PAF (pickup)

P.A.F.
P.A.F.
Manufacturer	Gibson Guitar Corporation
Period	1956–1975
Type	Passive Humbucker
Magnet type	1956–1960: Alnico 2, 3, and 5; 1961–1975: Alnico 5
Output specifications
Voltage (RMS), V	127 mV at 7.715 kHz
Impedance, kΩ	1956–1961: ~7.5–9.5; 1961–1965: 7.25–7.75; 1965–1975: 7.5
Sonic qualities
Resonant; frequency, Hz	7.715 kHz

Last updated February 10, 2024

PAF side view

PAF bottom view

A P.A.F., or simply PAF ("Patent Applied For"), is an early model of the humbucker guitar pickup invented by Seth Lover in 1955, so named for the "Patent Applied For" decal placed on the baseplate of each pickup.^[1] Gibson used the PAF on guitars from late 1956 until late 1962, long after the patent was granted.^[1] They were replaced by the Patent Number (Pat No) pickup, essentially a refined version of the PAF. These were in turn replaced by "T-Top" humbuckers in 1967, and production ended in 1975. Though it was not the first humbucking pickup ever, it was the first to gain widespread use, as the PAF's hum-free signal, tonal clarity, and touch sensitivity when paired with higher-gain amplifiers made the pickups popular with rock and blues guitarists.^[2] The PAF is an essential tonal characteristic of the now-famous 1957–1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard guitars, and pickups of this type have gained a large following.

History

Development

In the mid-1950s Gibson looked to create a new guitar pickup different from existing popular single coil designs. Gibson had already developed the Charlie Christian pickup and P-90 in the 1930s and 40s; however, these designs—like competitor Fender's single-coil pickups—were fraught with inherent 60-cycle hum sound interference.^[3]

Engineer and Gibson employee Seth Lover had developed a hum-canceling circuit for amplifier power supplies and suspected the same concept could be applied to guitar pickups.^[1] Ted McCarty authorized the project and Lover spent much of 1954 working on this noise-cancelling or "hum-bucking" pickup design.^[4] By early 1955, the design was completed. Rather than routing two single coil pickups in parallel, Lover had "routed two coils with opposite wind and polarity together in series, which caused each coil to cancel out the other’s hum."^[2] The design was given the part code P-490^[5] and in June 1955, Lover and Gibson filed a joint patent.^[1] The original design called explicitly for Alnico 5 magnets, but early examples can be Alnico 2, Alnico 3, or Alnico 5.^[6]

Early use

Gibson began switching from P-90s to PAFs first on the company's lap steel guitars in 1956, and then on electric guitars debuted at the NAMM Convention in 1957.^[1]^[6] Les Paul Goldtops and Customs were the first solid-body electric guitars to receive PAF humbuckers, and Gibson's ES Series were the first hollow/semi-hollow designs to receive them.^[3]

The Les Pauls of 1957 featured a black sticker with gold lettering applied to each pickup's underside, reading "PATENT APPLIED FOR."^[6] Over time the Patent Applied For sticker present on these pickups has evolved into the initialism P.A.F. as a way to identify pickups with this sticker. The patent for Gibson's design ( USpatent 2896491 ) was eventually issued on July 28, 1959. The acronym P.A.F. is also sometimes written as PAF leaving the periods out. However, in 1978 the word "PAF" was registered as a trademark by DiMarzio.^[7] (This registered trademark should not be confused with original P.A.F. acronym used to describe the original vintage pickups made by Gibson and the subject of this article.)

In 1958 the Goldtop model was dropped from production, and the sunburst Standard took its place. These guitars were all fitted with PAF humbuckers, which contributed greatly to the instruments' sound.

1961–1966

Early 1961 PAFs are almost exactly identical to the original 1957–1960 PAFs. In July 1961 Gibson standardized the PAF construction process with the introduction of the SG model. With this, smaller Alnico 5 magnets became standard.^[6] Transition to a new start lead location and a more formal number of wire winds was also introduced, leading to pickup DC resistance to center around 7.5kΩ.^[6] In addition, around 1963 these pickups were given a new sticker that had a patent number written on it. However, the stickers were, and continued to be, labelled with " U.S. patent 2,737,842 ", which is the number issued to the 1952 Les Paul trapeze tailpiece design and not the humbucking pickups.^[1] Between 1965 and 1966, Gibson switched to polyurethane-coated wire from enamel-coated to cut costs and streamline pigtail lead soldering time, changing the wire color from purple to red.

1967–1980

Around the time of the last small-guard SG's offered in early 1966, Gibson standardized a T-shaped tool mark on the top of humbucker bobbins. This new style of Gibson humbucker became known as the T-Top. The "T" located on the top of the bobbins helped workers ensure the bobbin was facing the correct way during the winding and assembly process. T-Top bobbins lose the distinctive square hole of the original PAF bobbins. In addition the coil former geometry of the T-Top bobbin differs from the coil former dimensions of PAF bobbins making T-Top bobbins slightly taller and more robust internally than PAF bobbins. Early T-Top humbuckers retain the same patent number sticker on the baseplate into the early 1970s. These early patent sticker T-Top humbuckers have the same wood spacer and short A2 and A5 magnets of the previous iteration. Eventually the patent sticker on the baseplate was replaced by a stamped patent number. With this change, other specification began to change such as magnet specifications and use of a plastic rather than wooden spacer. Gibson produced T-Top pickups through 1980 but many^{[ who? ]} consider the early patent sticker T-Tops more collectible than later versions.^[3]

Sound

Pickup manufacturer Seymour Duncan described the characteristic tone of PAFs as a "Tele-on-steroids," with a "full, uncompressed sound that’s slightly less bright than a single-coil" and "a nice balance of warm lows, clear mids and crisp highs."^[2] Additionally, the pickups had a tonal clarity and touch sensitivity at higher gain levels that helped make them popular among rock and blues musicians.^[2]

However, due to manufacturing inconsistencies, each individual pickup is unique in terms of output level and tone. Factors that account for this variation are:

Gibson used four different machines to wind vintage P.A.F. pickups. Two of the four machines lacked auto stop mechanisms resulting in variation in turns for each of the bobbins that make up the P.A.F. pickup assembly. The resulting inconsistency in turn count led to variation in the output and tone. For the same reason, the two coils within each pickup unit usually have a slightly different number of turns, which affects the treble overtones of the assembled pickup.
Gibson used Alnico magnets in PAFs, the same magnet as used in the P-90. Alnico has several different grades with different tonal properties. In original P.A.F. pickups the grades Alnico 2, 3, and 5 were used (with Alnico 3 being the least common).
Original P.A.F. magnets were charged in groups. This process yielded magnets that were not fully charged to saturation. Vintage P.A.F. and P-90 magnets therefore can lose some charge over time, which affects the tone of the pickup. (P-90's in particular are more prone to this effect.)

Legacy

In an article exploring how PAFs had become the "most revered and elusive" pickup ever made, Guitarist dubbed them the "Holy Grail of all electric guitar pickups" and noted a cottage industry had formed around companies trying to replicate the vintage PAF design,^[1] with much of the pickup's status owing to its popularity with influential guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Duane Allman, George Harrison, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.^[2]

Despite the popularity of hotter humbuckers in the 1970s, by 1981 Gibson realized that there was still a consumer demand for the sound of original PAF pickups. Engineer Tim Shaw designed a pickup that aimed to replicate the early design, reversing changes made in the 1960s and 1970s. Shaw's efforts are generally considered to be the first of many recreations of the PAF humbucker, and it was used in Gibson's reissue and Custom Shop models through the '80s and '90s. Inspired by Shaw's efforts, pickup manufacturer Seymour Duncan partnered with Seth Lover to design the "Seth Lover Humbucker," a faithful recreation of the original PAF design using one of Gibson's old coil-winding machines.^[2]

The PAF's warm, uncompressed sound has remained popular—even as hotter, more powerful humbuckers have become the norm—with notable fans in Dave Grohl, Derek Trucks, and Jeff Tweedy. Many companies have also released modernized versions of the design, with Gibson offering models like the "Burstbucker" and "Custom Buckers."^[2]

Related Research Articles

A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in dynamic microphones to cancel electromagnetic hum. Humbuckers are one of two main types of guitar pickups. The other is single coil.

The Gibson ES-150 is a pioneering semi-acoustic electric guitar produced by Gibson Guitar Corporation. Introduced in 1936, it is generally recognized as the world's first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. The ES stands for Electric Spanish, and Gibson designated it "150" because they priced it at around $150. The particular sound of the instrument came from a combination of the specific bar-style pickup and its placement, and the guitar's overall construction.

The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typical design features a solid mahogany body with a carved maple top and a single cutaway, a mahogany set-in neck with a rosewood fretboard, two pickups with independent volume and tone controls, and a stoptail bridge, although variants exist.

A single coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single coil pickups are one of the two most popular designs, along with dual-coil or "humbucking" pickups.

Seth E. Lover was a designer of amplifiers and musical instrument electronics and effects. He is most famous for developing the Gibson humbucker or hum-cancelling electric stringed instrument pickup, most often used on the electric guitar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pickup (music technology)</span> Captures vibrations produced by musical instruments

A pickup is a transducer that captures or senses mechanical vibrations produced by musical instruments, particularly stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, and converts these to an electrical signal that is amplified using an instrument amplifier to produce musical sounds through a loudspeaker in a speaker enclosure. The signal from a pickup can also be recorded directly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gibson Firebird</span> Solid body electric guitar

The Gibson Firebird is a solid-body electric guitar manufactured by Gibson beginning in 1963.

The Fender Telecaster Deluxe is a solid-body electric guitar originally produced from 1972 to 1981, and re-issued by Fender multiple times starting in 2004.

The P-90 is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson Guitar Corporation since 1946, as well as other vendors. Compared to other single coil designs, such as the ubiquitous Fender single coil, the bobbin for a P-90 is wider but shorter. The Fender style single coil is wound in a taller bobbin, but the wires are closer to the individual poles. This makes the P-90 produce a different type of tone, somewhat warmer with less edge and brightness. As with other single-coil pickups, the P-90 is subject to mains hum unless some form of hum cancellation is used.

The Fender Lead Series was produced by the Fender/Rogers/Rhodes Division of CBS Musical Instruments. The series comprised Lead I, Lead II, Lead III and Lead Bass models.

The Fender Wide Range Humbucker is a humbucker guitar pickup, designed by Seth Lover for Fender in the early 1970s. This pickup was intended to break Fender's image as a "single coil guitar company," and to gain a foothold in the humbucker guitar market dominated by Gibson.

Fender Telecaster Custom is a model of electric guitar made by Fender.

The mini-humbucker is a humbucking guitar pickup. It was originally created by the Epiphone company. The mini-humbucker resembles a Gibson PAF humbucker, but is narrower in size and senses a shorter length of string vibration. This produces clearer, brighter tones that are quite unlike typical Gibson sounds. It fits in between single-coils and full-sized humbuckers in the tonal spectrum. It is frequently used in jazz guitars, mounted under the fingerboard or on the pickguard.

The Gibson L6-S is a solid body electric guitar. It was the descendant of the L5S jazz solid-body electric guitar. It was the same shape, very much like a wide Gibson Les Paul, but with a 24-fret neck, the first Gibson guitar to have this.

The Gibson Les Paul bass is a bass guitar first manufactured by Gibson in 1969, just after the relaunch of the Les Paul guitar in 1968.

The Gibson Les Paul Custom is a higher-end variation of the Gibson Les Paul guitar. It was developed in 1953 after Gibson had introduced the Les Paul model in 1952.

The Gibson Nighthawk was a family of electric guitars manufactured by Gibson. Introduced in 1993, the Nighthawk represented a radical change from traditional Gibson designs. While its maple-capped mahogany body and set neck were reminiscent of the classic Gibson Les Paul, the Nighthawk incorporated a number of characteristics more commonly associated with Fender guitars. The Nighthawk was not a commercial success; production of all models was discontinued in 1998 after only five years.

Electric guitar design is a type of industrial design where the looks and efficiency of the shape as well as the acoustical aspects of the guitar are important factors. In the past many guitars have been designed with various odd shapes as well as very practical and convenient solutions to improve the usability of the object.

The Fender Noiseless series is a line of electric guitar pickups made by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation designed to cancel 60 cycle (Hz) hum noise while retaining the characteristic sound of single coil pickups. Introduced in 1998, these pickups consist of a pair of single coils stacked one on top of the other, compacted so as to match the shape and width space as a traditional Fender single coil guitar pickup, while being only slightly taller. The upper coil is actually the sound source, while the lower coil is responsible for the mains hum attenuation. Alnico V magnetic bars span from one coil to the other, crossing a soft ferrous steel spacer plate that isolates them, without touching it. The spacer plate has mainly two functions: to isolate the lower coil from the vibrations of the string, making sure that the sound is picked up only from the upper one, and to increase the magnetic flux that passed through both coils, increasing the output of the pickup. This is to be contrasted with the original noise canceling pickup, the humbucker, which is a double-wide, horizontally adjacent pair of single coil pickups with opposing phase.

The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele, is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Price, Huw (May 26, 2022). "Why Gibson PAF humbuckers remain the most revered and elusive of all pickups". Guitarist. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The History and Resurgence of P.A.F. Pickups". seymourduncan.com. Seymour Duncan. April 7, 2022. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
1 2 3 "Gibson PAF Humbuckers". Vintage Guitar Info. Retrieved January 3, 2015.^{[ self-published source ]}
↑ Marx, Wallace (December 17, 2009). "The Pickup Story, Part III: The Road to the Humbucker". Premier Guitar. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
↑ Iwanade, Yasuhiko (1999). The Beauty of the 'Burst Gibson Sunburst Les Pauls from '58 to '60. Hal Leonard. p. 186. ISBN 9780793573745.
1 2 3 4 5 Hunter, Dave (2008). The Guitar Pickup Handbook: The Start of Your Sound. Backbeat. pp. 60, 62–70. ISBN 9780879309312.
↑ "PAF Trademark of DIMARZIO, INC. - Registration Number 1096579 - Serial Number 73116336 :: Justia Trademarks". Justia Trademarks. Retrieved November 11, 2022.

External links

USpatent 2896491, Seth Lover,"Magnetic pickup for stringed musical instrument",issued 1959-07-28 — PAF pickup itself, hum cancellation

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Price2022-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Price, Huw (May 26, 2022). "Why Gibson PAF humbuckers remain the most revered and elusive of all pickups". Guitarist. Retrieved August 20, 2022.

[SD-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The History and Resurgence of P.A.F. Pickups". seymourduncan.com. Seymour Duncan. April 7, 2022. Retrieved May 11, 2023.

[VGI-3] 1 2 3 "Gibson PAF Humbuckers". Vintage Guitar Info. Retrieved January 3, 2015.^{[ self-published source ]}

[Marx-4] Marx, Wallace (December 17, 2009). "The Pickup Story, Part III: The Road to the Humbucker". Premier Guitar. Retrieved January 3, 2015.

[5] Iwanade, Yasuhiko (1999). The Beauty of the 'Burst Gibson Sunburst Les Pauls from '58 to '60. Hal Leonard. p. 186. ISBN 9780793573745.

[Hunter-6] 1 2 3 4 5 Hunter, Dave (2008). The Guitar Pickup Handbook: The Start of Your Sound. Backbeat. pp. 60, 62–70. ISBN 9780879309312.

[7] "PAF Trademark of DIMARZIO, INC. - Registration Number 1096579 - Serial Number 73116336 :: Justia Trademarks". Justia Trademarks. Retrieved November 11, 2022.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]