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 replaced the stock pickups in my 2020 Epiphone ES-335 and I was shocked how great these pickups sound. They’re full, clear, defined, and respond well to overdrive/distortion. I play a lot of rock music and I wanted something with the perfect balance of mids, highs, and lows and these were it. When the guitar tech called to let me know my guitar was ready for pickup he could not stop raving about these pickups. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your pickups for some Fralin’s don’t hesitate.
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After consulting with Fralin over the phone I bought a Modern PAF for my norlin era les paul custom. Perfect in my punk band from the first chord. Very happy.
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This pickup has a late 70’s style “modern” tone, due to the prominent mids and highs.
It is a very good blues/rock style pickup. I really like the balanced tone of the 9k bridge pickup. The designer did a good job of the voicing of the bridge pickup. The impressive thing about it is how it sounds good with clean, low gain and moderate gain. With high gain it shows some bright harmonic overtones, which are present from either neck or bridge pickups. The 8k neck pickup has an obvious emphasis on the mids, used in my Strat style guitar. In hindsight I think I’d prefer a lower wind for the neck pickup, while the bridge pickup specified at 9k is very good. -
Awesome tones, awesome customer service
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A great PAF Style Humbucker
Don’t get me wrong, this is a great sounding pickup but I really wouldn’t consider it Modern, to my ears it’s still pretty classic sounding, I’ve had other more aggressive pickups that called themselves PAF’s.
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Great pickups and customer service! These pickups rule!
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Just put a set in my PRS 24 CE and all I can say is wow. The brightness is astounding and I’ve never heard clearer chords come out of my amp.
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Hear The Angels Sing!
After years of always not quite liking the tones I was getting out my guitar with the previous pick up – I decided it was time for a change. A friend of mine suggested your company as a possible place to look. I’m glad he did!!! This pickup has blown my mind! I mainly use a lot of fuzz pedals and the clarity this pickup gets is like hearing the angels sing. The low end finally comes out of the “mud” and I’m hearing dynamics out of these pedals I’ve never heard before. Roll-off the volume for that dirty nasty tone and every note is crystal clear & crisp – To all at the Fralin company who worked on this pick up… a million thanks!!!! This modern PAF has moved me so close to the tone I’ve been chasing in my head all these years!!!!
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IF ONLY
IF ONLY other professionals were as accessible as Lindy and his outfit. I’m a smaller Guitar Shop that recently had a repair/mod on an HH style Strat with S1 switching. Lindy not only recommended the type of pickup [he even allowed our customer to speak with him directly], but he also talked us through some finer points in magnetic theory so that we wouldn’t have the Neck pickup ‘out-o-phase’ when switching through the [10] different configurations! He also recommended GuitarElectronics.com to help us design the new wiring schematics! YEAH so Lindy Fralin is now our Go-To pickup manufacturer for custom pickups over Lollar and the like. Thanks to LindyFralin Pickups from Greg Guitars LLC.
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Perfect name
I have some Pure P.A.Fs in a guitar but decided to try the Modern P.A.F and I’m glad I did. It’s exactly like the name says, a more modern version with a bit more output. It sounds really great with some higher gain especially.
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Perfect pickup for me
Wow! Sounds better than I expected, and I expected it to sound fantastic. Great note separation and low end detail. -
I can’t thank you all enough for the difference the Modern PAF has made in my Ibanez PM200 (the made in Japan version). The guitar is all maple and as such with the OEM pickup had a very acoustic sound. Nice but not for a trad jazz chord melody sound. Jon nailed what i needed and i went from ‘probably gonna sell’ to ‘definitely keeping’! Great sound AND feel!
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Just what I wanted
From my first contact with Fralin until my new pups were installed, every thing went smoothly. A quick shoutout to Jon for answering all my questions. Awesome customer service.The pickups are just so smooth. Great clean tone that has a nice transition to break up. I put these pups in a Gibson ESArtist and they just woke the old girl up. Bottom line, great company, great products, and the best customer service. Thanks Lindy and crew.
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They sound awesome
These pickups sound great , really expressive, they put your tone in your fingertips.
These are my second pair of framing pickups . I love the tones I’m getting from these pickups.
Lindy is super helpful ,a wealth of knowledge . Everyone I talked to was nice and answered all my question .
Great people , great pickups
Thanks Lindy -
These are the best , rich full sounding Pickups I’ve ever had. The neck pickup is beautiful sounding without being muddy or mushy, the bridge pickup is amazing and articulate . Together they sound great, there are no bad settings or weakness in tone or output on these pickups. I love these pickups, they are exactly what I’ve been searching for.
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I should have gone with the 9k wind. I like some growl with volume pot cranked, then turned down some for less spank.
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Customer added no additional comments
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Completely blown away. Forever a customer
I’ve tried many different pickups but these absolutely blew my mind. So responsive. Perfect EQ, actually. Punch when you need them to punch but clean up when you need them to clean up. It gave me the perfect rounded top end I was looking for. And the perfect amount of midrange to stand out properly in a mix. I don’t have to fight being too bright or having that ice picky top end too many boutique pickups have lately. Well done Fralin.
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I originally bought the set with the neck at 8.5k and the bright at 9.5k for my US made PRS Custom 24 because it was to bright sounding with the original pickup. They sounded good but were not what I wanted.
When I changed the pickup the guitar immediately sounded better (more lively, more woody). It sounded really more like a Les Paul but with a lot of bass or low mids. After 2 weeks I realized that the neck humbucker was sounding “too dark” or “too beefy” for my liking. I spoke with Lindy and his team and send just the neck humbucker back since I was Very satisfied with the bridge.
3 weeks after I received the new neck humbucker with Alnico 6 (8.5k output magnet) instead of Alnico 4… And Yes… That’s what I was looking for.
The PRS Custom 24 now sound like itself. What I mean by that is that it doesn’t sound like a Les Paul but like a very well balanced toned guitar. Enough low, enough mid, enough treble, but not too much of any of these. Which makes it really versatile. The cleans are telecaster and ES335 quacky, the positions 2 and 4 are strato/tele like but with more mid punch. I play reggae, funk, RnB and Gospel quartet with it.
Now for the lead and dirty tones…. oh my….. It’s Fat and Creamy with all my overdrives and distortions. I great Rock, Hard Rock, Metal tones. (The Dude from J Rockett, Friedman BE OD- Killler tones, Suhr Riot mini, J Rockett Archer) . My amps are a Fender Twin (all the best clean you can dream about) and a Vox AC30 (it gets bright and sound like a strat with it but takes you to heaven with any OD or distortions).
I don’t regret buying those pickup and definitely do not regret changing the neck humbucker because it was for the best.
My PRS Cus 24 sounds like a better and different guitar then before. I love it and use it a lot lot more now.
I highly recommend those pickups, they brought more life out to my guitar. -
Best pickup
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