Vintage style humbuckers are a favorite subject for me. I post on a number of forums and sometimes my aging brain forgets what I've shared where.
So please forgive me if I might've already posted some or all of these same opinions hereabouts...
IMO pickup swapping is as much about matching the personality of each individual guitar as it is about the quality of the pickups.
In the right axe, cheap pickups can sound great. And even expensive pickups won't necessarily sound good if they're in the wrong one.
It's seldom about which pickup is best, always about which pickup is best a for a particular guitar and player.
That said, there is something special and different about a really good PAF type humbucker.
(Of course, original PAFs are all over the place - no two exactly alike. Workers wound bobbins until they "looked full," then toss them in a box. Then the coils got paired randomly to make pickups. Things only became predictable when they switched to winding machines with turn counters; that's why the Pat # pickups - and their descendant, the T-top - are more consistent. Modern PAF-inspired models all target certain spots across a wide spectrum. Some are patterned after the chimier, airier light/asymmetric winds. Others resemble the sweeter symmetrical coils, and some reflect the accidental hotter winds. Today we have pretty much the whole range of personalities.)
Some of the boutique makers work at duplicating vintage materials & components as closely as possible: Tom Holmes and Mojotone are in this category.
Others are master winders; it's about the coils themselves, the wind pattern/scatter and coil strength/offset: Rewind and Zhangbucker are good examples.
With some it's literally about the wire itself. PRS' 00/00 series use wire made with a vintage extruder, and some of the Wizz PAFs use actual 1950s NOS wire.
Anyway, IMO some of the pricier 'unicorn dust' PAF types really do have something special going on. I'm lucky enough to own a number of these.
The PRS 57/08s have a vintage sepiatone vibe that evokes smoky oldtime clubs; they make me want to drink whiskey and play the blues til dawn.
A number of the Zhangbuckers I have are 'Pure Handwound,' actually hand-wrapped, rather than being hand-fed onto a spinning bobbin. I feel it makes a real difference: all of them have extraordinary responsiveness (to nuances of playing & to the guitar's volume knob) and also clarity (in the sense of both open/airy highs & remarkable definition across strings within chords). The thing is, even the stock Zhangbucker models are outstanding.
I have five Rewind PAFs and they're quite remarkable too, responsive and very vintagey. They do remind me of the best originals. A couple of mine were wound specifically for me; they're perfect for what I wanted. James has a reputation as an expert at winding to produce a desired result and he literally wrote the book on PAFs (well, okay, he co-wrote it). And once again, even standard Rewinds like the Creme Brulee have something very special going on.
There's a certain subtle yet undeniable magic in the most exceptional boutique PAFs. It isn't merely a matter of clarity, or even character.
It's that they seem to help a guitar come alive, and make it more expressive than it was before.
That's inspiring on a deeper level than the ordinary fun that usually comes with the novelty of pickup swaps.
Again, even having a truly great pickup isn't any guarantee of great synergy with every guitar.
But I do think the best of them are forgiving enough to suit many different guitars well.
IMO it'd take a pretty drastic mismatch to make some of 'em sound bad.
Even some of the less pricey production humbuckers are more forgiving than others.
Like the Duncan 59 - it isn't period accurate or especially vintagey in character.
But IME it works well just about anywhere. And it isn't expensive.
Now, Nvidia stock, that’s another story ! :dood:
www.mojotone.com
