Pure P.A.F.
The Ultimate PAF Replacement
$160 – $320
Experience what a humbucker should really sound like and get inspired by the Pure P.A.F’s beautiful tone. Lindy’s favorite humbucker, the Pure P.A.F. is a 50’s P.A.F. clone, using real Butyrate Bobbins and all USA-Made parts. Featuring a clean, clear tone with incredible versatility and dynamics and expertly crafted using 100% USA-Made materials, we guarantee the Pure P.A.F. will inspire you for years to come.
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The Ultimate In Vintage PAF Tone
Want to learn more about our Pure P.A.F.? Here's all the information you'll need:
Features:
Are you ready to cut through in the mix? The Lindy Fralin-designed Pure P.A.F. is our best-selling humbucker. Based on the specifications of the original 50’s Gibson® P.A.F. pickups, this model features a clean, articulate tone that’s incredibly versatile.
The Pure P.A.F. is a lower output humbucker, which is more dynamic and expressive than higher output pickups. It’s more articulate and cleaner than our Modern P.A.F., but beefier than our P-92. Lindy’s passion for the sound of vintage 50’s humbuckers led us down the road to design and create the Pure P.A.F., and it’s easy to see why – this pickup sounds incredible.
Features:
- Our Best-Selling Humbucker – low output, vintage tone
- Original Gibson PAF® specifications: low output, with modern clarity
- Clean and clear, smooth grind and a sharp attack
- USA-made Alnico 2 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
Sound
How does it sound? Clean and articulate!
The Pure P.A.F. stays clean and features a late break-up and a smooth grind. This pickup is perfect if you’re trying to restore life to your guitar. Don’t let the term “vintage” fool you – you’ll find that it’s loud and versatile enough to play with modern-voiced pickups; it just features more clarity than modern humbuckers.
Built with USA-Made AlNicCo II and 42-gauge Plain Enamel wire, the Pure P.A.F. pickup is a gateway to instant vintage tone. When playing without distortion, you’ll find that this pickup sings what you put into it: it’s dynamic and warm. Highs are accentuated with a medium attack. With distortion, you’ll find that the grind is nice and smooth.
Our manufacturing process allows us to achieve unparalleled quality control. When Lindy designed this pickup, he wanted it to be as close to the originals as possible. Pure P.A.F.’s consist of USA-Made Butyrate bobbins, baseplates, magnets, and wire. We wind each pickup by hand, one at a time, using our proprietary “Sectioning” technique. Doing this gives the pickup a sweet, clear tone, reminiscent of the early Gibson Humbuckers.
Finally, we assemble each pickup one at a time, by hand, which allows us to achieve unbeatable attention to detail. After assembly, we wax-pot the pickup to prevent microphonics and preserve the pickup for years to come.
Sound Samples for Pure P.A.F.:
Compare Outputs
We have 2 outputs of our Pure P.A.F.. Compare them below.
About these Sound Clips:
All sound samples are played from Neck Position First and Bridge Position Last.
Tonal Graph For Pure P.A.F.:
The tonal graph below for our Pure P.A.F. features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.
Attack: Soft & Round
Videos for Pure P.A.F.:
Humbucker Lead Color Codes
See below for our Humbucker 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
Tech Specs:
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Pure P.A.F..
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Neck Ohm Reading (Stock): | 7.5K 1 |
| Bridge Ohm Reading (Stock): | 8K 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 2 |
| Wire: | USA-Made 42-Gauge Plain Enamel |
| Bobbin Material: | USA-Made Butyrate |
| Baseplate Material: | Nickel Silver |
| Cover Material: | Nickel Silver |
| Slug / Pole Piece Material: | Steel |
| Recommended Pot Value: | 500K* |
| Baseplate Leg Depth: | 6mm |
| Recommended Cap Value: | 0.02mfd 2 |
More Information:
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.
* You can experiment with pot values for a different tone. This pickup will sound dark and warm on 250K pots
Covered Humbucker
Uncovered Humbucker
Pure P.A.F. FAQ's
General FAQs
Here are quick answers to common questions we get:
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What Ohm Readings does your Pure P.A.F. have?
Navigate to our Tech Specs Tab for complete Ohm Readings and more useful information.
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Will this pickup fit my instrument?
Check our "Sizing" tab for the size of the pickup. No Sizing tab? Check under the product image gallery for dimensions.
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Is your Lead Time of 3-4 Weeks accurate?
It really depends on the shop capacity at the moment, and the size of your order. Feel free to give us a call for an accurate lead time. We always try to underpromise and overdeliver.
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What pickup height do you recommend setting your Pure P.A.F.s to?
Our recommended Pickup Height is 1/8" (3.175mm) on the Bass Side and 1/16"( 1.5875mm) on the Treble Side. Measure by holding the corresponding side down at its highest fret and measure from the bottom of the string to the top of the pole piece.
Get It Prewired
Get our Pure P.A.F. prewired into a Prewired Pickguard!:
Customer Reviews
228 Genuine Reviews for Pure P.A.F.
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Pure P.A.F installed in an Eastman El Rey
I recently installed a Fralin Pure P.A.F in my Eastman El Rey and it is everything I had hoped it would be. The pickup is warm sounding, articulate and extremely responsive to my playing style. Since the pickup upgrade, I have used the guitar on a couple of recent gigs and find that my playing is more expressive and free-flowing. I primarily play straight ahead jazz using archtops and have been playing for approximately 45 years. This pickup makes the little Eastman sound like a larger archtop without the inherent feedback issues of a full size carved instrument. Will be purchasing additional Fralin Pure P.A.F pickups in the near future -
Gentlemen, I just wanted to write to let you know how happy I am with the new pickup. I’ve had a Fralin Unbucker in the neck of my custom 22 for years, and it’s been great. I love the single cool tone so much that I basically use it exclusively split. The humbucker I had in the bridge didn’t pair well with the split unbucker (too middy), so I decided to try the pure PAF 8.2 in the bridge. Amazing. It has such a subtle mid push compared to the split unbucker that the cleans are beautifully open with no annoying midrange honk/muddiness. Running the paf and split unbucker together sounds like a good tele in the middle position. The prs is bright, so I run 25Ok pots, which pair great with the two fralins. It’s great dirty as well. I like more of a smooth Mesa, two rock type dirty sound which sounds great with the split unbucker. The paf is great here as well, as the midds don’t muddy up the sound, and all the notes come thru beautifully. Thanks for a great product! Jon Staton
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Absolutely Fantastic! Amazing tone, better than I imagined. Thank you Luke for deciphering my cryptic note with the order and walking me through the wiring options I was looking for. I paired a four wire Pure P.A.F. in the neck, with an overwound High Output Telecaster bridge pickup in a semi-hollow Thinline body. I wired them up with a 5 way “super switch” (thanks again Luke) with 500K Ohm pots and a .02 Capacitor. First off the full neck pickup sings with a clean sustain that puts my Gibsons to shame. Next position is the screw coil alone and it’s sweet and smooth. The middle position is both pickups full on and the added bite of the overwound bridge pickup makes solos cut through even the thickest live mixes. The next position is the screw coil and the bridge pickup out of phase but hum canceling for a super usable tone. Not quite the Peter Green tone but still super pleasing. And the coup de grace, the bridge pickup alone, absolutely killer rock and blues tone for days! This was my second set of Fralin pickups. I got started on a Blues Special Telecaster replacement set, I’ll never put another brand of pickups in a guitar. Thanks again!
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I bought a Pair of these Pure PAFs over a year ago from Lindy. I was looking for some AlnicoII magnet pickups that had a warm sounding Neck and special Bridge tone , and after speaking to Lindy decided on an overwound pair of these.
WOW ! These pickups were exactly what I was looking for in tone !
I had them installed in a beautiful All Solid Woods ES 335 type Carvin made Semi Hollow body that was sitting in a closet for 7 years because the stock pickups were so poor to my ears.
With the edition of these PAFs the guitar is now perfect , exactly what I was looking for. The Neck pickup holds it’s tone even with the tone knob turned all the way down , it doesn’t get muddy. That is a hard quality to achieve in a neck pickup. So the Neck pup has a great Jazz and Blues tone and very versatile with the tone knob.
The Bridge pickup is also stellar. Very crisp , clean high end Blues and Rock tone with no shrillness , and again lots of range with the Tone knob.
I compared these pickups with the Duncan Seth Lovers and I have to say my Fralin overwound pair are better sounding to me in the Neck and Bridge. More warm , clean range in the neck and more clarity and personlity in the Bridge.
As always , very happy with my Fralin pickups and the customer service is The Best !!
Thanks Lindy and the Fralin family.
Dean -
Just finished Upgrading my Epi 339 with a set of your Pure PAF Humbuckers, Emerson CTS Pots, a Bone Nut and a Graphtech Resomax Bridge.
I am completely blown away by the sound of this guitar and I find it difficult at times to put it down .The articulation ….the clarity…the balance and the tone is just amazing. I’m a chord-melody guy and always reached for my D’Angelico arch top for that style of play, but now my inexpensive Epi is filled with body, warmth and clarity that I never thought I could get with a Semi Hollow body Guitar. I don’t believe that a $3000 Gibson 339 has anything over this Epi. Do yourself a huge favor and pick up a set of these PAFs
Thank you Lindy & Tyler for the great work. -
I put a set of these into a Dot beater and all of the sudden I was doing a teenage girl imitation – OMG! OMG! – they turned the cheap beater into a seriously good-sounding guitar. I’m ashamed to say the high-end stuff hasn’t been getting much playing time any more. I liked it so much I went ahead and replaced all the other junk on the guitar with decent stuff. Now I have the most expensive cheap Dot in the world.
And I’ve never really been a humbucker guy. But I sure do like these.
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I was looking for replacement pickups for an old Les Paul. Being a full-time session guitarist, I have been thankful to have many incredible guitars and pickups in my hands over the years; including several magical example late 50’s PAF’s. A good friend suggested I reach out to Lindy and I called to discuss what I was looking for. The phone call was awesome – the attention to the detail and depth of knowledge in helping find the tonality I had in mind was second to none.
I ordered a customized set to my desired specs and the results were outstanding.The pickups brought new life to a very sentimental instrument. Gorgeous cleans to very musical overdrive when pushed, excellent note separation while retaining midrange complexity, excellent note bloom and responsiveness – all the buzz words you hear about but don’t always find.
The pickups enhanced everything great about the guitar and brought it to full potential. It’s now one of the most inspiring tools I have in the lineup.You cannot go wrong with the Pure PAF.
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I built a Les-Paul inspired Telecaster with 24.75″ scale and two of these pure PAF pickups with 50 and 52mm spacing for neck and bridge, respectively. They sound really great and they look beautiful.
I ordered zebras with chrome covers to have an option for cover-no-cover. The covers were soldered in place as received so I left them alone.
This detail should be shown on the options, to be clear. I am happy with the covered look in any case.
It was not clear to me which end of the pickup is up but I guessed that screws are up based on views on the site and views of guitars.
This should also be detailed without ambiguity. Minor complaints overall. The items themselves look great and sound great. -
My Les Paul Classic turned sixteen this year and wanted new pickups as a present. I bought the 7.5/8 set and could not be more pleased. The pups are capable of a very clean tone from which to build on. I play the guitar through a made in Britain Marshall DSL 50. The red channel’s first stage now pumps out pure classic rock. Sweet singing overdrive. The neck puts out chords without a hint of mud while the bridge has just the right amount of bite. My review is overdue, to say the least,(got them on 3/28/17) but I wanted to wait for the honeymoon period to expire. Makes for a more sincere review. These pickups have given my guitar the voice I wish it had to start with.
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I had 57 Classics in my Gibson SG 61 Reissue. The bridge pickup was okay but it just seemed lacking of any definition or pick attack. After talking with Lindy, I decided to go for a Pure PAF with an ALNICO 5 magnet (as I like brighter pickups). It has much more character and definition now. The clarity and pick attack are superb. I paired it with a Fralin Bluesbucker in the neck. They make a great pair by the way.
Thanks to Lindy and his crew for the great craftsmanship and customer service. Highly recommended.
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I think most of us guitar players are “Tone Chasers”.
Amps, pedals, guitars….and PICKUPS of course!
Not a cheap or easy journey sometimes.
And we all know that feeling when you finally hit it….it’s a feeling only guitar players understand.
After installing a Pure PAF in the bridge of my 335…the perfect tone alarm sounded!
What a great moment hahaha!
I would recommend these pickups to anyone! Fantastic!
Seem like cool people too…….The search is over….gonna load up my Strat with the Blues specials now……. -
Lindy has installed his Pure PAF pickup sets in several of my Epiphone Les Pauls (Standard Pro, Juniors, Specials). In every case dramatic sonic improvements were heard. To my ears my Epiphones now sound better than equivalent Gibson Les Pauls, at least the ones I have played. Lindy has done other work on my guitars such as special wiring, new pots, setups, etc. His work is always done right the first time. He has performed work on over a dozen of my instruments and I have yet to encounter any problems with any of his work. In addition he is one of the nicest people I have ever met. He has freely given me very helpful advice that has greatly expanded my understanding of how guitars work and what can be done to improve their sound. I now consider him a friend.
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Put a set of Pure P.A.F. (7.8/8.2) in my ’82 Les Paul Heritage Series. Already sounding good, original PUs and some other “classic” replacements never seemed quite capable of converting the guitar’s great acoustic properties into electric signal (always a bit muted like listening through a closed door). The Guitar has really opened up now, neck PU gives a swet & balanced tone, bridge PU is well defined and articulate. Feels like hearing what the guitar is really capable of for the first time, glad I bought ’em. Thanks to Lindy & the whole team an Fralin Pickups!
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Hands down my favorite PAF style pickup. I have tried these in may different guitars from vintage Gibson’s to inexpensive imports and the Pure PAF’s have dramatically improved tone in all. Absolutely no mud here… just clear and pure vintage PAF chime. Cannot recommend them more. Bravo Lindy!
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HOLY MOLEY these Pure P.A.F. pickups sound amazing! After researching the forums and shootout videos I noticed Fralin Pure P.A.F.s were consistently at the top of people’s lists. Warning-the reviews and online videos just can’t capture the tone and fullness coming from my amp right now. Clean, articulate, balanced and extremely responsive are just a few words that come to mind. Seriously, I was thinking about selling my Gibson es-347 because I was tired of fighting my amp to dial in the tone I wanted. But I really love the way it feels in my hands so I decided to swap out the pickups – so glad I did. I jacked straight into the amp and strummed an open E chord that buckled my knees…THIS was the lush tone I’d been searching for.
I’m not famous…just another gigging sideman but whether you have hundreds or thousands of dollars wrapped up in your gear please don’t overlook what Fralin Pure P.A.F. pickups will do for your tonequest.
Peace,
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I received my Pure PAF pickups a few weeks ago and had them installed by Harry Eibert. When i picked up my Les Paul, Harry said he thought my set of pickups were some of the best he’s heard in a long time. Well…, the Les Paul in which they were installed was my backup…..Not any more! They sound fantastic. They are full, round and with just enough bite for commanding leads. I want Lindy to know how happy I am with the purchase and congratulate him on his good work.
I bought a set of hum cancelling P90s in 2010 and am very happy with them. So, I thought maybe a new set of pickups could help my old horse guitar. It certainly did, and now the old horse is in the main stable. Thanks againCheers,
Matt -
excellent advise and super fast service – GREAT pickup!
thank you very much – keep up the fine work!
Bruce – guitar player for Modzilla, a Philadelphia legend for over a decade -
I upgraded an old Mexican Strat I had with a Pure PAF in the bridge, and a couple of Vintage Hots in the middle and neck positions. This thing totally sings now. Nice and glassy, but still with a nice bottom end. Before the upgrade, I felt like I could only really use the bridge or bridge mid setting on the guitar. The mid and neck pickups by themselves were too muddy. But now, every pickup position offers tone as clear as a bell. So much more versatile than it was before. Thanks guys!
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Amazing pickups!!
Replaced a set of P.A.F (Neck 7.5k & Bridge 8k) in my ES-335.
The sound is really awesome…
more clear, more chime, more singing, more sensitive!!
After I heard this P.A.F’s sound…
I think…I really have to order a P.A.F(Neck 7.8k & Bridge 8.2k) for my Les Paul Standard too!!
Can’t wait!! -
I just put a set of these in a 2011 Les Paul Traditional–I replaced a set of Gibson’s ’57 Classics–My favorite pickups. But I put the Pure PAFs in–8.2K in the bridge, 7.8K in the neck–Sounds like Classic ’57s with a 4-barrel! The guitar used to scream–But the Pure PAFs allow it to sing–I like singing much more than screaming.
Are the Fralins expensive? Sorta, yeah. But how do you put a dollar sign on tone? If you can’t get your tone, you don’t play as well. I’ll spend a few more bucks, to get a little closer to the tone I hear.
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