PAF Pickups Explained: What Are They and Why Are They So Legendary?

PAF or Patent Applied For pickups are the original unobtainium of the guitar pickup world. These legendary pickups are as desired as they are mysterious. So what are PAFs really? And why are they so revered? We talk to Joshua Spataro from Righteous Sound Pickups to get the full scoop on the PAF.
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[@Stringjoy]

Have you ever played a real set of PAFs? What did you think? Worth the hype or nah?

[@popsfereal]

nah.

[@avivpinto4013]

I did. Heaven. Makes you play different/better maybe? Because of articulation, better harmonic content...and so on....the tim Shaw by the way is a paf on a budget. Grab them if you can. Make sure they are genuine. Lots of disinformation out there.

[@danielconrad764]

I have a three sets in each of my three guitars. They're all over the place in terms of output and touch sensitivity, so much so that I can (and do) absolutely love one set, like the other, and dislike the third set. Anyone who is interested in getting an original PAF set would be wise to play through a set before dropping the crazy 1000s on them. Another surprise to me was how much my harness and pots changed the sound. Worth chasing the dragon, as long as you are being systematic about how you're working towards that final tone (otherwise you'll spend tons of money and might never inch closer towards your goal).

[@jerryyeaaah15]

yes and yes..but has to be a good set tho ..shit ones are shits

[@jacobanderson1770]

I’ve got Joshua’s first set of his R-Tops. I will NEVER sell them. They are just so good. Incredible

[@Stringjoy]

That is too dang cool!

[@jordantee2383]

People really overlook the potentiometers, the pots in the old bursts were reading 600k to 700k... that really contributed to the sound. Also look into rewind electric, james from rewind still has some of the old 50s wire gibson used to make those pafs... that old wire does make a huge difference.

[@GLaughlin]

I have played and owned electric guitars for 50 years. I only recently mod’ed any. One guitar got Lollars and one got Duncan/Lover PAFs. I thought the Duncans were phenomenal, easily amongst the best I ever heard. There were a number of sounds I associated with great PAFs and the Duncans got them all.

[@pharmerdavid1432]

Which model did you get - Seth Lover or Pearly Gates or...?

[@GLaughlin]

It says in my comment that they are Duncan/Lover PAFs. Unlike another commenter, I had heard a set of Duncan bass pickups and was unimpressed. So, I was even more thrilled about how perfect the PAFs are.

[@orryfishburne5326]

I recently started getting into modding too. I was heavily on the fence with the Duncan Seth Lovers, but ended up going with the Retrospec'd Antiquity. I really like them so far. I would love to try the Seth Lovers though

[@petevadelnieks]

I have a SD Pearly Gates in the bridge, and a SD Jazz in the neck, and that combo sounds amazing. I know there's a lot of newer pickup builders but if I ever want to mod a guitar the first brand I go to is Seymour Duncan, have not encountered a bad pickup from them.

[@These_go_to_eleven_1959]

The absolute best Clone you can get is from Srephen's Designed Pickups. The guy that winds these has literally cloned the old P.A.F in every detail imaginable! all the way down to the old wire ,materials for the pole pieces and dimensions of the bobbins. He is the professor of the P.A.F clone. They are very expensive though.

[@juliochingaling5824]

Great video.

[@ruthguitars7711]

If your looking for a great pickup Rightious sound is the only way to go! If your looking for some killer strings…. Stringjoy is probably the best in my opinion! Great string made in nashville by real people. This video is the best of everything! Ryan is so good at presenting things.

[@Montysguitarsandpickups]

Great video, I found it super interesting. Joshua definitely knows his onions.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

The best PAF replicas out there IMO (apart from mine) are Stephens Designed pickups by Dave Stephens. He has New old stock wire from the 50s

[@pauletherington8229]

I've just recently had the Seymour Duncan Green Magic set fitted to one of my Heritage H-150's, so a variation on a PAF and different again from the SD '59's that Heritage fit as standard, i still have those in my other H-150. The '59 is Alnico 5 and the GM Alnico 2 so even aside from the phase part of the equation the GM sounds more PAF to me whereas the '59 is essentially a 'modern' PAF, both are fabulous in their different ways.

[@user-zx8de8op9l]

Pretty good video,

[@pharmerdavid1432]

As you said, the patent number actually issued Gibson wasn't even for the pickup! Another interesting factoid, Ray Butts at Gretsch proved he had the idea for a humbucking pickup before Seth Lover, so even though Gibson filed for a patent before Gretsch, the patent office gave Gretsch an earlier patent number than Gibson (maybe that is partially the reason Gibson didn't bother using the patent number issued for their pickup?). In truth, other inventors had made humbucking pickups before either Butts or Lover. Interesting video - I'll check-out his RAF pickups. I have a set of the infamous Dave Stephens (SDpickups - "Stephen's design") about 15+ years ago, before his prices and wait time became insane. Every type of pickup he made me sound great, and I especially love his P-90 set in my LP Special, have his humbuckers in another LP Special (I don't like having a maple cap). I have other guitars with Epiphone humbuckers, however, and they need upgrading. Cheers!!

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

Glad someone mentioned Dave Stephens he has been a mentor of mine, he's shared a huge amount of information with me, my pickups improved in leaps and bounds based on his advice, he has researched every aspect of the PAF right down to the compound ratios of the metals and the resonant frequencies of each individual part. I cant thank him enough, if your lucky enough to actually own a set of his pickups you have a quality product.

[@LPCustom3]

The magnets were whatever they had in-stock. They were a different formula back then than. Most of the magnets now are made in China vs. the made in U.S.A. back in the `50's-`60's. They got magnets from 4 or 5 different foundries/manufactures. They were trying to make a pickup that sounded like a P-90's but without hum. I've played alot of PAF's over the last 50 years. I've played some that were great and some that weren't great..

[@cyborgchimpy]

I have been playing on and off for 15 years and I feel like a complete guitar noob just listening to this.

[@rik3382]

The reason no can make a PAF like the ones from the 1950's is because the wire that was used stoped being a long time ago. All winder can do today is try to copy sound. Like old wood made those Les Pauls go along time ago to and that is why the custom shop Les Pauls do not even come close to sounding the real ones.

[@Stringjoy]

You can still buy 42AWG plain enamel copper magnet wire just like what was used in PAFs, it's a pretty standard product used in many industries, there would be no reason to discontinue it.

[@bubzulu]

Does Joshua Spataro have a youtube channel ?

[@Stringjoy]

Yes, but it's not active. You should encourage him to jump into the YT game! kzbin.info/door/GHceAKjd3iWD9OwtkTgxQA

[@jeremymiller5896]

Dominger pickups make the best humbuckers around I'd say.

[@ivomatic13]

Josh

[@Stringjoy]

We like him too!

[@popsfereal]

Gonna make a PAF! ok....which one? Uh, "like this one I pulled out of my guitars...."

[@rik3382]

I use wizz PAF

[@These_go_to_eleven_1959]

Great pu's also Give "8Bomb custom workshop" a look at. He has a channel here on YT. incredible stuff. He build 59 guitars from scratch as well.

[@popsfereal]

I am a fan of CHEAP p/u's. There are some amazing p/u's that don't cost a fortune. Like Gibson a name on something doesn't mean shit most of the time.

[@rik3382]

Stephens Designed pickups makes bes PAF

[@rik3382]

machine that the wire no longer around. Why some winder will say that have some old wire. Why no PAF sound like the real ones. T Tops still be made

[@These_go_to_eleven_1959]

I made a T-top sounding pickup by taking a Gibson 490R (7.5K) i had laying around and swapping the magnet to a short bar roughcast A5. Sounds great! very page sounding.

[@hanskung3278]

Did someone say "fetish?"

[@Dirge4july]

Pee ay and eff. 🌈 reading rainbow!

[@rik3382]

Was not jus the PAF it was also the very old woods used to build thoes Les Pauls. Wire is long gone so is that old wood. Why Gibson can never real Les paul just a cheap copy way over priced.

[@Stringjoy]

The wire is still readily available

[@stringdoc]

Righteous Sound makes great PAFs, but they're FAR from the only vendor offering great PAFs today. Planet Tone Pickups makes a 1959 Heritage pickup that walks all over the Seymour Duncan 59, for example, as well as several other PAF variants. I've heard great things about Lindy Fralin's Unbucker and have personal experience with DiMarzio's 36th Anniversary PAF bridge pickup, which sounds really good in my 335-style archtop. The challenge for guitarists is to learn as much as possible about pickups, reading user reviews and finding a cooperative pickup winder to create the PAF that meets their needs. I enjoy working with Jose from Planet Tone. Nice guy and really knows his stuff. That's also true of Jason Lollar at Lollar Pickups, T.V. Jones at T.V. Jones Pickups, and the aforementioned Lindy Fralin. There are many other reputable pickup winders today. It's a buyer's market right now.

[@Stringjoy]

Of course, there are a lot of great pickup companies these days and a lot of great takes on the PAF. This isn't paid promo for RS or anything, Joshua is just a friend with a lot of knowledge in the subject.

[@tonyradford5577]

I’m glad you mentioned Jose at Planet Tone. They have SO many great options and variants. PAF, Hi Gain, Single Coil, P90, and any other flavor you can think of. I recently put a set of Planet Tone “Legacy’s” (A5 bridge, A2 Neck) on my Les Paul Traditional Pro. Night and Day difference from the original Gibson 57 Classics.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

Shameless plug....I make a set of "Artesian" PAF replicas made in South Australia, they will be on the next episode of the Doug and Pat show....as long as Doug and Pat are still alive by then.

[@superlead1002]

I have three Tokai "Les Paul's" and absolutely love them! All from different era's and all great. I'm a total Tokai fanboy! Now it's time for a Tokai Strat...