patent # (63 vintage, built the same as a PAF but it has the patent # sticker on it) going into my last Les Paul replica in about 5 weeks.
I have bought or tested two sets of every PAF on the market up till about 5 years ago, including the Tim White "Timbuckers". The neck pickups were always great, the bridge pickups were always thin and anemic. I never have figured out what the big hype was about, and both of the owners of those pickups had done the 50's wiring/Bumble Bee cap/good 500k CTS audio taper pot upgrades to their guitars, too.
If you're looking for standard PAF output (under 8.5k bridge, 8k neck) you can get those from two companies that do a great job..WCR Guitar in their Crossroads set, and Motor City Pickups in their Black Belt #2 set (make sure to ask for them UNPOTTED). I have the Throbak SLE 101 LTD Plus pickups and they are quite a bit brighter than any PAF I own or have played.
Not sure if they're made anymore but the Voodoo 59 set made 9 years ago was very good, those are going back into a guitar I own very soon and the Throbaks are coming out.
I agree with others that say you'll need good paper in oil caps (BumbleBee, or Black Beauty Sprague caps), or some of the Russian PIO caps for the best tone, and the 50's wiring as well.
If you're looking for slightly hotter than vintage output, it's hard to beat the WCR American Steele set, which is the Crossroads neck and the higher output Godwood bridge (around 9.8k). WCR also makes great pots and caps with a custom CTS pot that is built tougher than the regular ones you can buy. The caps are very good and I've got those in some of my guitars as well, if I don't have Bumble Bees or Black Beauties in them.
Anyone in LA is welcome to come by the demo room to try these pickups out in my guitars if you'd like to make an appointment.
Hope this helps!
Jim
PAF's like any other pickups, have good and bad ones. You need to hear them in your guitar to see if they're right. I've bought around 20 (10 sets) of them over the last 11 years. I kept two sets, and I have a PAF from a 61 SG and an early Patent # (63 vintage, built the same as a PAF but it has the patent # sticker on it) going into my last Les Paul replica in about 5 weeks.
I have bought or tested two sets of every PAF on the market up till about 5 years ago, including the Tim White "Timbuckers". The neck pickups were always great, the bridge pickups were always thin and anemic. I never have figured out what the big hype was about, and both of the owners of those pickups had done the 50's wiring/Bumble Bee cap/good 500k CTS audio taper pot upgrades to their guitars, too.
If you're looking for standard PAF output (under 8.5k bridge, 8k neck) you can get those from two companies that do a great job..WCR Guitar in their Crossroads set, and Motor City Pickups in their Black Belt #2 set (make sure to ask for them UNPOTTED). I have the Throbak SLE 101 LTD Plus pickups and they are quite a bit brighter than any PAF I own or have played.
Not sure if they're made anymore but the Voodoo 59 set made 9 years ago was very good, those are going back into a guitar I own very soon and the Throbaks are coming out.
I agree with others that say you'll need good paper in oil caps (BumbleBee, or Black Beauty Sprague caps), or some of the Russian PIO caps for the best tone, and the 50's wiring as well.
If you're looking for slightly hotter than vintage output, it's hard to beat the WCR American Steele set, which is the Crossroads neck and the higher output Godwood bridge (around 9.8k). WCR also makes great pots and caps with a custom CTS pot that is built tougher than the regular ones you can buy. The caps are very good and I've got those in some of my guitars as well, if I don't have Bumble Bees or Black Beauties in them.
Anyone in LA is welcome to come by the demo room to try these pickups out in my guitars if you'd like to make an appointment.
Hope this helps!
Jim
H
Heritage Softail
New member
This is an awesome thread.
I have a 2012 Fireburst AAA top LP I picked up last year. It plays great. Just needs pups and pots, wire, solder upgrades mentioned here.
I have a 2012 Fireburst AAA top LP I picked up last year. It plays great. Just needs pups and pots, wire, solder upgrades mentioned here.
Ventura
Well-known member
+1bonedarrell":2ce5p9ru said:
BKP Mules are also my go-to recommendation.
fuzzyguitars
Active member
Don't forget wcr dark burst set.
Wolfetones marshallheads
And manlius has a buch of great pickups that won't break the bank
Wolfetones marshallheads
And manlius has a buch of great pickups that won't break the bank
B
Brad737
New member
I have a set of Wolfetones in a Les Paul that are cool...a Marshallhead in the bridge and a Dr. Vintage in the neck. Great pickups. The bridge gets that Van Halen/ ZZ Top "sizzle", and the neck gets that Cream/Slash tone. Not too expensive either.
metalmaniac93
Well-known member
I have some older Fralin's (AIVs)in my Heritage 150CM that are great.
fek
Well-known member
This thread is reminding me that I need to yank the circuit board in my Trad Pro and upgrade with something else soldered direct. It sounds great now but I would imagine it could only get better. It's a sickness.
ericsabbath
Active member
"old" thread...
bkp mules are the best pickups I ever played
bkp mules are the best pickups I ever played