PAF parts

[Possum]

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I for one wouldn't believe some promo from any of the big pickup makers. Remember when Fender released their Texas Specials, saying they were identical to what Stevie used?
I was told those specs from a friend of Jimmy's who contacted me and told me that without my asking.

Those are also very high winds and not real typical of PAFs. Alnico 5 wasn't used until the last year or two, well that is unless you buy the Shaw non-oriented A5 theories. Personally all this information is suspect. Duncan also sells an EVH pickup and what is it like 16K or something, no way did he ever use anything like that.

Where did you copy that info, google doesn't find it at all...

[Possum]

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The metals and individual tone....
The amps have alot to do with that. Bloomfield preferred Twin Reverbs, Super Reverbs, mostly a Fender guy, played pretty clean. Allman early on was a Twin guy also then moved into Marshalls. Page, Marshalls and little Supros and played more distorted than the others. Green, again, the videos I've seen he's playing all Fender stuff, not much distortion. PAFs have a darkness in them that works best through amps with big power tubes. You don't see any famous PAF players using Deluxe Reverbs with 6V6's. Page's Supros were mostly used with his tele and often people mistake that for his Les Paul :-) Some of Allman's early stuff is mistaken for a Les Paul but its his Strat.

Those guys sound like themselves whatever they're playing. Clapton played SG's, LP's, Firebirds, 335, pretty much sounds the same on them all. Allman played a strat in the beginning and his tone is very close to his LP tone.

My point is those guitars weren't full of "Allman tone" or "Page tone," they pretty much were all the same guitar, they were all Les Paul Standards, some variation in amount of winds etc. etc. etc. No way are you going to walk on stage pickup up Jimmy's guitar and sound like him. They all used the same model guitar, they all have their own signature tone, yet the guitars all have identifiable PAF characteristics. You can hand the same vintage Les Paul to each of those guys and asked them to play it and it would sound like each artist's tone.....but it IS a PAF equipped guitar and the PAF thing comes through loud and clear if you know what to listen for. Read some of my earlier posts if you don't know what that is....

[Possum]

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Another way to put it, Jimi Hendrix played a strat, so did Clapton, they don't sound like eachother at all. There weren't any "magic" Jimi strats that gave him his tone, it was just a strat and he really didn't use the same one very often, he went through tons of them, and he always sounded the same, and there ARE variations in strat pickups that were made and they wound all over the place as well, you can't really say there was a '59 strat spec other than it was wound with HF. So why attribute some magical quality to each of those guitars owned by Page, Bloomfield, Beck, Clapton, Allman, Green etc. they were all the same basic model. Put each artist on one with his choice of amps and effects and you hear HIM. Its still a PAF equipped guitar and they all share the same in what that piece of technical product did as a "microphone" with its own unique acoustic-electric sound signature, the same way an SM57 mic doesn't sound like other mics...

[soundmasterg]

The metals and individual tone....
The amps have alot to do with that. Bloomfield preferred Twin Reverbs, Super Reverbs, mostly a Fender guy, played pretty clean. Allman early on was a Twin guy also then moved into Marshalls. Page, Marshalls and little Supros and played more distorted than the others. Green, again, the videos I've seen he's playing all Fender stuff, not much distortion. PAFs have a darkness in them that works best through amps with big power tubes. You don't see any famous PAF players using Deluxe Reverbs with 6V6's. Page's Supros were mostly used with his tele and often people mistake that for his Les Paul :-) Some of Allman's early stuff is mistaken for a Les Paul but its his Strat.

Those guys sound like themselves whatever they're playing. Clapton played SG's, LP's, Firebirds, 335, pretty much sounds the same on them all. Allman played a strat in the beginning and his tone is very close to his LP tone.

My point is those guitars weren't full of "Allman tone" or "Page tone," they pretty much were all the same guitar, they were all Les Paul Standards, some variation in amount of winds etc. etc. etc. No way are you going to walk on stage pickup up Jimmy's guitar and sound like him. They all used the same model guitar, they all have their own signature tone, yet the guitars all have identifiable PAF characteristics. You can hand the same vintage Les Paul to each of those guys and asked them to play it and it would sound like each artist's tone.....but it IS a PAF equipped guitar and the PAF thing comes through loud and clear if you know what to listen for. Read some of my earlier posts if you don't know what that is....

I've seen some youtube videos of Peter Green using some Orange amps among others too.

Greg

[Possum]

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Actually if you look closely he is play Dual Showmans, the bass player I think is using the Orange amps. Though I did hear he has used those as well.

[JGundry]

Go to the Showcase here in the forum and watch the demo of my VL set compared to a '60 burst and see what you think. There's more to that tone than just the pickups. your wiring harness is half the equation in any guitar, you want vintage tone you need to duplicate a vintage wiring harness in every respect.

Dave are you sure that guitar in your VL demo is a 60' Burst? The bridge pickup ring is shaved down, it has speed knobs rather than top hat knobs and the body looks thicker when compared to the Historic. The thicker body would suggest a 52'. Really just curious but it has many of the signs of a 52' conversion/refinish.

There are two different wirings used for the toggle switch used in the 50's. This is aside from home the wiring is in the pot control cavity.

[David Schwab]

There was a story where Van Halen was playing with Ted Nugent. So Ted went over to Eddie and asked if he could play his guitar/rig. Ted figured that tone came from the gear. Much to his dismay, he said he sounded just like he always did, and not like Eddie!

I've had customers here who would play my bass, and got a totally different tone from when I play it. Same with my guitars.

But back to the metal thing. I got some of the top secret PAF screws the guys here had been working on from Wade, but he didn't tell me what they were. He just said try them. So I had a Stew-Mac kit humbucker I had wound to pretty standard specs in a guitar. I removed the Stew-Mac screws and replaced them with the custom ones. My reaction was "wow" I wasn't expecting such a noticeable change. The pickup was louder, and just sounded better.

Since then I have been experimenting with different steel for blade pickups, and you really can hear the difference between steels, especially when playing with a clean tone. Some just have more texture and detail, while other steels sound kind of mellow or drab. It's subtle, but it's real.

[JGundry]

Peter Green with MatAmp
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31N4mCS6Tu8"]YouTube - Worried Dream - Peter Green & Fleetwood Mac[/ame]

Peter Green with Band Master, I think. He used one in the studio early on. There is a live clip that was on Youtube of him using it playing Homework, couldn't find it though.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjda5eiV2bA"]YouTube - rollin' man fleetwood mac[/ame]

Peter Green with Dual Showman.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxux5LdmjQU"]YouTube - Peter Green - World Keep On Turning[/ame]

[Spence]

Original Gibson PAF winder at work. Um, that's a slot machine to you Spence.

Took your time there didn't you.
Anyway, some guy over at MLP was asking what pickups he should have in his Heritage when it's built. I remember you saying that Heritage were going to use your pickups as OEM or are they still using Schallers? Wouldn't want to point him in the wrong direction.

[jonson]

well thats the slug winder going but what about the 102.

[JGundry]

Took your time there didn't you.
Anyway, some guy over at MLP was asking what pickups he should have in his Heritage when it's built. I remember you saying that Heritage were going to use your pickups as OEM or are they still using Schallers? Wouldn't want to point him in the wrong direction.

I think that guy has emailed me. I know Heritage likes the SLE-101 but no orders yet. I'm in no hurry as I have plenty of direct orders.

Here is the Leesona 102 running like a top.

[Possum]

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Its a '60 dead certain as I repaired the original bridge pickup and its definitely a '60. He's had that guitar forever and some of the parts aren't orginal, when we were kids we changed stuff out alot and he is around my age pretty sure. No conversion. The Historic on the other hand he's refinished it a couple times, its sunburst now. He said the Gibson finishes on the Historics are tone killers and doing the refin helped it out alot, still its no match for the mellow/loud tones of a real 'burst.

[Spence]

I think that guy has emailed me. I know Heritage likes the SLE-101 but no orders yet. I'm in no hurry as I have plenty of direct orders.

Here is the Leesona 102 running like a top.

Why doesn't that counter look as blurry as the bobbins? Why's there no wire going to the bobbins in either photo?

[JGundry]

Why doesn't that counter look as blurry as the bobbins? Why's there no wire going to the bobbins in either photo?

You are kidding right? Slow shutter speed blurs the wire also... Counter only moves once revolution complete... The blur in photo with counter is not a full revolution... You are an engineer right?.... Are you sure you don't believe in UFO's Spence? Because you certainly have healthy conspiracy streak.

Here are the machines stopped, with wire..... But I warn you the depth of field is shallow due to large aperture for low light shooting so the wire is not in sharp focus.

[JGundry]

Break out the popcorn! Here is a video I shot of the "Slug 101" PAF winder as it sat on the top floor of the old Gibson plant. It was 20 feet away from the old spray booth. I shot a video of the counter and a video of a dial indicator hooked up to the traverse, this was before I bought the machine. Months later I did buy the machine. When I got it to my shop I took it apart to clean it and found out the cloth insulation had worn through many of the wires. I'm lucky I didn't get a nasty shock when I took this video!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy_ucxCzKms"]YouTube - PAF Winder At Old Gibson Plant[/ame]