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Again MG, I clearly stated I don't think he's lying, bragging or anything else.
Another other argument against them being thrown away is that Gibson was looking for more consistency and cost efficiency by the time T tops were introduced, hence the new machines.
Throwing away perfectly fine pickups flies against cost efficiency, much like when Leo Fender was buying speakers for his amplifiers. He bought them in bulk and the type he used was driven more by how cheap they were than what might work better in his amps.
The passage of time does funny things to memory. There was a time when I knew where every single guitar, amp and spare part I own came from and what I paid for it.
Now when I go into my music room I might see an amp and have no clue where it came from. Maybe I have way too much stuff for my own good but that's another matter....
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01-23-2024 02:54 PM
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I worked at Ibanez. Every few months after the the morning "HAZZAH!" it was announce that today was THAT day. The cart was wheeled out and crates of guitars that had questionable features (like a Flying V that was maybe too close to Gibson in design) or seconds with tint issues that didn't conform to the "official" colour, or an off centre logo, these were brought to the middle of the floor and we went about smashing them to splinters. It wasn't worth it to send them anywhere else and it was dangerous to keep them. We HAD to smash them. Like TOTALLY rendering them unusable.
Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Who knows what a corporate mind thinks is bad business.
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That Jimmy Blue Note smashed up a bunch of Ibanez does not have the same sizzle as Pete Moreno threw out a truckload of original PAFs. Why? I don't effing know. Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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I don't play in the Dress Up My Les Paul Like It's 1959 sandbox so these mean nothing to me. These are good investments as long as Dress Up My Les Paul is still a hobby. I don't think anyone here would buy them and install them in an L-5CES and heave, "hear how authentic it sounds now." They are strictly targetted at the Les Paul crowd. It is a subculture of guitar players and I don't scoff at them. Originally Posted by jim777
I guess this is what you buy to put in your $9K Murphy Lab'd Les Paul. Or something. Comes in a nice little box at least
Gibson $999 PAF limited edition pickups - The Best Tone ever? - gearnews.com
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No sizzle but a lot of crunch! Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
Different strokes for different folks. And so on and so on and shooby doobie doobie.
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I’d say, “well you told me your objection to getting another guitar is we are running out of space”. Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Gibson yet again declaring “this one is exactly like the real thing!" and thereby invalidating all prior identical claims.
Sure Gibson. You can have my $1000. Don’t even give me the pickups, just take my money.
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The modern corporations only care about the stocks going up, and the pennies getting pinched. Things weren't run like that in 1960. I wouldn't be surprised if Ibanez made as many guitars in a week when you worked there as Gibson made in all of 1962. Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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I supervise an assembly line not related to music, and we've thrown out usable but now-redundant stock too. Factories are run very much in terms of cost efficiency, and we threw out expensive machined (and assembled) parts because it was actually slightly cheaper to make new parts than to change them according to the new improvements we made. I don't think it's unfeasible that they threw out pickups, though I also agree that memories fade and stories improve over time...!
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No doubt some folks will be happy with spending another grand on pickups for an already nice guitar. I'm very happy with the Custombuckers in my non-Murphy Lab ES 335 '64 Reissue. I've never felt the need to switch out pickups on it or any of my guitars and I do my own unintentional aging too. Originally Posted by jim777
I guess this is what you buy to put in your $9K Murphy Lab'd Les Paul. Or something. Comes in a nice little box at least
Gibson $999 PAF limited edition pickups - The Best Tone ever? - gearnews.com
To each their own as always.
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It probably will not take long before the far East copies will enter the market. And not very long after that there will only appr 500 of these 100 sets left...
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I'd keep them in box unused.
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Good call, they might be worth at LEAST $450 a year from now. Originally Posted by garybaldy
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I'm anticipating a "$999 Gibson PAF Reissue pickups in a $99 Harley Benton Les Paul copy" youtube video
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To be fair, those were definitely worth more as a tax loss than anything they could have gotten for them. Originally Posted by jim777
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
They could have just donated them to schools, I would think. You can write off charitable deductions, though I don't honestly know to what extent. It DEFINITELY would have improved their image at the least.
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I also just read on another forum that those $999 pickups will sound better if you're wearing a Gibson hat. Funny how they know these things, amirite?
Gibson | Billy Reid x Gibson Hummingbird Beanie
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Whether or not the story is true, I have heard that PAF's and Patent Number pickups, which are very similar if not identical to late PAF pickups, continued to show up for several years after, especially in gold for the top guitars. I have also read that when guitars were sent back to the factory for refinish etc, they often pulled out the PAF's and put in the "new, latest and best". Originally Posted by wintermoon
Again MG, I clearly stated I don't think he's lying, bragging or anything else.
Another other argument against them being thrown away is that Gibson was looking for more consistency and cost efficiency by the time T tops were introduced, hence the new machines.
Throwing away perfectly fine pickups flies against cost efficiency, much like when Leo Fender was buying speakers for his amplifiers. He bought them in bulk and the type he used was driven more by how cheap they were than what might work better in his amps.
The passage of time does funny things to memory. There was a time when I knew where every single guitar, amp and spare part I own came from and what I paid for it.
Now when I go into my music room I might see an amp and have no clue where it came from. Maybe I have way too much stuff for my own good but that's another matter....
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$1000 is certainly a lot to pay for a pair of pickups- and yet that's what I paid for a pair in around 1994, and it's the best money I ever spent on pickups. Of course back then that cash got you pair of the real things.
Say what you want about the hype over PAF's, but there is certainly something to the originals, and it's no wonder so many have (pretty much unsuccessfully) chased that tone. I don't know why it's so hard, but I suspect that it's impossible to duplicate the magnets. I say this because I've heard many rewound '50's and '60's pickups and they usually sound great. And I have been candidly told this by one of the top pickup winders in the country- and that he couldn't beat the originals.
I've had this pair in a Les Paul fore close to 40 years. I've tried to replace them several times with top of the market reproductions, most recently those by Tom Holmes. Those were outstanding pickups. But the originals went back in a few weeks later and I moved them along.
I won't get into the "cork sniffery" about why they are so good- warm but clear, shimmery, etc- lots of people have tried. I will just say that when you play them you immediately hear the sounds of the classic players- Wes, Pass, Hall, Metheny, and of course the rock players like Clapton, Kossov, and Page. I've read that Santana and even Van Halen moved the same old pickups to new guitars, that was just their sound. So make of that what you will- oh, and you still need to be able to play like those folks to get the tones!Last edited by bluejaybill; 01-24-2024 at 02:53 PM. Reason: Spelling
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I played a Firebird X. It was built well but was too much work to figure out the settings. Also Its appearance was not inspiring. It was even worse than the Gibson Explorer.
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Didn't they make up a story to "recall" them saying they could catch fire or summon a demon or something? Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
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Gibson has been putting Patent Applied for Stickers on current production pickups for 40-odd years. So, sure, it's BS. But it's not new BS. Originally Posted by Avery Roberts
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Technically speaking, they did apply for a patent. They got it, but they still applied. Originally Posted by John A.
It's like the joke, "I used to smoke pot. I still do, but I used to as well."
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Hmmm, they applied for a patent, got it, but kept putting a PAF sticker on it for another couple of years. Then they put a sticker on that said "patent number" + the patent # for a tailpiece. Then instead of a sticker they stamped "patent number" + the patent # for a tailpiece in the metal base plate. Then they went back to putting "PAF" stickers on a pickup they said was identical to the first one. Then they said "woops, that one wasn't identical, but this one is," and put PAF sticker on that. They they did that again, and again, and again, and again ... I think it might have been something stronger than pot. Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
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On the day they changed from the patent applied for sticker to the patent number + the tailpiece #, were both pickups of the same construction? Originally Posted by John A.
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