Exact PAF specs anyone?

[Possum]

I'm getting some parts made and wonder if anyone has real mechanical specs for PAF parts. Specifically bobbin dimensions, and slugs. I notice on the TTop buckers the slugs are .186" in diameter and they don't protrude all the way down to the bottom of the magnet, I wonder if this is because the shorter magnets might be a little less thick or what? Did PAF slugs have a longer dimension? Also dimensions for PAF keeper bars? Specifically length, and thickness, width. LIttle details make a big difference, I have TTops to dissect but thats as far back as I've been able to afford. EMail me if you don't want to post particulars...thanks...

[WolfeMacleod]

Here's a few things...

Wood spacer: 2.128 long x .190 wide x .125 thick

Metal spacer "keeper" cold drawn steel
2.129 long x .190 wide x .125 thick

Slugs:
.187 diameter x .479 long

[JGundry]

I think that having covers of the correct composition, weight and pitch would be very important. When I say pitch I mean the actual pitch or note that the cover rings at when tapped. I know this may sound wacky since when the cover is soldered on it is pretty well deadened. But it is the most acoustically part of the entire assembly and I think does have a real mechanical impact on the tone beyond feedback assuming the entire pickup has not been wax potted.

[Possum]

keepers

Wolfe: how many holes does the keeper have? 8 or 10? Looking at the later keepers they have 10 holes and appear to be the same as used for P90s.

[OFM]

Hi there,

This guy does an exhaustive analisys of PAF pickups:

http://www.provide.net/~cfh/paf.html

I hope it helps a bit,

Greetings,
Ben

[WolfeMacleod]

Hi there,

This guy does an exhaustive analisys of PAF pickups:

http://www.provide.net/~cfh/paf.html

I hope it helps a bit,

Greetings,
Ben

Yes...and that guy is full of shit...

[WolfeMacleod]

Oh..and the spacers had 10 holes..

[ShannonH]

Ok But....

Yes...and that guy is full of shit...

Perhaps you'd like to elucidate why. Telling us he's full of sheisse doesn't exactly help a ton. It also discourages the guy with 4 posts from every wanting to post again.

[Possum]

that guy....

I emailed that guy once and he's an arrogant a-hole. I guess he can afford to be :-)

There IS some wrong stuff on his site, like he says they used BRASS bucker covers, they never did, and he had me fooled til Wolfe and some other info like the Seth Lover interview set me straight.

I got some specs from a friend customer in Tokyo who has access to some PAFs for study. He said the screw tops all measure the same diameter but the slugs were all over the place as far as diamter goes but the same depth on all. You can kinda see that in PAF photos on Ebay, some slug just look kinda skinny and some were. Problem is I think there are some counterfeits on Ebay, they were making counterfeits in the 70s when PAFs were only worth a couple hundred bucks. Thing is though they had access to all those parts and correct wire which we don't now, so detecting a counterfeit can be tough. I did see one set that was obviously phoney or had been rewound with poly wire peeking through a gap in the tape wrap, no one was bidding on that set either.....

[Possum]

Fooooooled!!!!!

The PAF I was going to get to dissect and do measurements on everything turned out to be a vintage Duncan!!! My friend pulled the pickup out to give it to me and discovered one of his good "buddies" stole his PAFs and substituted Duncan pickups back in the 80s, holy shit can you imagine someone doing that to you for MONEY????? Thing is this pickup sounds freaking awesome and has that dead-on Allman metallic PAF tone, measures about 7K. They were still making good wire and sand casting rough magnets in the late 70s early 80s so here we go, more food for thought.......

[ShannonH]

Many Thanks Possum....

I appreciate your response. I'm cool with calling out bad info on the web, as there is a load of it. I'm just kind of a stickler about unqualified responses, especially negative ones. Everything you are saying makes sense.

I am working with Benedict Guitars trying to develop some pickups just for them. He has an old 54 Gibson hollowbody that was his dads and it has an original PAF in it. He offered to let me look it over and get vintage specs off of it. When I do, I'll pass on the info. Peace

Shannon

[Possum]

specs

Are you going to dissect the thing or just get a DCR measurement? DCR measurements are easy to find, tehcnical/mechanical specs are impossible to find on the net. If this is a covered pickup and you have never opened one before, you need to maybe get a professional to do this. These pickups are worth about $2500 and up and if you cut one of the coils opening it up you're gonna lose your friend :-) The magnet wire in those things if you cut the coil isn't something you can replace without destroying the value of it. Anyway I'm interested in what you find out, so I'll be checking this thread. I was really disappointed in not getting the one I thought I was to dissect, my friend knows I can get all the info I need and not devalue the pickup, what a bummer....

[ShannonH]

We may dissect it, but I informed him of it's value first! If nothing else I'll get measurements and readings. I really want to see if the coils are unevenly wound, but I won't do it if there is a potential for damage. Thanks!

[Possum]

damage...

yes there is potential for destruction, if its a high DCR measurement like 9K or something it means the coils are really full so opening the pickup covers is real tricky. If you cut through the solder joint with a utility knife there is potential of the blade jamming down into and cutting the coils. You can use a dremel cut off wheel but then you damage the cover and the baseplate in that process. I've not had much luck in sucking out the solder. There is one thing that might work and thats heating the solder joint and quickly slipping a business card into the solder joint which will seperate the joint when it cools. You have to be real quick at this, use a big hot iron and have the card already partly slipped into the space before the joint. If you can get most of it in you can give a little pry with a screw drive to pop the joint after that. But then there is potential that when you slip the cover off if there are any rough edges at the solder joint they can cut the coil as you pull the cover off. Heck even taking the cover off in some opinions, reduces the value of the pickup. Anyway you look at it, its a risk.

From what I've heard from others there was no set ratio of mismatch and no consistency to which bobbin was wound hotter. Lover said they wound to fill the bobbins thats all. Alot of what he has said though is questionable and he really didn't have full knowledge of what went into those things, he just used parts they had in stock and didn't know all that much about where they came from and what alloy they were etc. Some of those pickups sucked real bad too, consistency just wasn't there.....