recommend me some PAF style neck PUPS.

im gonna be picking up another MIM Tele this week and i was thinking of putting in a PAF style neck pickup .

what do you suggest?

Lots of good ones out there....

The SD '59, Jazz, and Seth Lovers are good. Personally, I'm not that crazy about DiMarzios anymore...

For the money, a really good neck bucker, IMHO, is the Stew Mac Golden Age.... You may run into some phasing problems with the bridge and have to reverse wire it, but it should be okay...

BTW, a guy who used to hang out around here turned me onto a simple switching scheme using a regular strat 5-way and the Golden Age that worked thusly (assuming pos. 1 is the rear position):

1: single coil (split humbucker) neck
2: single coil neck and bridge (hum cancelling combination)
3: bridge only
4: bridge and humbucking neck
5: humbucking neck only

Basically, it works like two mirror-image 3-ways, with a common bridge position. I used it on a guitar I built and once you get used to switching down to get to the neck position, it works really well... You don't have to jump across a couple of positions to get to where you want to be like with the standard "Fat Tele" switch....

Lots of good ones out there....

The SD '59, Jazz, and Seth Lovers are good. Personally, I'm not that crazy about DiMarzios anymore...

For the money, a really good neck bucker, IMHO, is the Stew Mac Golden Age.... You may run into some phasing problems with the bridge and have to reverse wire it, but it should be okay...

BTW, a guy who used to hang out around here turned me onto a simple switching scheme using a regular strat 5-way and the Golden Age that worked thusly (assuming pos. 1 is the rear position):

1: single coil (split humbucker) neck
2: single coil neck and bridge (hum cancelling combination)
3: bridge only
4: bridge and humbucking neck
5: humbucking neck only

Basically, it works like two mirror-image 3-ways, with a common bridge position. I used it on a guitar I built and once you get used to switching down to get to the neck position, it works really well... You don't have to jump across a couple of positions to get to where you want to be like with the standard "Fat Tele" switch....

i'm not sure id be interested in splitting the neck ( i like the split coil options more on a humbucker bridge pup )

but thanks very much for the pup suggestions .

ill go check em out right now

thanks again!

i'm not sure id be interested in splitting the neck ( i like the split coil options more on a humbucker bridge pup )


I know what you mean... I used that wiring scheme with a Golden Age humbucker in a guitar I built; I hardly used the split coil, but I've always thought that it's better to have it and not want it, rather than want it and not have it!

Good luck with your search....

I can highly recommend the Seth Lover. I have one in my tele and it's one of the best I've used. The output matches well with the tele bridge pup and the two pickup setting is juciy & funky. I love the tone of the seth alone though. Very dynamic, woody, rich & bluesy. It seems to be a very touch sensitive pickup and works well if you play with dynamics. I've also used Duncan 59's & Jazz pups in the neck of a tele with great results. For me though, the Seth is the one that get's the tones I hear in my head. The suggestion for the Golden Age pickup by stew-mac is an excellent one. Great pickups for not a lot of dough.

I can highly recommend the Seth Lover. I have one in my tele and it's one of the best I've used. The output matches well with the tele bridge pup and the two pickup setting is juciy & funky. I love the tone of the seth alone though. Very dynamic, woody, rich & bluesy. It seems to be a very touch sensitive pickup and works well if you play with dynamics. I've also used Duncan 59's & Jazz pups in the neck of a tele with great results. For me though, the Seth is the one that get's the tones I hear in my head. The suggestion for the Golden Age pickup by stew-mac is an excellent one. Great pickups for not a lot of dough.

thanks alot !!

There are plenty of options, depending on how much you want to pay and what tones you want (duh!).
I've had good fortune with Seymour Duncan '59s, Gibson Classic '57s, and Fender Protones. I've heard great things about Seth Lovers, Duncan Jazz, and Antiquities, too.
If you want to spend some money, Lindy Fralin's are supposed to be magical. I have a set of Tom Holmes', in my Hamer, and, to my ears, they're everything they're cracked up to be (amazing clarity and definition - think Dickey Betts' tone, for a starting point).
If you're considering something different, I'd highly recommend a mini-humbucker (I've currently got traditional one, with pole pieces and love it!) - either the Firebird or trad-type.
If you're really feeling dangerous, I'd suggest you look into a Gretsch Filtertron-styled pickup (TV Jones' are awsesome!). Or, you could go to a P-90 styled pickup (Gibson, Harmonic Design, and others all make 'em in humbucker sizes). I had a Gibson P-94 and was very happy with it.

There are plenty of options, depending on how much you want to pay and what tones you want (duh!).
I've had good fortune with Seymour Duncan '59s, Gibson Classic '57s, and Fender Protones. I've heard great things about Seth Lovers, Duncan Jazz, and Antiquities, too.
If you want to spend some money, Lindy Fralin's are supposed to be magical. I have a set of Tom Holmes', in my Hamer, and, to my ears, they're everything they're cracked up to be (amazing clarity and definition - thing Dickey Betts' tone, for a starting point).
If you're considering something different, I'd highly recommend a mini-humbucker (I've currently got traditional one, with pole pieces and love it!) - either the Firebird or trad-type.
If you're really feeling dangerous, I'd suggest you look into a Gretsch Filtertron-styled pickup (TV Jones' are awsesome!). Or, you could go to a P-90 styled pickup (Gibson, Harmonic Design, and others all make 'em in humbucker sizes). I had a Gibson P-94 and was very happy with it.

awesome ....thanks for the suggestions man :)

There are plenty of options, depending on how much you want to pay and what tones you want (duh!).
I've had good fortune with Seymour Duncan '59s, Gibson Classic '57s, and Fender Protones. I've heard great things about Seth Lovers, Duncan Jazz, and Antiquities, too.
If you want to spend some money, Lindy Fralin's are supposed to be magical. I have a set of Tom Holmes', in my Hamer, and, to my ears, they're everything they're cracked up to be (amazing clarity and definition - think Dickey Betts' tone, for a starting point).
If you're considering something different, I'd highly recommend a mini-humbucker (I've currently got traditional one, with pole pieces and love it!) - either the Firebird or trad-type.
If you're really feeling dangerous, I'd suggest you look into a Gretsch Filtertron-styled pickup (TV Jones' are awsesome!). Or, you could go to a P-90 styled pickup (Gibson, Harmonic Design, and others all make 'em in humbucker sizes). I had a Gibson P-94 and was very happy with it.
Highly agree with John H... SO many good options, I have had a great experience with the SD 59 and Fralins are awesome, most of the others he suggested I have tried briefly and all were very useable.
Also the mini-hum idea is killer, I've been going back and forth on that idea myself for one of my tele's. I played a couple of partscasters with Kent Armstrong mini's which are great bang for buck, they were wired w/o tone control in the neck spot and I could not put the guitar down it sounded so good. Humbucker fat but still had nice chimey highs and compressed beautifully when you turned down the guit vol knob.
Have fun it's a blast experimenting...

I'm on the Seth Lover bandwagon. I've got a pair in my (surprise...) Les Paul too.

I'm on the Seth Lover bandwagon. I've got a pair in my (surprise...) Les Paul too.

I'm ordering a set of double-cream Seths for my Epi LP...

All good suggestions. I love SD's stuff - the 59 is my bench reference for PAF style tone.

I just want to add one PU maker that really really catches my ear for PAFs - Peter Florance of Voodoo Pickups. There is something really creamy and vocal and vowel like about his PAFs, like the notes bloom...hard to describe, but I really really dig 'em. Pricey tho...

[quote=John Harrison]
Have fun it's a blast experimenting...

it sure is , however my wallet tends to disagree. :wink: :cry:

All good suggestions. I love SD's stuff - the 59 is my bench reference for PAF style tone.

I just want to add one PU maker that really really catches my ear for PAFs - Peter Florance of Voodoo Pickups. There is something really creamy and vocal and vowel like about his PAFs, like the notes bloom...hard to describe, but I really really dig 'em. Pricey tho...

im on a budget but i will keep this in mind for the next time. thanks

....I'm thinking about putting a PAF style pup in the Neck position too, but I'm just curious:

Since I've only played a 72 Custom RI with the Fender Wide Range Humbucker in the neck position, I'm just curious as to your opinions as to the tone difference between the Wide Range, and say the SD59 Humbucker?

I've never had the opportunity to compare em back-to-back (for that matter, never tried one with a SD59 in the neck). So what are your opinions?

Thanks!

I had a set of wide range h/b's I took out of an original 72 thin-line. I installed the neck wide range in a frankentele I made. They are an excellent sounding pickups, but ( imo ) they sound very different than a Gibson style bucker. They have more of a single coil tone. Very sweet top end and quite a bit more treble bite. I do like em, but I prefer the tone of the Seth Lover I now have in my tele over the wide range bucker. They are just different animals. I have not heard the re-issue wide range pups, so I can't comment on them.

I have used a DiMarzio PAF PRO in the neck position on a PRS with good results.

I had a DM PAF Pro in the bridge of an old Kramer and hated it. It was too midrangey for me. Of course, a lot of people say it makes a good neck pickup for that very reason.

Hard to say, though, in a tele. A PRS is a totally different beast...

Lindy Fralin 's PAF style pickup is no joke...... I may put one in a Tele?

B/T/W-Big Cookie was the one who recommended the Seths to me. He said the Tom Holmes were even more accurate repros. However, I'm not made of $$ :)

I have one in the neck of my 50s Classic tele. More responsive than most buckers I've played... which to me sound too compressed, unresponsive and muddy. I like single coils... and Seth Lovers;-)

Trev