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Tim Shaw Humbuckers: What's the story?

Maxmc

Active member
Joined
Mar 15, 2015
Messages
652
Back in the eighties I used to own a Heritage 80 Les Paul. The pickups used to squeal so I had them wax potted. I honestly can't remember how they turned out, but for some reason I replaced them with some Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers. These were a much darker sounding pickup and ultimately I sold the guitar. It was just too heavy to play all night at a gig. Fast forward to now and I stumbled across a few articles about Gibson pickups in the early eighties and how Gibson enlisted this guy Tim Shaw to reproduce PAF style pickups for their guitars. Now it seems some people think they're a big deal and the pickups are commanding big prices. I went hunting and found that I still have the set that came out of my old Heritage 80. They have the correct ink label on them but of course they've been wax potted. I don't have a spare guitar to put them in to see how they sound now. The question is do I hang on to them, sell them or bin them?
 

zacknorton

Active member
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
731
Didn’t like them. That’s a Great story.

Short and sweet.

Here’s mine:

Once upon a time...

Tons of much deeper info info out there. My experience is limited to the pickups in my pre-historic “59-ish reissue” . Bottom line is they all tend to read relatively low on the ohm scale but are quite loud and very clear. Maybe they lean towards the bright side? Might be more accurate to say they’ve got a clear top end?

Plenty of lows and mods too. Not at all harsh or stiff with transients.

Totally decent sounding, on target, paf style pickups.

The end.
 

Elmore

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 10, 2003
Messages
1,853
I replaced the ones in my ‘87 prehistoric/standard. Not enough detail, but I never played them through 500K pots. They did sound rich. And I remember them feeding back too much.
 
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El Gringo

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,657
I have a pair of these pickups at home that I removed from my Korina Heritage Flying V , it's been a long time ago that I remember using them and I was actually quite surprised that they sounded better than I thought they would .
 

AA00475Bassman

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 26, 2016
Messages
3,769
Didn’t like them. That’s a Great story.

Short and sweet.

Here’s mine:

Once upon a time...

Tons of much deeper info info out there. My experience is limited to the pickups in my pre-historic “59-ish reissue” . Bottom line is they all tend to read relatively low on the ohm scale but are quite loud and very clear. Maybe they lean towards the bright side? Might be more accurate to say they’ve got a clear top end?

Plenty of lows and mods too. Not at all harsh or stiff with transients.

Totally decent sounding, on target, paf style pickups.


IMO they sounded dark & like crap if you really need more . This is also just a subjective opinion its just great you like yours .
My only regret was leaving the Shaw's in the cases when I sold the guitars instead of my parts drawer for a later sale .
 

latestarter

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
4,173
I think they are pretty decent for the same reasons Zack points out. They are a tad bright, but then so are PAFs often.

My Korina V had them, I have them in a '64 Firebird (routed) and they've always delivered pretty good PAF style tones. I did a magnet swap on the Firebird and it improved the lows, rounded out the top a little.

They were paired with 300K pots a lot way back, so maybe that's where some of the bad memories come from? Who knows. I wouldn't pay a lot for a pair though...unless I was restoring something like a V or Explorer. There are better sounding modern repro's for the PAF tone.
 

herbie74

New member
Joined
Feb 2, 2012
Messages
8
I have them in a Gibson spirit 2. They sound amazing in that guitar. They are a great sounding PAF style pickups. I think most who don't like them like hotter more modern sounding on pickups.
 
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