Modern P.A.F.
True PAF Tone, Modern Output
$175 – $350
The Modern P.A.F. is our Pure P.A.F. on steroids. It’s great for more modern styles of music that need a little more output and power. The Modern P.A.F. features a thicker midrange with a quick and even breakup.
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True PAF Tone, Modern Output
Want to learn more about our Modern P.A.F.? Here's all the information you'll need:
Features
The Fralin Modern P.A.F. is the second best-selling humbucker we make. We took the specifications of the 50’s Gibson® P.A.F. pickups and added more power and output. We designed the Modern P.A.F. as a stronger, thicker, and warmer version of our Pure P.A.F. This pickup is for those looking for traditional tone only a little thicker and darker. With more turns and stronger magnets, the Modern P.A.F. will break up sooner and sound warmer and beefier than our Pure P.A.F.
- Our Second-Best-Selling Humbucker – low output, vintage tone
- Thick, strong while still bright. Features an early, smooth breakup
- Modernized Gibson PAF® specifications: medium output, with modern clarity and power
- USA-made Alnico 4 Magnets for vintage tonal balance and output
- Compensated Overwound Bridge for even volume across all pickups
- Hand-wound with our “Sectioning” technique for unique, dynamic tone
- Hand-built for unrivaled quality control
- 10-Year Warranty on manufacturing defects
Our manufacturing process allows us to achieve unparalleled quality control. Modern P.A.F.’s consist of USA-Made bobbins, baseplates, magnets, and wire. We wind each pickup by hand, one at a time. Each pickup is wound using our proprietary “Sectioning” technique. This gives the pickup a sweet, clear tone.
We assemble each pickup one at a time, by hand. Making pickups this way allows us to achieve unbeatable attention to detail. After assembly, we wax-pot the pickup to preserve the pickup and prevent microphonics.
Sound & Video
Thick, strong, yet clear. Expect loud, warm tones with darker treble strings and woolier bass strings. With distortion, this model will break up faster than our Pure P.A.F. and has a smooth and buttery grind. You’ll hear a pronounced midrange, smooth high-end and attack. AlNicCo IV magnets and Plain Enamel wire give the Modern P.A.F. a perfect balance of modern and vintage tone.
Clean tones are warm, round, and full. Single notes have a larger footprint, while bass strings sound bouncy and rich. You’ll be able to get warm jazzy tones out of this pickup with ease. Dirty tones will sound creamier and smoother than our Pure P.A.F, with a smoother attack.
Sound Samples for Modern P.A.F.:
About this Sound Clip:
All sound samples are played from Neck Position First and Bridge Position Last.
Tonal Graph For Modern P.A.F.:
The tonal graph below for our Modern P.A.F. features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.
Attack: Dynamic & Full
Videos for Modern P.A.F.:
Tech Specs:
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Modern P.A.F..
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Neck Ohm Reading (Stock): | 8K 1 |
| Bridge Ohm Reading (Stock): | 9K 1 |
| Neck Polarity: | Reversible with 3-Conductor or 4-Conductor Lead |
| Bridge Polarity: | Reversible with 3-Conductor or 4-Conductor Lead |
| Magnet: | USA-Made Alnico 4 |
| Wire: | USA-Made 42-Gauge Plain Enamel |
| Cover Material: | Nickel Silver |
| Baseplate Material: | Nickel Silver |
| Baseplate Leg Depth: | 6mm |
| Slug / Pole Piece Material: | Steel |
| Bobbin Material: | ABS Plastic |
| Recommended Pot Value: | 500K |
| Recommended Cap Value: | 0.02mfd 2 |
Additional Technical Info:
1 Ohm Readings can vary due to a multitude of factors, including ambient temperature, multimeter calibration, different wire batches, and other factors. Due to this, ohm readings are approximate. Learn more about Ohm Readings here.
2 We recommend a 0.02mfd Cap Value on most guitar and bass pickups. The exception is a Magic Cap, which Lindy prefers on the Bridge Pickup of Fender® guitars only. Learn More about Caps Here.
Polarity Information:
Here's how we wind and magnetize our pickups:
This is a Hum Cancelling Pickup.
If you're buying a set from us, all pickups will work together seamlessly. If you're buying a single pickup, all you need to worry about is Coil Direction.
To ensure your pickup will work, make sure you select multiple leads (2-Conductor, 3-Conductor, or 4-Conductor if available), or the 3-Wire modification so you can reverse the coil direction, if need be.
Lead Options
See below for our Lead color codes. For help with matching to other manufacturers, check out this resource here.
Gibson Braided Lead
Gibson-Style instruments
Phase Reversible
Coil Splitting
3-Conductor Lead
Phase Reversible
Coil Splitting
4-Conductor Lead
Phase Reversible
Series Parallel Wiring
Coil Splitting
Covered Humbucker
Uncovered Humbucker
Get It Prewired
Get our Modern P.A.F. prewired into a Prewired Pickguard!:
Featured Reviews
Reviews We Worked Hard For, and Are Proud Of
Customer Reviews
71 Genuine Reviews for Modern P.A.F.
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I’ve been using John shur, prs, duncan so many times,
There was no better sound than this pickup.
] -
I ordered a pair of these in the standard options of 8k/9k, standard Gibson wiring, and polished nickel covers, for my 2019 Gibson Les Paul Traditional. After playing with these pickups in my guitar for a couple of months, I find that these pickups live up to everything that’s advertised about them by Fralin Pickups. They are awesome, and have that “authentic late 50’s Gibson flavor”, but with some extra power, to them. (That’s probably because for all intents and purposes: they ARE authentic.)
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Bury me with these pickups
I ordered the 8.5k bridge and 7.5k neck, installed in a Gibson Les Paul Traditional Goldtop… it went from a “pretty great but no real attachment, will probably sell soon” guitar to “you’ll have to pry this out of my cold dead hands.” Everyone’s taste is different, but for me, these are EXACTLY what I was looking for. -
Modern PAF 10k…Great pick-ups, got bite and nice tone!
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Nothing better! These pickups are packed with great tone and punch. I really appreciate the effort to make sure that I am getting the best possible result.
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Awesome sound, very grateful for this find
Keep up the awesome work!!! -
Fantastic clarity.. would recommend to anyone looking for that slight edge to standard PAF . Great communication & service as well.
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Fralin just makes great stuff. I’ve bought 3 different sets for different guitars. The Pure PAF’s the noiseless P90’s (which are amazing in my Gibson ES-390) And I just dropped these Modern PAF’s into my Eastman T386. These are other-worldly. Unreal. The Alnico IV magnets are smooth as honey and nice and fat without being muddy. Just the sound I’ve been looking for. Really sweet. Fralin just makes great stuff. None better.
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I put together a HH Strat with Unbuckers. It sounded great, but I thought I’d fatten up the bridge a bit more with a Modern PAF. This turned out to be the perfect combination for this guitar. Thanks to Lindy and his staff for such amazing products!
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Solid tone. I used one of these in another project combined with a Big Single after checking with Lindy about the right wind. Very strong with excellent cooperation with my tone circuit!
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Outstanding balance, clarity and grit when you want it. Warm without being muddy. Sounds a great deal like McCarty PRS pickups, favorite of mine, which I’m sure is no coincidence.
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An old friend, J recommended the Fralin PAF. After checking out sound clips I ordered a set of “modern PAF”, in the stock wind, but unpotted. After living with them, I gotta say I digg’em. Full bell like overtones, and wonderful touch sensitivity. Personally I don’t believe in a “BEST” hierarchy, of musical tones. But I love what these pickups are doing in my guitar…they stay put. Thanks, Charlie N.
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As a Luthier I came to know Lindy’s work through his single coil pickups, and featured in my first commissioned custom builds back in the 90’s.
Following a stunning online review of Lindy’s first PAF voiced humbucker I ordered the bridge model to try in my own Les Paul guitars.(If it works in a Les Paul it’ll work elsewhere)Is my thinking.This is still one of the finest humbuckers available, it’s dynamic range is exceptional, sensitive to picking techniques with enough clarity on wound strings and singing harmonics jumping from your pick on the plain.
It’s also ,to date the only wax potted PAF type that has the “breath” I’ve come to associate with un potted PAF replicas. (How does he do that)
The combination of Alnico 4 magnet and 9k ohm output (mine measures 8.8K) Results in one of the most satisfying and versatile bridge tones available anywhere. -
Customer added no additional comments
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Modern P.A.F: Fralin makes the sweetest pickups know to mankind…
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Have used the Fralin standard humbuckers in a wide variety of builds and have found them to be crisp, focused with
just the right balance of snarl and finesse . -
I dropped a set of these pickups wind 8k-8.5k on my 1998 Gibson Les Paul historic R9 with the craziest flame monster top I’ve ever seen and WOW! These pickups sound amazing in this guitar with beautiful thick tone to die for. It’s not muddy at all it’s very clear sounding with perfectly beautiful highs very balance. It’s very versatile for any style of music. It’s a little higher output than the pure paf but it still sounds like a paf but with muscle. I can see why it’s his most popular selling pickup because these pickups does everything right. Lindy, you hit a homerun with these pickups great job.
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I have a 1982 Gibson Les Paul Custom with the coveted Tim Shaw era Gibson pickups around 7.6-7.8 ohms. To my dismay, the bridge pickup went bad. My luthier Mark Brown, who has done work for countless artists including the Doobie Brothers and Gary Moore, recommended Lindy Frail as a replacement pickup to consider, because of the consistent quality. I gave Lindy a call, told him my situation and that i want a slightly hotter than vintage pickup (8.75 ohm) and he recommended a Standard humbucker which comes with Alnico IV magnets. Lindy walked me through the ordering, which was easy to start with. The pickup was a great choice, matches very nicely with the lower resistance neck pickup and was a perfect fit inside the pickup cover of the Shaw pickup. The sound is clear and balanced with the added growl I was hoping for. I could not be more pleased. Guitar sound/tone is such a personal choice, and its very satisfying to have the level of service that Lindy and team deliver. You can be sure I’ll be back the next time I need pickups!
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I recently bought a 2004 PRS Hollowbody II, and felt the PRS Archtop pickups were lacking dynamics and tone for the genre of music I play (contemporary top-40 Christian), but the lightweight and playability of the PRS make it a phenomenal guitar; so I was on the hunt for a set of pickups to allow me to bond with it. I have a set of Fralin’s Unbuckers in a 1978 Les Paul 25/50, which has been my primary guitar for the past 3-4 years, and have been very happy with them. So I turned to Fralin for a good pickup for the PRS.
I emailed and got a prompt response answering my questions, so kudos for great customer service. The issue with the PRS Archtop pickups was, while they sounded very good with a clean, tube driven setup, whenever any overdrive, or other effects were added, the dynamics just weren’t there. Notes would decay too early, the breakup wasn’t predictable, and it just gave an overall feeling of disconnection from my playing. Thinking it was the low output pickups, I even added a boost to the front of the chain, but it just felt like I was fighting the guitar to make it produce the tone and dynamics I wanted. Sometimes I won the fight, and sometimes I lost.
So, I ordered a set of Fralin Humbuckers (8k and 9k) and swapped them in, and WOW, what a difference! This PRS has officially replaced my Les Paul as my main stage guitar, as it is lighter, and now with the Fralin Humbuckers …. it has all the tonal dynamics and feel it was missing. The Humbuckers woke the PRS Hollowbody up, and it is very predicable now in terms of breakup, note decay, and just overall tone. No more fighting to make the dynamics happen.
Great job on a quality pickup!
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dropped a set of the standard humbuckers w/9.5k in the bridge and standard neck into a Gibson Explorer.
sounds awesome the stock pickup was super hot (14k) and while could sound good, was very specific kinda sound
and could get Dr. and sludge.
The new standard humbuckers put some schlang back into the sound.
these Rock.
great job thanks team Fralin….
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