58/15LTs and PAFs

[Glenn Gross]

I have one guitar with real PAFs, a 1959 ES-345. I hadn’t played it for some time, so I did a quick comparison between it, my 2019 McCarty 594 Semi Hollow SC, and a 2016 58 ES-335 reissue with MHS humbuckers. I understand that there’s quite a few variations between PAFs, but the 58/15s are much closer to these particular pickups than the reissue MHSs. The reissue pickups are definitely hotter and less clear.

I was using medium preamp overdrive on a Dumble clone, and will try cleans later. I imagine this comes as no surprise to those here, but it was certainly interesting to me.

 

[ViperDoc]

I find the 58/15 LT pickups cover a wide range of tones. My only surprise in the stock 594 is to not see a 180 pF treble bleed cap on the volumes. I modded mine and they sound great.

That’s great you have a set of OEM PAFs that you like. The vintage PAF tonal palette is definitely a moving target.

 

[HANGAR18]

It's not just the 58/15 LT pickups but also the great range of tone you can get from using the tone dial on a PRS guitar which has these pickups installed at the factory. Good stuff.

 

[Glenn Gross]

I find the 58/15 LT pickups cover a wide range of tones. My only surprise in the stock 594 is to not see a 180 pF treble bleed cap on the volumes. I modded mine and they sound great.

That’s great you have a set of OEM PAFs that you like. The vintage PAF tonal palette is definitely a moving target.

I actually don’t play it much. I watched a video on the Peter Green/Gary Moore Les Paul today, and since the 345 pickups are out of phase, I figured I’d give it a try. To get serious about it, I’d have to convert it to mono. That led me to the comparison, mostly with the bridge pickup.