EVH's PAF

[ken]

Hello...

I was reading an old article once about EVH, supposedly the lead pickup in his famous red and white striped guitar was an old PAF with something seriously wrong with one of its coils. Does anyone know for sure, and want to talk?

Thank you,
Ken

[dai h.]

iirc, on the Suhr guitars site, I think he mentioned that one coil was shorted so I suppose that effectively made it a single-coil?

[David Schwab]

Eddie has said in interviews that it was a PAF and he rewound it himself. I always wondered why he would rewind it, but if one coil was shorted out, that would make sense.

On another related note, Duncan has a custom shop pickup called the "EVH" which he says means "Evenly Voiced Harmonics." He says it's not related to any particular player, but is a copy of a famous pickup... I wonder if Duncan rewound his PAF?

This is from the Duncan site:

Technically speaking, there is no "EVH" pickup. There is, however, a new custom shop pickup called the "Evenly Voiced Harmonics" model, which some people abbreviate as "EVH," for short. The Evenly Voiced Harmonics Model pickup is a faithful recreation of the legendary low-output, Alnico 2, P.A.F.-style humbucker that Seymour designed in 1978 for various high-profile artists he was working with at the time. This pickup should not be associated with any specific artist. More and more, people are calling the Evenly Voiced Harmonics Model the "'78 Model."

[mkat]

Eddie has said in interviews that it was a PAF and he rewound it himself. I always wondered why he would rewind it, but if one coil was shorted out, that would make sense.

On another related note, Duncan has a custom shop pickup called the "EVH" which he says means "Evenly Voiced Harmonics." He says it's not related to any particular player, but is a copy of a famous pickup... I wonder if Duncan rewound his PAF?

This is from the Duncan site:

Yep, here is a quote from the Eddie Van Halen interview (Guitar Player mag) I read:

"There's another guy too...See, I've rewound my own pickups before, and a guy named Seymour Duncan, I got pissed at him too. He called me up and said, "Can we use your name for a special pickup?" And I said no. Next time I pick up Guitar Player magazine, there's a special Van Halen model customized Duncan pickup. I called him up and said, "What the hell's goin' on?" So he stopped finally. It's just kind of weird you know. "

That was back in 1979, so if the pickup is still selling there may have been a deal struck or some legal technicality regarding the use of the acronymn.

Interesting interview, talks about a few things mentioned above and then some. The full interview can be found at http://www.vhlinks.com/pages/intervi...h/gp122979.php

Regards,

Michael

[EDDIEVRULZ]

im an "EdHead." over the years i have owned a few of his personal instruments/necks/ etc. one guitar that i was lucky enough to own, was a legit kramer frankie that paul unkert built for him. in fact, it is currently for sale by the new owner. (blue striped headstock) not too sure of the rules around here as i am 5 minutes old in this forum, so i wont post the link. but, the guitar had an interesting gibson t-top in it. ive owned several old t-tops. this one was definitely different. i took it apart and could tell that it had been messed with. the thing about ed's original paf that was in the frankie, was that he did rewind it. but, he didnt have any type of counter so the winds were not even, with respect to each coil. thus, making it rather unbalanced. in my opinion, thats why at times his sound reminds me of a strat sound (during solos) but still having a humbucker chunky sound for everything else. anyway, back to my story. that t-top in the kramer frankie had the same principles. front coil had a higher output than the rear. whether he personally messed with the t-top, i dont know. but someone did. and it has the same qualities that ed's early sound had. thought i would share

[David Schwab]

in my opinion, thats why at times his sound reminds me of a strat sound (during solos) but still having a humbucker chunky sound for everything else.

In my opinion, there's no reason why a humbucker wouldn't be almost as bright as a single coil. I have always found it just the very top end that's missing on a humbucker. The few PAF type humbuckers I wound have that plucky strat type tone, just a bit darker. Interestingly I wound a high output (13k) blade type pickup for a 9 string guitar (it's in a bass size case) and it also gets a nice straty tone. I have to imagine it has something to do with the way I wind?

bridge PAF

9-string clean

Ed also got a great tone using his MXR Phase 90... gives a nice top boost.

[EDDIEVRULZ]

"Ed also got a great tone using his MXR Phase 90... gives a nice top boost"


yup. thats prolly the most overlooked secret of his tone.

[ken]

The early PAF's were designed at a time when bright and clean was king and distortion was to be avoided at all times, so I can see why a HB would be clean but not quite as bright as a singlecoil. We are used to thinking today that all HB's are supposed to be darker and thick, but that wasn't the PAF as Seth Lover originally intended. He originally designed the PAF to be as bright and clean as his P90, but he just wanted to remove the hum. It wasn't till people started playing Gibs with Fender amps that distortion got really popular as an effect.
Play a real Gib PAF guitar with a matching Gib amp like a 'Falcon' (Gib Deluxe Reverb copy) and you will get Lover's original tone... clean and bright.

IMHO I like P90's better...

Ken

[twogeez]

I tried out an SD EVH pup once. I didn't like it. It was way too birght and got really muddy on full (it was in a guitar with all the right specs to get "the sound"). Its specs were these: 9k Alnico II. I've had better luck getting that tone with an EMG 85 (believe it or not), and the WCR darkburst.

[Stan H]

that t-top in the kramer frankie had the same principles. front coil had a higher output than the rear. whether he personally messed with the t-top, i dont know. but someone did. and it has the same qualities that ed's early sound had. thought i would share

Hi EDDIEVRULZ,

I would like to do a few experiments with the info that you provided. A couple of questions, when you say "front coil" do you mean the screw or slug coil? Also, did you have a chance to measure the DCR of each coil individually?

Thanks,
~Stan