PAF tape

[truetone]

I'm not any expert on paf's but I found this tape at a local surplus store. Does this look accurate?

[clown_luthier]

i don't think so

[David Schwab]

What difference does it make? None. I get some nice black paper tape from art supply stores like Pearl and Jerry's. It looks like the Stew-Mac stuff, but is cheaper.

Unless you are making forgeries, use the tape that you like. It's your pickups, not Gibson's.

[John_H]

What difference does it make? None.

What if the adhesive is somewhat conductive?

[truetone]

Ya, I dont care. I just thought I saw some paf pics that looked like this. I get it for 65cents a roll and use it on my singlecoil poles. WORKS GREAT!

[Stealth]

What if the adhesive is somewhat conductive?

For that matter, how conductive would the adhesive have to be for something like that to create a measurable effect?

[David Schwab]

What if the adhesive is somewhat conductive?

Yeah, that's a problem. We had a discussion about that once here.

I was referring to the matter of appearance. The question was about if the tape looked close to the original. So I said who cares, if you like it, and it's useable for pickups, use it.

I think people get too hung up on whether their parts look like pickup from the 50's. They aren't, so why does it matter so much?

Personally I want to see something new, not the same thing over and over again.

[David Schwab]

For that matter, how conductive would the adhesive have to be for something like that to create a measurable effect?

There was some discussion about this a while back. Possum would be good to answer this, because I think he was the one who noticed that some tape was conductive, and from what I recall, it might have had an effect on the high end of the pickup.

I was using the Stew-Mac tape, but as I said now I get it from art supply stores.

Oh Dave... where you at?

[belwar]

He doesnt come out until the sun goes down. make sure you have your silver bullets ready!

[Possum]

....

Keep 'dem silver bullets away from ME!
Yeah I got some 3M tape with highly conductive coating, so conductive that in buckers when I lay both leads on the same tape wrap that goes all the way around, it was conducting between the two leads and muffling the tone alot. I just measured putting the probes and inch apart and get a 6K reading, the further apart the high the reading goes. Some of the early stewmac tape was conductive as well. This tape is only conductive on the non-adhesive side.

The look of the tape is important to PAF purists and those of us trying to make such. They don't want to see crepe texture for sure. There is no direct equivalent the old 3M tape that was used back then and you can thank this forum for them not making it again. Wolfe got one of the 3M reps to read the forum when Wolfe asked us to vote on who wanted them to make that tape again, I think I was the only guy who said yes. So they didn't. You would think Duncan would have enough pull to get them to make the stuff but guess not, pretty much everyone is using 3M tape that is way too sticky for me, and actually I think its the same tape I have that is conductive that I have but they changed the coating, I believe it is #235 and crepe texture.