Mojotone's Premium Historic Limited '59 PAF set winds the clock back for vintage Gibson-style tone
The "vintage-correct" humbuckers are hand-wound in the USA and join a long list of pickups chasing that late-'50s vibe
Mojotone has unveiled the Premium Historic Limited '59 PAF set, a pair of humbuckers replicating the legendary tone of the early Gibson "Patent Applied For" pickups.
There are few, if any, electric guitar pickups more sought-after, and tonehounds are always quick to circle when a new high-quality clone enters the market. Could Mojotone's Premium Historic Limited '59 PAFs be just what you're looking for to give your Les Paul a new lease of old-school life?
Who knows. But Mojotone's attention to detail is nigh-on forensic, using a number of original late-’50s PAFs for reference. The Premium Historic Limited '59 PAFs were created using "vintage-correct components" and spec, and feature field-charged rough cast Alnico 2 magnets, un-potted coils, off-white butyrate bobbins, 49.2mm spacing, long-leg nickel silver PAF mounting frames, 42AWG plain enamel wire and two-strand external breaded leads.
The pickup are hand-wound after the fashion of the originals, creating what Mojotone describes as "a dynamic, articulate, harmonically rich, yet inspiringly clear set of neck and bridge humbuckers—all at an impressive circa-1959 price."
These are available exclusively through Reverb.com, priced £200.84 + shipping TBC ($249.95), which in real terms is how much the originals would have cost back in 1959.
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Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.
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