Our lightweight Eternal 'PAF Replica'-equipped T-Types have become a very popular for those looking for a versatile, tone-packed and simple instrument, perfect for all styles of music. The combination of a lightweight build, solid hardware and our open sounding PAF Replica pickups create a unique tone - both resonant and focussed that really allows the player to find their own voice to craft truly musical tones.
Our previous versions have either leaned heavily on the early/mid ‘50s vibe and aesthetic, with maple necks and two-tone sunburst finishes, or more recently with a three-tone 'burst and a rosewood fingerboard for a more early '60s vibe.
For this latest version, I decided to have a little fun, whilst still making an awesome sounding and beautiful to play guitar. I went with a Thinline ash construction using an f-hole, and a reverse big headstock design. The neck is a slim "C" shape with 21 jumbo frets and pearl dots on a 9.5" radius dark rosewood 'board. The aged nitro finish is translucent Candy Apple Red, using my preferred gold basecoat with adds a lovely depth and warmth to the finish. Twin Eternal PAFs with face-mounted master vol/tone and three-way toggle switch round out the wiring.
A hand-cut bone nut with Kluson/Gotoh hardware - including a six bent saddle bridge with through body stringing for maximum TONE - keep things simple functional and easy to maintain.
The juice is channelled through our usual CTS, CRL and Switchcraft electronic components, including 500k Linear volume and Log tone pots.
The beautiful PAF Replica Set included here are our own recreations of perhaps the Holy Grail of great electric guitar pickup tone: the original PAF pickups from Gibsons golden era of production, which are quite rightly revered as the some of the finest ever made.
We are incredibly proud of our PAF Replica pickups, developed over a number of years and we believe that they capture the essence and open tone of the late '50s pickups perfectly. My personal belief is that when Seth Lover was tasked with designing the first humbuckers for Gibson, his aim was to create a pickup with all the warmth and clarity of a P90 but without the inherent hum associated with single-coil pickups, and that's almost exactly what he achieved. The P90 had been Gibsons main pickup up until 1956/7 and known for its grit and warmth. However, with such a beefy tone it suffered perhaps more than other singlecoils with 60 Cycle hum issues. Lover’s PAF design was a huge success and the earliest models certainly shared the P90 voice: warm, open and transparent sounding with a moderately low output that allowed the natural tone of the guitar to shine through. The borderline microphonic nature is inherent in the design and this again allowed players from to turn up their amps and use the singing, musical feedback tone that went on to define and change popular music forever.
Unlike most modern humbuckers particularly the overwound, high or hot output variants, the original PAF has a far brighter, open and transparent tone than many people realise. Few of us have been fortunate enough to play late 50s Les Pauls, but they sound absolutely nothing like a modern version. Over the years, I've worked on countless vintage Gibson guitars; many of them still had their original PAFs onboard and it became evident that certain PAFs really stood out above others. We've used this experience and knowledge to reverse engineer and really nail what makes a superior PAF tone.
Recreating this tone was no easy task and there was a huge amount of research & development undertaken. We've used the finest components available including butyrate bobbins, sandcast magnets, the correct fillister pole screws, nickel silver baseplates and un-potted nickel covers - plus the all-important maple spacers. We also use Plain Enamel coated 42AWG copper coil wire and our own coil wind patterns were refined and referenced until we reached a perfect and repeatable formula to match the DC Resistance and tonal subtleties found on old PAF pickups.
PAF Replica Specs:
Butyrate bobbins
Sandcast magnets
Fillister pole screws
Nickel silver baseplates
Un-potted nickel covers
Maple spacers
Plain Enamel coated 42AWG copper coil wire
DC Resistance 7k - 7.5k, approx