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where do all those PAFs come from...

0

0 2339

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Feb 8, 2017
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i was asking myself where all those PAFs come from that are being used in early 50s conversions, first reissue les pauls (1968conversion), replicas and so on? i mean, i don't think gibson sold these as aftermarkets or piled up huge stocks of them, so where are they from? any ideas?

cheers
 
corpse

corpse

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TMI and Big Al and other SoCal guitar Tech's talk about working benches in the mid-late 70's with drawers full of PAF's. Dimarzio made their money replacing something.
 
Unstablemedic

Unstablemedic

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Tom Wittrock said:
A lot of ES-175's have been parted out. :ganz
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Wow, I didn’t know this! I just looked up 1957-1960 ES-175 on reverb and they all have the same thing missing: pickups, harness, switch tip, tuners, pots, and sometimes knobs. It’s really a shame taking the heart of those guitars out.
 
deytookerjaabs

deytookerjaabs

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0 2339 said:
yep, it really is a shame.... sad story
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Well I've got some good news for ya, those husks can be had for a pretty good deal, throw in some repros (since, you know, efforts to reproduce a PAF are almost mind boggling!) and keep on truckin'



 
goldtop0

goldtop0

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Unstablemedic said:
Wow, I didn’t know this! I just looked up 1957-1960 ES-175 on reverb and they all have the same thing missing: pickups, harness, switch tip, tuners, pots, and sometimes knobs. It’s really a shame taking the heart of those guitars out.
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Yes an acquaintance of mine over here has a '59 ES-175 that had a bad neck break a few years ago and as I said to him its only real worth now is in the PAFs.
He told me the story years ago of going into a store in Charing Cross Rd(he's a Brit) and seeing the 175 and a Standard there, he had the dough for the 175 but not the LP at that time so that's what he bought. This was about '63 or '64.
 
Tom Wittrock

Tom Wittrock

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goldtop0 said:
Yes an acquaintance of mine over here has a '59 ES-175 that had a bad neck break a few years ago and as I said to him its only real worth now is in the PAFs.
He told me the story years ago of going into a store in Charing Cross Rd(he's a Brit) and seeing the 175 and a Standard there, he had the dough for the 175 but not the LP at that time so that's what he bought. This was about '63 or '64.
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Beano!! :hee
 
D

djd100

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Actually, I got my PAF's back in the early 70's from a 59 345, as the owner wanted to improve his guitar with DiMarzio Super Distortions, which were the first after market pickup as I remember it (though Bill Lawrence and Seymore Duncan were making some too somewhere on the way-back-machine's timeline?). I was trying to sound like Duane Allman with my early 69 Gold Top back then, plus the P90's were too noisy in a lot of venues as people used to put the lighting truss transformers on stage back then LOL (not to mention the P90's just didn't get me all the way to Duane etc)!

Also, back in the day the amps didn't have as much preamp gain as they do today, so people were looking to hotter pup winds to drive their amps harder mindless of their effects on tone etc. Swapping for Schallers, Grovers, brass bridges and hotter pups was a common occurrence back then, so I'd imagine a lot of PAF's were sold for cheap also (mine were $75 a pop).
 
boogieongtr

boogieongtr

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Back in the 70's early 80" I did a lot of so called guitar pickup hot rodding (installed DiMarzio/Seymour Duncan's) I always tried to buy the original PAF's when I could. I ended up with 24 sets of original PAF's and never paid more than $50-$100 a set. I put them in a box and twenty plus years later started selling them.
 
garywright

garywright

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boogieongtr said:
Back in the 70's early 80" I did a lot of so called guitar pickup hot rodding (installed DiMarzio/Seymour Duncan's) I always tried to buy the original PAF's when I could. I ended up with 24 sets of original PAF's and never paid more than $50-$100 a set. I put them in a box and twenty plus years later started selling them.
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that would have made one cool ducks in a row pic
 
D

djd100

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boogieongtr said:
Back in the 70's early 80" I did a lot of so called guitar pickup hot rodding (installed DiMarzio/Seymour Duncan's) I always tried to buy the original PAF's when I could. I ended up with 24 sets of original PAF's and never paid more than $50-$100 a set. I put them in a box and twenty plus years later started selling them.
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Dang, I paid $50 too much for mine! :laugh2:

:salude
 
BIG Dave

BIG Dave

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I bought a pair of ‘61 PAF’s from a seller that said they came from a trashed SG. Covers never off!
 
zhivago

zhivago

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There's a lot of SG Customs missing their three PAFs :dang
 
goldtop0

goldtop0

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That's where mine came from..........but they're long gone now(Ed A got the middle pup)
 
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tomkatf

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goldtop0 said:
There wouldn't be too many of these around I wouldn't think.
I got some years ago from a beat up '61 SG Custom........but they're long gone now.
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Similar story, I was in a well known LA vintage guitar shop off of Hollywood Blvd. c.1983... a guy walked in with an early Les Paul SG Custom which was bought by the store and quickly stripped of it's PAF's. :dang
 
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