Which PAF replicas?

clarkefan

Chalky said:

I like Gibson Classic 57s. I have them in guitars as diverse as Gibson's Les Paul, 3x 335s, 446, 175, as well as transplants into a Tele neck position, Chibson, etc.  Can't really believe they are all the same pickups.

A great point  Pickups are just one element of a complete system.

jaymenon

I wonder - Are most PAF type pickups wax potted?

OilCityPickups

jaymenon said:

I wonder - Are most PAF type pickups wax potted?

No original PAFs were wax potted in the factory. 

jaymenon

And the pickup covers were installed without wax too? 

mixolyd

I thought for a second someone had started another one of these threads.  Phew, stroke averted! 

OilCityPickups

jaymenon said:

And the pickup covers were installed without wax too? 

Yep ... potting really wasn't much of a 'thing' till the sixties/seventies really.

jumping@shadows

I’ve had scores of ‘50s and ‘60s PAFs and early PAT No’s, and handle them on a daily basis and I’ve settled on Wizz PAFs as they consistently sound like excellent vintage PAFs and I know I can rely them every time.

Kittyfrisk

designerseye88 said:

So I have nailed it down to 3

1. Mojo PAF's
2. Monty's PAF's
3. OX4 PAF's

Any advice on which now you think would be best for as close to an original 59 PAF? 

Have our materials & winders skills not improved in 60 years? Or our abilities to exactly replicate things (it really isn't that hard).
Or are we condemned to an eternal rabbit hole 'grail' chase for something that wasn't appreciated at the time?

jaymenon

designerseye88 said:

So I have nailed it down to 3

1. Mojo PAF's
2. Monty's PAF's
3. OX4 PAF's

Any advice on which now you think would be best for as close to an original 59 PAF? 

Don't forget Oil City:

Forces Sweetheart Alnico IV
Blitz Spirit Alnico II

Lovely, lovely pickups...

grappagreen

jimmyguitar said:

Wizz for the prize! Mojo's a close 2nd
http://www.wizz-pickups.net

^^^ This!

Freebird

I love these threads, although I still can't get around to replacing my Bill Lawrence Circuit Board pickups, as they sound so good alongside my Tele. I think I need another Les Paul (or two!) as I would like to do the vintage thing, but the BL pups have something I wouldn't want to lose.

kossofffan

Monty's PAF's work great for me in the LP trad. 
Always puts a smile on my face playing along to Fire & Water off the Free Live LP.

.

Dominic

jimmyguitar said:

Wizz for the prize! Mojo's a close 2nd
http://www.wizz-pickups.net

I've got loads of Pafs........Lollar, Seth Lover,Montys, Throwback and OX4 (which I didn't like )
 The Wizz are the choice for me .......certainly the nicest to listen to.....new discovery and I am astonished ; they're great.

designerseye88

Just realised this was my post from a while back. I did get a set of Mojo's in the end, really liked them, but eventually were sold in a guitar. 

The next set I ended up buying were a pair of DryZ's. Not cheap and pretty rare and were only made for two years over in Japan. I've played a few 50's guitars and owned a couple with p90's. Right now I feel these are closest I've heard to my 50's Les Paul Special that I recently sold, so IMO these DryZ's are close as I've got, surprisingly they are potted but have a clarity I've not had before and give that nice hollow tone and that lovely harmonic bight with some gain.

that being said in hindsight of me writing this post I've come to realise that no set of PAFs is identical and in the end you're best like I've done in finding a set you like and stick with them, there's plenty of great modern pickups out there but it's also easy to get obsessed with finding that perfect sound. In the end you just gotta get out there and play.

Danielsguitars

you can forget mojo now marcs not selling them any more unless they're trade, they're still going in my guitars, they're bloody fantastic pafs, they suit my builds perfectly and the best looking too

corona55

I have The Creamery's 59 PAF's in my Les Paul and they sound great! Bridge has an A2 and Neck A4.

markj

jaymenon said:

designerseye88 said:

So I have nailed it down to 3

1. Mojo PAF's
2. Monty's PAF's
3. OX4 PAF's

Any advice on which now you think would be best for as close to an original 59 PAF? 

Don't forget Oil City:

Forces Sweetheart Alnico IV
Blitz Spirit Alnico II

Lovely, lovely pickups...

Oil city master wounds are superb, I’ve got a set in my 335 and another set in my trad Les Paul. I had a set of OX4’s in Les Paul before just didn’t like them, couldn’t get them out of the guitar fast enough.

zepp76

markj said:

jaymenon said:

designerseye88 said:

So I have nailed it down to 3

1. Mojo PAF's
2. Monty's PAF's
3. OX4 PAF's

Any advice on which now you think would be best for as close to an original 59 PAF? 

Don't forget Oil City:

Forces Sweetheart Alnico IV
Blitz Spirit Alnico II

Lovely, lovely pickups...

Oil city master wounds are superb, I’ve got a set in my 335 and another set in my trad Les Paul. I had a set of OX4’s in Les Paul before just didn’t like them, couldn’t get them out of the guitar fast enough.

I have OX4's in my '04 Standard and think they're great, I haven't thought about other pickups since installing them. The slight brightness of them works well with the bass of my JTM45. I have some Monty's mini humbuckers to fit in my gold top that are supposed to be quite PAF like, I really must get round to installing them.

jumping@shadows

designerseye88 said:

Just realised this was my post from a while back. I did get a set of Mojo's in the end, really liked them, but eventually were sold in a guitar. 

The next set I ended up buying were a pair of DryZ's. Not cheap and pretty rare and were only made for two years over in Japan. I've played a few 50's guitars and owned a couple with p90's. Right now I feel these are closest I've heard to my 50's Les Paul Special that I recently sold, so IMO these DryZ's are close as I've got, surprisingly they are potted but have a clarity I've not had before and give that nice hollow tone and that lovely harmonic bight with some gain.

that being said in hindsight of me writing this post I've come to realise that no set of PAFs is identical and in the end you're best like I've done in finding a set you like and stick with them, there's plenty of great modern pickups out there but it's also easy to get obsessed with finding that perfect sound. In the end you just gotta get out there and play.

DRY-Z are indeed remarkable pickups, and a compelling as OTPG PAFs and other unobtanium pickups- I just scored a double cream ‘82 DRY-Z which will go in my Flying V makeover in fact ;-)

Henrytwang

Everyone, ( both players and makers),seem to have their opinion on what’s the perfect PAF tone . I’m not an expert and just know what sounds good to me, I have guitars with Seymour Duncan, Gibson, Alagree , Tonerider, TV Jones, Gretsch, De Armond and Iron Gear humbuckers on them, ( probably missed a couple of makes). They all sound good to me in the guitars they’re installed in which I think is an important thing to think about, some pickups will sound great in one guitar and not so good in another. One company that really interests me is Thro-Bak in the USA, they really go the distance when it comes to replicating the old PAF. They even use the same old winding machines,(yes machines), that Gibson used to wind them with, their attention to detail is next to none and it shows in the tone of their pickups. OK they’re not cheap but I’m gonna get a set one day. They are on YouTube and are definitely worth a look .