PAF history - this needs repeating, again, and again...

[AlienVintage]

Thank you.

I might not be 100% right on every single tiny point, and there will always be exceptions and outliers, but I just want to get some better info out there. There are a lot of reasons why the incorrect timelines persist, but in time, we will hopefully turn these things around for the better with new info.

 

[Sol]

Some higher-end guitars used humbucking pickups with gold-colored cover plating - LP Customs, ES-345/355, et al.

The general theory is that, because these guitars tended to be made in smaller numbers, PAF pickups continued to be found in these humbuckers with gold covers well past the ones with nickel, and then chrome, plating.

Make sense?

Many thanks for your concise reply to my enquiry, much appreciated.

 

[Sol]

Thank you.

I might not be 100% right on every single tiny point, and there will always be exceptions and outliers, but I just want to get some better info out there. There are a lot of reasons why the incorrect timelines persist, but in time, we will hopefully turn these things around for the better with new info.

I hope, and trust that your research will be afforded the respect that any honest enquiry deserves.

 

[AlienVintage]

I’m just going to keep bumping this until it sticks.
I’m seeing way too many ‘66/67 husks that have been butchered.
Sadly, and admittedly, I know this from experience - I used to be one of those guys.
But all I can do is try:

Here’s the PAF/Patent number pickup timeline as I have personally experienced it:

For nickel and chrome covered humbuckers (not gold):


Pre-decal PAFs: February 1957 through mid/late 1957

PAFs: Mid/late 1957 through late 1962 (obviously first were long magnet, then short magnet change occurred around the second half of 1960).

Patent number humbuckers with “PAF specs” (plain enamel wire and double black leads): late 1962 through mid 1965

Patent number pickups with poly wire and white and black leads: later part of 1965 through early/mid 1967.

Patent number pickups with plain enamel wire and white and black leads: second half of 1967.

T-Tops: late 1967 or early 1968.

 

[AlienVintage]

Put your PAF history books aside, open your mind, and please re-read this whole thread a couple of times. Thank you! ?

 

[marshall1987]

I’m just going to keep bumping this until it sticks.
I’m seeing way too many ‘66/67 husks that have been butchered.
Sadly, and admittedly, I know this from experience - I used to be one of those guys.
But all I can do is try:

So right you are. And I'm also seeing quite a few early - mid '60s ES-335s with Patent-No. pickups with both bobbins secured by 4 slot-drive screws... instead of the normal Phillips-head screws. As I understand the evolution of Gibson pickups, you normally find the slot-drive screws later on "T-top" Patent No. pickups.

It's especially glaring when you discover these T-top pickups have been spliced on to a cut section of lead wire. :dang

 

[Little Jake]

Thanks for all the helpful information.

The only data point I can add re: timeline, is my '63 335 TDC (serial no. 1037xx) which shipped in spring of 1963: the neck pickup is a PAF and the bridge pickup is a PAT. The neck PAF has the less common steel (rather than brass) base plate screws. This indicates that the occurrence of nickel-plated PAF's extends beyond late '62 into the first half of '63.

 

[Michael Minnis]

Resurrecting an old thread. Not much info on gold PAF pickups. When did gold PAF pickups first appear and on which model/models? Thanks!

 

[poor man's burst]

According to the late André Duchossoire, the ES-350T was the first to get the PAFs in early '57, followed by the Les Paul Custom in mid '57.