My Last PAF (CLONE) "SHOOT-OUT"

[SKATTERBRANE]

I feel honored, freefrog. They can be shipped as a gift, so you should not have to pay duty or taxes. And even though USPS Priority Mail is around $35, it is good because then they can be tracked. It is my experience it takes about 10-14 days from USA to France.

[myjplp]

Originally Posted by bill m

Ok back on topic. Just so everyone knows, I was originally giving away a set of Fatty Arbuckers for this shootout. I was asked if I could substitute my RD-59's for them and I agreed. I would like to thank myjplp for choosing my free set.

Bill, thank you for your generosity of letting me get the RD-59's instead of the arbuckers! I loved what I heard in your RD-59 set from the videos

Also, it's kinda fitting to have the 1st place winner choose the set that got the most vote!


Thanks again Bill!

[freefrog]

Originally Posted by SKATTERBRANE

I feel honored, freefrog. They can be shipped as a gift, so you should not have to pay duty or taxes. And even though USPS Priority Mail is around $35, it is good because then they can be tracked. It is my experience it takes about 10-14 days from USA to France.

Thx!

I have a possible mailing adress in CA, then my brother could come back from USA with your PU's in his luggages... but maybe I'll pay a direct shipment, in order to have them rapidly.

I was hesitating because I'm not lucky with postal shipments, these days (I've sold a guitar device to someone a few weeks ago and the package has been lost by our dear post office, despite of the tracking... )

Bill, thank you for your generosity of letting me get the RD-59's instead of the arbuckers! I loved what I heard in your RD-59 set from the videos

Also, it's kinda fitting to have the 1st place winner choose the set that got the most vote!

My choice fits my own tastes so I'm more than happy too!!! (EDIT: it doesn't mean that I haven't appreciated the other pickups. I had just the intuitive feeling that among the three sets, the Skat's were the right way to go for me. Why? I don't know... It's like that).

[cooljuk]

Missio asked that I share the details of the set he's chosen as his prize.

After discussing the details with him a bit, he decided on a custom set. What I'm building for the prize will be a Medium Output PAF Set with slightly lower turn counts on the screw coils than I normally do and with A2 magnets for a warmer and lower output sound. Cream bobbins under aged polished nickel covers. These should be a particularly sweet set and I'm very much looking forward to trying them out, myself!

Model: MDDC-C-CUST
Serial: SHOOTOUTPRIZE

Also, signed by me with a paint pen at request. These will be a very special one-of-a-kind build.

[decoy205]

[freefrog]

Originally Posted by cooljuk

Missio asked that I share the details of the set he's chosen as his prize.

After discussing the details with him a bit, he decided on a custom set. What I'm building for the prize will be a Medium Output PAF Set with slightly lower turn counts on the screw coils than I normally do and with A2 magnets for a warmer and lower output sound. Cream bobbins under aged polished nickel covers. These should be a particularly sweet set and I'm very much looking forward to trying them out, myself!

Model: MDDC-C-CUST
Serial: SHOOTOUTPRIZE

Also, signed by me with a paint pen at request. These will be a very special one-of-a-kind build.

Cool, James!

I wish I had the 2d AND the 3rd prizes.

Seriously: your PU's are really good sounding. Actually, I've picked Skatterbrane because Rod makes fine PU's AND because they will complete ideally the PU's that I already own. It musn't hide the specific qualities of your products, made with an obvious and exciting passion. Furthermore, you're generous, like Bill and Rod. We are lucky users!!!

[cooljuk]

Thanks for the kind words!

I'd like to have the other prizes, myself! Bill and Rod are both amazingly talented and knowledgeable pickup makers but also FANTASTIC guys and have been so helpful and supportive of my ventures into pickup building. Really, it's truly humbling how welcoming and encouraging the other winders are. I'm a student in a roomful of masters and I'm inexpressibly grateful to them for sharing with me and helping me on my way.

[bill m]

Originally Posted by myjplp

Bill, thank you for your generosity of letting me get the RD-59's instead of the arbuckers! I loved what I heard in your RD-59 set from the videos

Also, it's kinda fitting to have the 1st place winner choose the set that got the most vote!


Thanks again Bill!

You're very welcome.

[missio]

I would like to thank again the three winders who generously offered prizes to those participating in identifying the audio files with the list of pickup sets.

It would have been so easy for them to say, "I'll give away an old set I have kicking' around in the garage."

Their dedication to the highest quality and unending pursuit of tone is something that all of us shouldn't take for granted.

Again, hats off to Jamman and to these three committed winders who have enriched this entire discussion.

Thanks again.

[jiveturkey1]

Originally Posted by SKATTERBRANE

Unless I missed it, would it be okay to list which winner picked which pickup please?


I have been comparing, and I am a bit surprised how my Twangbranes sound a LOT like the Shaws on these videos, being they have such different magnets.

Hey Rod, if I had the dough I would order some of those Twangbranes right now. I've got some tax money on the way, we'll see if there's any left after paying some bills. Those are sweet low-winds. I especially like the in-between tone. I could hear that SRV Tin Pan Alley tone you mention on your website in this shootout a little too. Which would be a very versatile set of pups. How do low-winds sound with some overdrive (I couldn't find any clips)? I have a master volume Phaez SIBLY amp and I assume I could just turn the gain up to compensate for lower output. I'm not real knowledgeable about pups but I assume if you like the clean tone, the dirt should be good too. I don't play high gain stuff anyway. Thanks for nice work

[SKATTERBRANE]

Since these pickups are my most recent, it may be a while before I get more clips of them. But, yes, they do work well with mulitple gain stages like Fender Hotrod Deluxe for example.

[bill m]

I know what you mean. The TwangBranes were my top pick. Rod, I want some and I'm coming over to get them, now.

[jiveturkey1]

The more I listen to the clips, the more I'm jonesin' for a pair! I never thought I would pay $300 for a set of pickups, but I might have to sell a kidney. Actually there are a quite few in the shootout I'd love to have, but so far my fav.'s are the Twangbuckers. The Creme Brulee's are nice, Zhangbuckers, Electric city, Sheptones.....

.....and I thought I almost won a pair ..... oh well, that experience actually made me listen more closely to some I thought I'd never actually pay that much for, and this has made me realize what a big part of your tone comes from a good pair of pups. When you add up a good guitar, good amp, etc., a few more hundred isn't that much with the impact to your tone it can make

[jamman]

Originally Posted by SKATTERBRANE

Unless I missed it, would it be okay to list which winner picked which pickup please?

Here you go,
*****The winners and their picks*****

Post #307 ( myjplp), Is the 1st.place winner He has 4 correct entries , OTPG in the 16th. position and SkatterBranes / Burstbrane in the 12 position , ThroBak in the 10th. Position and ReWinds Creme Brulee in the 6 position. He wins the first pick of 1 of any of the 3 sets of pickups offered. Congrats to you Sir . And my apology for the mistake .
***He Took the RD-59's From Electric City /Bill***

Post # 308 (Freefrog) Is the 2nd place winner, He has 3 correct entries , Burstbranes in the #13 position , Electric City Fatty Arbucker in the #9 position and Shaws in the #11 position. Congrats to you Sir . He gets the choice of 1 set of the 2 remaining sets of pickups . Congrats to you Sir.
***He took your Skatterbrane /Twangbranes***

Post # 263 (missio) Is the 3rd. place winner . He has 2 correct entries , OTPG in the #16 position and Burstbranes in the #13 position He gets the last remaining set of pickups. Congrats to you Sir.
***He got His choice of pickups From "ReWind Electric" James***

[SKATTERBRANE]

Originally Posted by jiveturkey1

The more I listen to the clips, the more I'm jonesin' for a pair! I never thought I would pay $300 for a set of pickups, but I might have to sell a kidney. Actually there are a quite few in the shootout I'd love to have, but so far my fav.'s are the Twangbuckers. The Creme Brulee's are nice, Zhangbuckers, Electric city, Sheptones.....

.....and I thought I almost won a pair ..... oh well, that experience actually made me listen more closely to some I thought I'd never actually pay that much for, and this has made me realize what a big part of your tone comes from a good pair of pups. When you add up a good guitar, good amp, etc., a few more hundred isn't that much with the impact to your tone it can make

Tell you what, through April 15th 2012, I will offer a 15% discount to anyone who participated in this contest, voters, winders, players, posters, watchers, ANYONE. Just PM me for the coupon code that you can put in the checkout cart on my site.

[cooljuk]

Nice, Rod. I'm glad you broke that ice! Yesterday, I had a similar thought, but was concerned about doing business in this thread.

I will join in on the love and offer $25 off my current prices on any set with any options to anyone who participated in this thread.

So for thread participants:
$175 unaged
$225 aged

(PS - all my sets now include covers!)

[SKATTERBRANE]

Hey, I am an ice breaking barge.

[fuelie]

Word around the camp fire is another winder in the shootout has a sale going on at a pretty decent price.

Don't know who it is though.

[bill m]

I cann't be the odd one in the bunch. I was going to run a sale after I got back from the Dallas show, as I am real busy right now winding my butt off. So, I will offer the same sale for the members who participated in this thread.

SALE: $200 any humbucker set with bare or nickel plated covers.
Add $10 for gold covers
Add $30 for aged covers

When I get back from Dallas I will offer this sale in the vendors forum for the rest of the MLP community.

[SKATTERBRANE]

Some day I hope to be able to finance going to a major guitar show. Let's see, I need a pickup truck, a table, a banner, my Les Paul and amp, a bunch of business cards, T-shirts, a stack of various pickups, a hotel room, gasoline, the vendor's fee and booth fee, someone who can play a guitar well enough to attract customers, what else?

[cooljuk]

Lava lamps. Without lava lamps you're just another booth.

The best booths I've seen have been by Mercenary Audio. One year at AES Fletcher (owner) had a Mackie mixer and an ADAT speared on a spike. That's it. Alesis tried to have him kicked out of the show for that display. Mackie's response was something like, "Our paying customers can do whatever they please with our gear." Another one he did was just a poker table where you could sit down and play a few rounds with others. No gear at all. Great stuff!

[missio]

Skatterbrane - you need a poker table with someone in a frog suit dealing cards! : )

[bill m]

Originally Posted by SKATTERBRANE

Some day I hope to be able to finance going to a major guitar show. Let's see, I need a pickup truck, a table, a banner, my Les Paul and amp, a bunch of business cards, T-shirts, a stack of various pickups, a hotel room, gasoline, the vendor's fee and booth fee, someone who can play a guitar well enough to attract customers, what else?

It does get expensive. You get a table with your booth. I have a banner, but it's optional. I take 12 guitars and 2 amps for people to demo, as I do Strat and Tele pickups also. 1 amp for dirty tones and 1 for clean. Believe it or not I rarely get to play as there are always people in my booth demoing my products, and there are some killer players that come through. Last Philly show there was this guy tearing up one of my tele's for about an hour or so, and while he was doing that people were like I want to buy a tele set like in the guitar the dude was tearing up.

All in all, I do the shows to gain exposure, make new friends and contacts. I usually don't come out that far ahead after all is done,but I love doing it.

[Liam]

Originally Posted by fuelie

Word around the camp fire is another winder in the shootout has a sale going on at a pretty decent price.

Don't know who it is though.

Word is, one of the participants placed a custom order straight after the shoot-out finished with the same winder. And never even asked what the price was going to be...

Don't know who it is though.



Liam

[fuelie]

Originally Posted by Liam

Word is, one of the participants placed a custom order straight after the shoot-out finished with the same winder. And never even asked what the price was going to be...

Don't know who it is though.



Liam

I don't know who the hell that guy thinks he is but he sounds like a gentleman and a scholar. He probably has a message awaiting a reply to boot.

[mojo69]

MY 2 CENTS WORTH. Aside from this PAF shootout being about which is your favourite set (All sets were great!). I can't help getting sidetracked to the point of who gets the closest to the real deal Gibson PAF tone. I have listened to these excellent clips for the past couple of days on my computers Altec Lansing speakers. I don't think you have to go crazy with headphones, and burning to CD's. Although all the sets are similiar in PAF type tones, there are enough differences to where they stand apart from each other. And, I am in total agreement with Liams' findings and taste in tone.

I suggest that all of you go back and listen to the early pat # set. It has it! Attack, Clarity and Balance, Bite without being shrill, The neck pickup is full sounding without being muddy and has a great singing voice with just the right amount of bite that cuts through. I think that the replicas' sounded louder with more presence in comparison. The Gibson PAF's where more ear friendly in that regard probably do to ageing mags, etc. But, if you listen closely to both the bridge and neck. Each pickup has a balance from lows, mids, and highs, that is just exceptional. And the middle position compared to all other sets is the sweetest and again the most balanced.

#1. early Pat.# PAF's
#2. Sheptones tribute set and OTPG
#3. Tim Shaw (really good pickups)

[mojo69]

I think that the Sheptones tribute and OTPG sets come closest (I mean close!!!). to the Pat. # pups. And I would guess the Pat# have A5's in them because that's what is in the Sheptones. I would like to see how much better all these pickups would sound after 25-30 yrs. The least likeable pickup I thought would have to be the Sheds' Paf daddy neck. But I thought his blues and twos set was fantastic! I currently have throbaks limited 101, skatterbrane, WCR fillmores, highorder in my gibby's. All nice sets!

[mojo69]

I would love to see a my last PAF shoutout pt.2. I think it's unfair that some of the pup makers had more than 2-3 sets in the demos. Especially when there are so, so many other manufacturers out there. I would like to hear Jim Rolphs (#1 according to Tonequest report), highorder, leslie's, bare knuckles, whizz, Seymour Duncan antiquities, WCR, wolftones, Voodoo, and anybody else making a great PAF pickup.

Come on JAMMAN! let's do it again!!!

[cooljuk]

Send them all to me and I'll do it.

...but you know as soon as we do, someone will say that we should have included XXX's product as well.

[jamman]

Originally Posted by mojo69

I would love to see a my last PAF shoutout pt.2. I think it's unfair that some of the pup makers had more than 2-3 sets in the demos. Especially when there are so, so many other manufacturers out there. I would like to hear Jim Rolphs (#1 according to Tonequest report), highorder, leslie's, bare knuckles, whizz, Seymour Duncan antiquities, WCR, wolftones, Voodoo, and anybody else making a great PAF pickup.

Come on JAMMAN! let's do it again!!!

Thanks for all the kind words and opinions . I did make the efffort (though posting) to have as many Winders become part of this Thread as possible . Yes , I could have gone to each Winder and made my case ,but that in itself is a full time job .

I disagree about the unfair part. I think i kept it fairly equal for everyone.
Please remember , Some of the Winders didn't want to partake in the shoot-out . I will not buy every pickup just for the sake of posting a demo . I ain't rich .

All I could have done was to offer, and i did . The others you name didn't show any interest . As any of the winders will tell you (in the shootout) I worked with everyone to get their Pups into the shoot-out. there are others who didn't get in also . I tried for them too. Somethings are not meant to be. I've been very flexable about that. As i didn try to give each Winder all the time they needed to send pickups . But even I needed to have a cut-off date. It was posted for all to see and I personaly PM'ed many Winders to give them a headsup.

BTW- I did post Wolftones , The Dr.Vintage entry that was sent in very late , so it was not part of the Thread but still close enough to be compared with . that thread is still active.

At this point in time ,Things have changed . It is no longer possible to add to the shoot-out . I would have to use another guitar, among other things and that would mean starting over again . It was a lot of work and I can't see doing it again.
I've been asked to do a P-90 shot-out and i'm thinking about it . I still need to get a P-90 guitar .

Than I need to have a life . The making of the shoot-out took quite a bit of time . At this point in time, I'm taking a brake . Going on vacation and relaxing. But you never know , I might get another crazy idea and try and make it happen. Thanks