Vintage P.A.F. warmth with woody mids, smooth highs, and an airy, open response. Sweet cleans turn into rich, expressive grit as you dig in.
Neck: 7.7k (Average)
Bridge: 8.7k (Average)
Alnico 2 Roughcast Long Bar Magnets
P.A.F. Butyrate Plastic Bobbins
Vintage Correct Alloys and Coil Wire
Nickel Silver 49.2mm P.A.F. Repro Covers
Unpotted Coils
1. How is it different from the Mason Deluxe?
The 1960 P.A.F. emphasizes warmth and smoothness with Alnico 2 magnets. The Alnico 4 Mason Deluxe offers more pronounced chime, pick attack, and focused articulation without harsh treble frequencies.
2. What’s the difference between vintage braided and four-conductor wiring?
Vintage braided wiring is "vintage correct" and has one insulated signal wire surrounded by a braided metal shield that solders to ground. Choose it for a traditional installation with standard humbucker operation.
Four-conductor wiring provides separate connections to both coils, allowing coil splitting, series/parallel switching, and other wiring configurations. It also works for standard humbucker operation. If you want to retain your guitar’s existing coil-splitting feature, choose four-conductor wiring.
NOTE: If you are mixing ours with another brand, we recommend selecting 4-Conductor leads so you can easily reverse the phase if your existing pickup is out of phase with ours.
3. Do I need long-leg or short-leg mounting?
Long legs are the traditional vintage P.A.F. option, commonly associated with Gibson carved-top guitars such as Les Pauls and ES-335's. They extend farther below the pickup and require a deeper cavity.
Short legs are the more common modern option, often used for pickguard mounting, direct mounting, and many guitar designs like PRS, Fender, and other makers with shallower pickup cavities.
NOTE: If you aren't sure or you have a non-Gibson branded guitar, you can always use short-leg. Short-leg is a more universal fit for most guitars. You can also contact us and we can help.
4. What does “unpotted” mean?
The coils are not saturated with wax, which is vintage correct for an original P.A.F. Unpotted pickups can be more susceptible to microphonic feedback at high gain and stage volumes. Contact us if that describes your setup so we can help determine whether they’re the right fit or if we need to lightly wax pot them for you.
5. Will the pickup fit my guitar?
Check the pickup’s overall dimensions, mounting arrangement, and cavity depth against our dimensional drawings. String spacing is another consideration. These are original P.A.F. 49.2mm spacing which can work just fine for wider bridge spacings since the feild extends well beyond the center of the poles. If you’re unsure, send us your guitar’s make, model, year, and photos of the existing pickup.
6. Can I keep my existing electronics or mix with another brand’s pickup?
Often yes, but make sure they are 500k pot values, know what your switching requirements are (4-Conductor or Vintage Braided), and phase compatibility should be checked if combining with another pickup brand. Here is a link to our video explaining pickup phase and how to check it. Link Here
7. What pickup height do you recommend, and how do I measure it?
Start with 2/32″ (1/16″) on the treble side and 3/32″ on the bass side.
Hold the high E string against the last fret nearest the guitar body, then measure from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the string. Repeat with the low E string on the bass side. Use the pickup’s height-adjustment screws to set each side.
These measurements are starting points and will give you excellent results. From here you can make small adjustments by ear to find the tone and response you prefer, and balance the volume between the neck and bridge pickups.
Experience the most authentic sounding P.A.F. tone. The 1960 P.A.F. delivers airy, open tones with exceptional clarity and warmth that allows your amplifier and playing technique to shape the sound without overpowering. Roll back your volume for sweet, woody warmth, or dig in for smooth vintage grit with rich harmonic bloom. This is the sound of the peak golden era—1959-1960 P.A.F. humbuckers that represent the cream of the crop.
Balanced, warm tone with woody mids and smooth highs, exceptional touch sensitivity and dynamic response, and an open, breathing character that goes from sweet clean jazz tones to classic rock bliss—all with that unmistakable vintage P.A.F. magic.
Using our proprietary Field Charging technique, all magnetic components—polepieces, slugs, and our vintage-formulated rough cast Alnico 2 magnet—are magnetized as a unified system, establishing a fully settled magnetic field immediately. This eliminates the traditional decades long period required to achieve authentic vintage tone, delivering the open treble, balanced midrange, and expressive touch sensitivity characteristic of a genuine 1959–1960 P.A.F. from the moment of installation.
We've taken all of the variables that made certain vintage PAFs legendary and recreated them with intentional precision. The 1960 P.A.F. uses vintage formulated Alnico 2 rough cast magnets with unpotted coils, and is wound to deliver that perfect balance of warmth and clarity that reacts beautifully to your touch. It's not a random copy of some old "vintage spec", it's a pickup deliberately designed from decades of experience to deliver the legendary tones of the original burst era with consistency you can count on.
