1950's Era PAF Pickups?

[Stoopalini]

Found this in one of the Erlewine guitars. If I'm not mistaken, aren't these 1958 - 1960 PAF Pickups? If so, maybe I need to rethink the price on this one ;)

 

 

[tvguit]

Hey Thomas! They might be but a couple of things don't look right for PAFs. One thing is that the pickup ring doesn't have the correct looking mounting holes. Here's what they should look like:

 

[Stoopalini]

Thanks John. I understand the rings aren't M-69s, but what else could the pickups be if not PAFs?

 

I haven't yet OHM'ed them out or removed one of the mounting screws to check the color of the pickup bobbins, but hope to do so later today. My understanding is due to Gibson switching from manually wound pickups to automated wound pickups in 1965, pre 1965 pickups will vary in resistance and post 1965 pickups will consistently be exactly 7.5k.

 

Mark Erlewine did confirm for me that the original collection owner did have access to PAFs, and said it wouldn't be unusual for some of the guitars he made for him to use them.

[tvguit]

Don't get me wrong, it very well may be a real PAF. I just wonder since the rest of the guitar is already a copy of a 1958-60 Gibson Les Paul.

 

M69s had a problem with shrinking and breaking so they could have just changed the ring. Also, the solder shows evidence of the cover being off at some point in time. Not a huge deal, just an observation. Hopefully the real experts will chime in.

[kleinman]

Nothing tells me that it's not a real PAF. However the only way to establish authenticity beyond any doubt would be to remove the covers and check the insides.