Q: I keep reading about Gibson's original PAF pickups. But what is it that makes original PAF pickups so special (and ridiculously expensive)?

A: Pretty much every guitar player has heard about the legendary "Patent Applied For" - or "PAF" - humbucking pickups that first appeared on Gibson guitars in 1957. The manufacturing process and materials used contribute to the "PAF sound." However, not every PAF pickup is created equal. And the truth is, once Gibson got their patent and didn't need to put the "Patent Applied For" sticker on the underside of the pickups, they didn't change the way the pickups were made. You can easily have a PAF pickup that's in every way the same as a post PAF-era pickup, but the PAF version will command far more money (if you can even find one - as they're actually quite rare).

The most desirable PAFs had a pair of coils that had roughly 5,000 turns of standard 42-gauge plain enamel wire around alnico magnets. The DC resistance of these runs around 7.5-8k. And while they were machine-wound, the machines were run by people, not computer-controlled, and sometimes the actual number of windings would vary. Also, none of these early humbuckers were wax-potted. Over time, all magnets gradually lose some power. Sometimes a player's sweat would get inside (okay, maybe even a little beer). All of this contributes to the overall sound quality of PAFs, which are almost always of a relatively low output for humbuckers, so they sound a certain way, which is often described as "sweet and open and very musical."