Just looked and listened to that Emerald City video of the 1960 LP. Gotta say ... Your setup sounds way, way, way better in every sense. (probably because you demonstrably, really understand how to go about getting that truly vintage sound) Keep up the fantastic work Brother!
There's more to it than jsut that, its one of the first things to do. The harness is only one of many things you can do to make an average guitar become a tone machine. Go watch my video on our ABR1 Four Uncles Replica that took us two years and a ton of money to make a totally accurate ABR1 bridge unit. Watch my "The Les Paul That Isn't" four part series of all the changes you can do to pretty much any LP type guitar, especially the Gibsons which have so much junk on and inside them. But some guitars you can only improve so far. I have a 2004 LP Classic that I did ALL those changes to, yet its a pretty lifeless piece of wood, thats real PRETTY but has no real soul.
I also switched out the thumb wheels. I ordered the full length screws but my guitar already has them. I also ordered the recommended stop bar but the one on my guitar weighed less and sounded better. I could not find your abr1 so I got two fabers (and surprisingly sounded different from one another) but were a significant improvement to the stock one.
@@rjeric8185 Its not the length of the screw posts, its the material, they must be brass, because Gibson doesn't use brass posts except on the True Historic. They used stainless steel which is harsh and kills sustain, so hope you did that too.
I'm one old man doing this for over 22 years now, so the work has gotten harder and I struggle to keep building old orders. So the wait time is at least two years so very few will order them these days. One set takes almost two weeks to build, make the covers and do all the machining work that gets these tones. Mostly I stay alive making the vintage wire sets which are the most expensive but best of my work. So, they are hard to get for most players, and pricey for the old wire sets, but vintage 50's wire is where most of the sound of PAF's comes from. Rarely you can find old sets of mine on Reverb, but they go for more than I sold them for, and the real early ones weren't as accurate as the ones I make now.
So good and so true. Your pickups are outstanding and absolutely do THAT thing. Those Elitists were fantastic. I'm a big fan and collector of the MIJ Les Pauls as well.
Amen to that. I have 6 Elitist Les Pauls, and an Elitist SG. I got them all back when nobody knew about them, never paid more than $600 each and less. Not a single flaw on any of them, and they hold their own against any $4000 Gibson LP. Only thing that could be better would be lacquer finishes as they are poly finished, but I doubt nitro would improve the sound at all. Thanks for the comment.
@@SDPickups Agreed. I loved a friends Elitist and I have 7 or 8 Tokais, Grecos, Burnys and Orville By Gibsons. All Outstanding and equal to any Gibson, even the ones I own. Totally agree about the finish too. That softer feel and roll off of the shine is much better with nitro but not worth another $2-$5k. Thanks for the great videos.
As always your dedication and research prove them wrong. I appreciate the time and work you have done and know that you have all of the knowledge for a great sounding PAF pickup no one else comes close. I have done my share of research and have real PAFs and yours are right there. Sometimes better than original. Thanks 🙏 I am 65 years old and have been around the block More than once with this. Quick question. Do you prefer brass or steel base plate screws? Aloha
I'll be 73 in March, so thats many times around the block :-) Brass and steel baseplate screws are just cosmetic as far as materials go. Tiny steel screws don't touch the magnet and are so small and away from the magnet and too short and are inbetween poles, so that they aren't really involved in any kind of tonal effect, though there's one guy out there who attributes some kind of "magic" to them, LOL. 1957, both steel and stainless steel (non-magnetic) screws are found, and also steel ones used in 1959. Out of curiosity I looked for steel screws of the size used and there just aren't any that I found, only brass ones.
@@darrellminx5459 I like the look of aged brass screws myself. I was aging a big batch of them last month and something seemed wrong about what was going on, I took a sniff in the jar and really hurt myself, the mix had made a strong acid and I burned my nostrils and lungs a little bit, taking forever to heal, though I was going to pass out. Won't do THAT again....
@@SDPickups I was thinking that maybe the steel screws mess with the magnetic field of the windings to add a little more edge or harmonic sound of sorts. Kinda like Duane's pickups. I could be worng but it seems to work like that for me sometimes. Another words dis organize the frequencys. Maybe I'm crazy that is where you come in. Like you say. Every part maters. Thank you very much. Darrell in Hawaii
@@darrellminx5459 Its all about MASS. 4 tiny screws that weigh almost nothing, that aren't in the area of any significant magnetic power, that aren't close to the strings or magnet, and the the smallest end of the screw point thats way too far from the strings, isn't going to be really involved in the magnetic circuit. Using a DC gaussmeter, I put the probe on the bottom of the baseplate right over the most mass where the brass screw heads are and the readings are incredibly weak in those 4 spots. Putting steel screws in those spots isn't something you'd really hear. In fact NOT using steel in those spots if it had any effect at all, would make the pickup's sound BRIGHTER, because the less steel, the brighter the sound. I proved this years ago by making steel slugs that had full flat tops and bottoms, but between the top and bottom I used a lathe to carve out most of the steel between top and bottom. So, if you looked at the slug from the side they looked like a side view of an I-beam. They weighed very little, and the pickup got noticeably brighter, because there was way less iron, to soak up treble frequencies. Its all physics. You can't "disrupt frequencies." The more iron in a pickup, the less treble there will be. This is why pole screws from back in the earliest 50s that used alloys that were near pure iron, darken the sound of the pickup. I had pole screws made in one of those earlier pole screw alloys that had much less carbon in them, and they darken the sound because there's more soft iron involved. This is all about "perceived hearing." If I told you that steel bobbin mount screws made old PAF's sound the most incredible, then your mind will tend to hear it that way. I need to do a video comparing my work to original PAF's, and NOT tell you which one are PAF's because just labeling them enfluences what you hear. This is exactly why there is so much hype in the music industry. People will tend to believe claims because so and so said some "magical thinking" deal, that we call "advertising." Like "Historic,' or "True Historic," when in fact neither one of those terms has anything to do with reality. To prove this idea, you need to get a really good frequency analyzer, do a full frequency sweet with steel mount screws installed, then take them out and replace with brass. Then see what the data says. You would have to make SURE, you'd be using the extact identical screws in both brass and steel, and I was not able to find any steel screws identical to the brass screws used. The larger screws that I saw were from 1957, and were NOT magnetic, but stainless steel. Using very low carbon steel POLE screws, is something you can HEAR, because 6 pole screws are a significant amount of mass of pure iron versus higher carbon pole screws of the later 60's, when higher carbon screws replaced pretty much all common screws, which contributed to the buckers sounding harsher for lack of the amount of pure iron in the alloys. Everything matters, but some things are too small to hear. I used to do frequency analyses of A versus B prototype buckers, and I'd see tiny differences, but you couldn't heart those differences, so I dont do that anymore. If you can even FIND steel screws in #2 x 1/2 inch that are not threaded the full length of the shaft, let me know and I will test them, but I don't think they even exist, and they must match what was seldom used used anyway.
Hello Dave, I want to buy a set of you PG PAF pick-ups. I know there is a long long line but ”if waiting for something good, no wait is too long” (Swedish saying”) Plz let me know how I can get in line
I have such a long waiting time, though. 2 or 3 years. These days to pay the bills, while I am building all these old orders, I will make a set of NOS vintage wire sets to have an income, and then offer those for quick sale. I'll have another set or two in a few months probably, but they are my most expensive and rare vintage wire sets, so not many can afford those.
@@SDPickups the gods were with me and I managed to get a SDpickup up set (HD61 bridge & Corona NOS neck). They are combined with one of the best ’59 replicas…😊
I believe my email address is in the description of the video. If not, any of my recent videos have my email at the end of every video. But then, I have at least a two year waiting time after payment. These NOS wire sets are infrequently made and I do announce them on RUclips, so please subscribe so you'll know when that happens. Thanks!
WHOEVER KNOWS THAT VINTAGE SOUND, CANT DISAGREE! IT TOOK ME ABOUT 2YEARS OF STUDYING THE SOUND EVERYDAY, HAVING A SET OF YOURS, AND MY 1960 PAF SET, FOR MY EARS TO GET IN TUNE...NOT TO BE BIAS IVE HAD ALL THE TOP REPROS WITHOUT NAMING NAMES THERE GOOD, BUT THERE NOT PAFS AND THERE NOT YOURS, PERIOD, YOUR NEWER SETS IVE RECENTLY HEARD ARE LIKE A TOP REAL 59 PAF SET, MY 1960S PAFS ARE GOOD, BUT YOURS ARE BETTER, THERE LIKE WHATS IN THE BETTER 59 BURSTS WE ALL KNOW AND LOVE.. YOU ARE THE TRUE MYAGGI LOL
Always. Its "vintage" so it MUST BE "FANTASTIC!" I see guys playing guitars I owned as a kid, most of them weren't very good guitars, but you see them now priced for thousands of dollars. I wouldn't want take back any of those guitars, no thanks.
Just looked and listened to that Emerald City video of the 1960 LP.
Gotta say ... Your setup sounds way, way, way better in every sense. (probably because you demonstrably, really understand how to go about getting that truly vintage sound)
Keep up the fantastic work Brother!
Oh, thanks ;-) You definitely understand what my work is all about. Have a great day.
Used to believe that you cannot make a "dead guitar" sound great until I got a set of your pickups and took your advice on a proper wiring harness.
There's more to it than jsut that, its one of the first things to do. The harness is only one of many things you can do to make an average guitar become a tone machine. Go watch my video on our ABR1 Four Uncles Replica that took us two years and a ton of money to make a totally accurate ABR1 bridge unit. Watch my "The Les Paul That Isn't" four part series of all the changes you can do to pretty much any LP type guitar, especially the Gibsons which have so much junk on and inside them. But some guitars you can only improve so far. I have a 2004 LP Classic that I did ALL those changes to, yet its a pretty lifeless piece of wood, thats real PRETTY but has no real soul.
I also switched out the thumb wheels. I ordered the full length screws but my guitar already has them. I also ordered the recommended stop bar but the one on my guitar weighed less and sounded better. I could not find your abr1 so I got two fabers (and surprisingly sounded different from one another) but were a significant improvement to the stock one.
@@rjeric8185 Its not the length of the screw posts, its the material, they must be brass, because Gibson doesn't use brass posts except on the True Historic. They used stainless steel which is harsh and kills sustain, so hope you did that too.
You have definitely nailed that 59 sound with your pickups, hardware, and wiring. I wish I could get a set of these pickups.
I'm one old man doing this for over 22 years now, so the work has gotten harder and I struggle to keep building old orders. So the wait time is at least two years so very few will order them these days. One set takes almost two weeks to build, make the covers and do all the machining work that gets these tones. Mostly I stay alive making the vintage wire sets which are the most expensive but best of my work. So, they are hard to get for most players, and pricey for the old wire sets, but vintage 50's wire is where most of the sound of PAF's comes from. Rarely you can find old sets of mine on Reverb, but they go for more than I sold them for, and the real early ones weren't as accurate as the ones I make now.
@@SDPickups THESE WILL BE WORTH BIG MONEY ONE DAY! LIKE THE VINTAGE ONES, 2 YEARS IS WORTH IT.
So good and so true. Your pickups are outstanding and absolutely do THAT thing. Those Elitists were fantastic. I'm a big fan and collector of the MIJ Les Pauls as well.
Amen to that. I have 6 Elitist Les Pauls, and an Elitist SG. I got them all back when nobody knew about them, never paid more than $600 each and less. Not a single flaw on any of them, and they hold their own against any $4000 Gibson LP. Only thing that could be better would be lacquer finishes as they are poly finished, but I doubt nitro would improve the sound at all. Thanks for the comment.
@@SDPickups Agreed. I loved a friends Elitist and I have 7 or 8 Tokais, Grecos, Burnys and Orville By Gibsons. All Outstanding and equal to any Gibson, even the ones I own. Totally agree about the finish too. That softer feel and roll off of the shine is much better with nitro but not worth another $2-$5k. Thanks for the great videos.
Put a set of your pickups together with a good vintage style wiring harness and a Four Uncles Restoration bridge, and you've attained LP tone Nirvana.
Thanks Robert, nice to hear from you again!
As always your dedication and research prove them wrong. I appreciate the time and work you have done and know that you have all of the knowledge for a great sounding PAF pickup no one else comes close. I have done my share of research and have real PAFs and yours are right there. Sometimes better than original. Thanks 🙏 I am 65 years old and have been around the block More than once with this. Quick question. Do you prefer brass or steel base plate screws? Aloha
I'll be 73 in March, so thats many times around the block :-) Brass and steel baseplate screws are just cosmetic as far as materials go. Tiny steel screws don't touch the magnet and are so small and away from the magnet and too short and are inbetween poles, so that they aren't really involved in any kind of tonal effect, though there's one guy out there who attributes some kind of "magic" to them, LOL. 1957, both steel and stainless steel (non-magnetic) screws are found, and also steel ones used in 1959. Out of curiosity I looked for steel screws of the size used and there just aren't any that I found, only brass ones.
@@SDPickups Thanks for your reply. I never did decide myself. I seem to prefer the steel screws not sure why.
@@darrellminx5459 I like the look of aged brass screws myself. I was aging a big batch of them last month and something seemed wrong about what was going on, I took a sniff in the jar and really hurt myself, the mix had made a strong acid and I burned my nostrils and lungs a little bit, taking forever to heal, though I was going to pass out. Won't do THAT again....
@@SDPickups I was thinking that maybe the steel screws mess with the magnetic field of the windings to add a little more edge or harmonic sound of sorts. Kinda like Duane's pickups. I could be worng but it seems to work like that for me sometimes. Another words dis organize the frequencys. Maybe I'm crazy that is where you come in. Like you say. Every part maters. Thank you very much. Darrell in Hawaii
@@darrellminx5459 Its all about MASS. 4 tiny screws that weigh almost nothing, that aren't in the area of any significant magnetic power, that aren't close to the strings or magnet, and the the smallest end of the screw point thats way too far from the strings, isn't going to be really involved in the magnetic circuit. Using a DC gaussmeter, I put the probe on the bottom of the baseplate right over the most mass where the brass screw heads are and the readings are incredibly weak in those 4 spots. Putting steel screws in those spots isn't something you'd really hear. In fact NOT using steel in those spots if it had any effect at all, would make the pickup's sound BRIGHTER, because the less steel, the brighter the sound. I proved this years ago by making steel slugs that had full flat tops and bottoms, but between the top and bottom I used a lathe to carve out most of the steel between top and bottom. So, if you looked at the slug from the side they looked like a side view of an I-beam. They weighed very little, and the pickup got noticeably brighter, because there was way less iron, to soak up treble frequencies. Its all physics. You can't "disrupt frequencies." The more iron in a pickup, the less treble there will be. This is why pole screws from back in the earliest 50s that used alloys that were near pure iron, darken the sound of the pickup. I had pole screws made in one of those earlier pole screw alloys that had much less carbon in them, and they darken the sound because there's more soft iron involved. This is all about "perceived hearing." If I told you that steel bobbin mount screws made old PAF's sound the most incredible, then your mind will tend to hear it that way. I need to do a video comparing my work to original PAF's, and NOT tell you which one are PAF's because just labeling them enfluences what you hear. This is exactly why there is so much hype in the music industry. People will tend to believe claims because so and so said some "magical thinking" deal, that we call "advertising." Like "Historic,' or "True Historic," when in fact neither one of those terms has anything to do with reality. To prove this idea, you need to get a really good frequency analyzer, do a full frequency sweet with steel mount screws installed, then take them out and replace with brass. Then see what the data says. You would have to make SURE, you'd be using the extact identical screws in both brass and steel, and I was not able to find any steel screws identical to the brass screws used. The larger screws that I saw were from 1957, and were NOT magnetic, but stainless steel. Using very low carbon steel POLE screws, is something you can HEAR, because 6 pole screws are a significant amount of mass of pure iron versus higher carbon pole screws of the later 60's, when higher carbon screws replaced pretty much all common screws, which contributed to the buckers sounding harsher for lack of the amount of pure iron in the alloys. Everything matters, but some things are too small to hear. I used to do frequency analyses of A versus B prototype buckers, and I'd see tiny differences, but you couldn't heart those differences, so I dont do that anymore. If you can even FIND steel screws in #2 x 1/2 inch that are not threaded the full length of the shaft, let me know and I will test them, but I don't think they even exist, and they must match what was seldom used used anyway.
Hello Dave, I want to buy a set of you PG PAF pick-ups.
I know there is a long long line but ”if waiting for something good, no wait is too long” (Swedish saying”)
Plz let me know how I can get in line
I have such a long waiting time, though. 2 or 3 years. These days to pay the bills, while I am building all these old orders, I will make a set of NOS vintage wire sets to have an income, and then offer those for quick sale. I'll have another set or two in a few months probably, but they are my most expensive and rare vintage wire sets, so not many can afford those.
@@SDPickups the gods were with me and I managed to get a SDpickup up set (HD61 bridge & Corona NOS neck). They are combined with one of the best ’59 replicas…😊
@@jonaseriksson3043 Congratulations! Hope you are enjoying them.
How do I order a pair of pickups? What’s the best way to reach you?
I believe my email address is in the description of the video. If not, any of my recent videos have my email at the end of every video. But then, I have at least a two year waiting time after payment. These NOS wire sets are infrequently made and I do announce them on RUclips, so please subscribe so you'll know when that happens. Thanks!
WHOEVER KNOWS THAT VINTAGE SOUND, CANT DISAGREE! IT TOOK ME ABOUT 2YEARS OF STUDYING THE SOUND EVERYDAY, HAVING A SET OF YOURS, AND MY 1960 PAF SET, FOR MY EARS TO GET IN TUNE...NOT TO BE BIAS IVE HAD ALL THE TOP REPROS WITHOUT NAMING NAMES THERE GOOD, BUT THERE NOT PAFS AND THERE NOT YOURS, PERIOD, YOUR NEWER SETS IVE RECENTLY HEARD ARE LIKE A TOP REAL 59 PAF SET, MY 1960S PAFS ARE GOOD, BUT YOURS ARE BETTER, THERE LIKE WHATS IN THE BETTER 59 BURSTS WE ALL KNOW AND LOVE.. YOU ARE THE TRUE MYAGGI LOL
"WAX ON, WAX OFF........"
@@SDPickups HAHAHAHAHA SOOO CLASSIC!
THE DEALERS LIED LOL
Always. Its "vintage" so it MUST BE "FANTASTIC!" I see guys playing guitars I owned as a kid, most of them weren't very good guitars, but you see them now priced for thousands of dollars. I wouldn't want take back any of those guitars, no thanks.