software

Right now I use a 1981 Gibson Les Paul Custom. It has stock pickups, so what pickups would it have in it? How would they sound compaired to a Gibson PAF?

Man...that is a loaded question, and one that will have a thousand different opinions. For starters, I don't know what pickups Gibson was using in the Custom's duing the early 80's.

A true quot;Gibson PAFquot; is an original equipment pickup in Gibson guitars manufactured between 1957 and 1960. The quot;PAFquot; stands for Pattent Applied For, meaning that during these years Gibson had applied for a patent on the pickup, but it had not been granted yet. Sometime in 1960, the patent was granted and the pickups had a new sticker with a patent # on them.

Getting the sound of a quot;True PAFquot; by using a modern pickup is somewhat like trying to grab smoke with your bare hands. The quot;PAF'squot; from 57-60 were all over the board in terms of OHM ratings. Some were overwound, some were underwound....basically no 2 sets were the same. There were arguably as many poor sounding sets of quot;PAF'squot; as there were great sounding quot;PAF'squot;. To get an idea of what PAF's really sound like, you would have to listen to players who recorded albums in the 60's and early 70's with original Les Pauls. Jimmy Page, Clapton during his time with Cream, Peter Green with Fleetwood Mac, Paul Kossoff with Free, early ZZ top...stuff like that.

Every pickup manufacturer in the world has their own version of the quot;PAFquot;, and claim that theirs nails it...including Duncan. It ultimately comes down to what sounds good to your ear, and which manufacturer you trust. has been working on and making pickups longer than anyone but Gibson (at least I think so, he was repairing pups in the mid to late 60's for guys like Jeff Beck and Jimmy Hendrix). He developed the Seth Lover pickups with the help of Mr. Seth Lover himself (Seth Lover designed and built the origional quot;PAF'squot; for Gibson back in 1957), and Mr. Lover thought enough of the quality and tone to put his name on them....I think that says something right there.

Tough question with really no right or wrong question. Hope I helped a little.

You might have a Gibson Shaw PAF already. If you check the base plate, there should be an ink stamped number like e.g. quot;137 681quot; for June 1981.

It is NOT gonna be PAF...the PAF's were all usd up bu the very early 60's...I'll say this, my Moderne is an 82 model and I replaced the stock Gibson Pickups with Duncan Pearly Gates...WORLD of difference. Those are more than likely gonna be PAF STYLED pickups as far as output but trust me...if you are going for that old school tone a set of Duncan PAF style pups (PG's, Seths, Ants, 59's, etc) would be huge upgrade for you.

anyone like those T-tops?
i do!

Weren't they using the 490s by then (not the 498, but the 490T)

If it's a T-top, I'd personally keep it in there. Great pups like Les said.


Originally Posted by JeffBWeren't they using the 490s by then (not the 498, but the 490T)

If it's a T-top, I'd personally keep it in there. Great pups like Les said.

If I'm not mistaken, the technical model name of the original Seth Lover designed Gibson humbucker was RPU-490.

Well besides ohm ratings on the original pafs, what else varied throughout them?

About $2.5K.