Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: hunter on August 28, 2008, 01:13:47 PM

Title: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: hunter on August 28, 2008, 01:13:47 PM

huh

http://cgi.ebay.com/Set-of-DW-Double-White-Gibson-PAF-pickups_W0QQitemZ300253617514QQihZ020QQcategoryZ22670QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: MDV on August 28, 2008, 01:32:03 PM
Les Paul

£1400

Stormy Mondays

£180

Your guitar sounding better than the one with $8000 pickups in

Priceless.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: JamesHealey on August 28, 2008, 02:20:00 PM
£399 Epiphone Les Paul

£120 Seymour Duncan '59s

Sounding just about as good as the one u mentioned.

Priceless.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: MrBump on August 28, 2008, 02:37:12 PM
Eight grand...

Gosh.  I wonder if they'll sell?
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: TwilightOdyssey on August 28, 2008, 02:40:31 PM
Eight grand...

Gosh.  I wonder if they'll sell?
They will.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: MrBump on August 28, 2008, 02:43:08 PM
Eight grand...

Gosh.  I wonder if they'll sell?
They will.

Maybe.  It does seem like a shocking waste though.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: hunter on August 28, 2008, 03:08:24 PM

I don't get the point of paying so much for old PUs where you have like a 50% chance to get good ones when there are so many high quality choices in the market meanwhile.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: WezV on August 28, 2008, 03:12:53 PM
its all about the mojo
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: MDV on August 28, 2008, 03:14:01 PM

I don't get the point of paying so much for old PUs where you have like a 50% chance to get good ones when there are so many high quality choices in the market meanwhile.

Exactly. They were made with cheap labour, a poor mexican imigrant, usually, one coil at a time, all thrown into a bucket and then randomly selected to be assembled into a bucker, and some, by chance, turned out great and some didnt.

Guys like Tim have looked at what made the great ones great and made the process of making them predictable and consistent. You go for an old paff, its for nostalgia or bragging rights or both. You go for a modern handwound pickup if you want to be sure youre getting a great pickup.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: MrBump on August 28, 2008, 03:28:27 PM
its all about the mojo

I know.  But you know that they'll be bought by someone with way more money than ability, put in a cracking guitar, and he'll STILL sound like cr@p.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: TwilightOdyssey on August 28, 2008, 03:50:49 PM
The sound is the LAST thing that interests the ppl with the buying power for these pups. They will sell for more than $8k in all probability. If an $8k investment will make your original '50s LP double in value with these pups, which it will, serious buyers will line up for it!
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: Spitfire on August 28, 2008, 04:22:32 PM
Exactly, these are not a buy based on tone, they are a rich nostalgic indulgence.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: Roobubba on August 28, 2008, 04:46:53 PM
I simply don't understand this.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: TwilightOdyssey on August 28, 2008, 04:51:20 PM
I simply don't understand this.
Let me put this into some kind of perspective for you.

Case in point, my boss. He is the perfect example of the luxury level customer; he also has many vintage guitars. If you need a pen, where do you go? I go to my local office supply store and buy a box for $6. The pens my boss uses range from $1,000 - $10,000. EACH. He also collects watches. I saw a receipt last year on his desk for a watch he bought (Philipe Patek, I believe). The price? $34,000. He also collects Civil War guns. We won't even go into the price of those.

For someone that has the disposable income to drop $50-300,000 on a guitar, and additional $8,000 is NOTHING.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: MDV on August 28, 2008, 05:10:07 PM
I simply don't understand this.
Let me put this into some kind of perspective for you.

Case in point, my boss. He is the perfect example of the luxury level customer; he also has many vintage guitars. If you need a pen, where do you go? I go to my local office supply store and buy a box for $6. The pens my boss uses range from $1,000 - $10,000. EACH. He also collects watches. I saw a receipt last year on his desk for a watch he bought (Philipe Patek, I believe). The price? $34,000. He also collects Civil War guns. We won't even go into the price of those.

For someone that has the disposable income to drop $50-300,000 on a guitar, and additional $8,000 is NOTHING.

I bet he left the reciept for the watch lying round 'accidentally' too.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: Roobubba on August 28, 2008, 05:13:49 PM
I still don't understand it, though the perspective is useful nonetheless.
Everything I buy is functional. Pants, functional. Computer upgrades, functional. Pickups, very functional!
I guess it ties in with me being a 1-guitar man.

Roo
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: MDV on August 28, 2008, 05:21:36 PM
Pens and watches are functional too.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: viking on August 28, 2008, 05:24:08 PM

huh

http://cgi.ebay.com/Set-of-DW-Double-White-Gibson-PAF-pickups_W0QQitemZ300253617514QQihZ020QQcategoryZ22670QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 I love it!I own a pair and even if it probably won't leave my old LP,it's still nice to see it has such value...NB:I guess it can be a good buy for somebody owning a real 50's LP without the real PAF's...
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: Roobubba on August 28, 2008, 06:36:54 PM
Pens and watches are functional too.
But a $3000 pen is no more or less effective at putting lines on paper than, say, a biro...
If it were a quill for calligraphy, I could let that pass!

Just a different mindset I suppose. I'm just a tight-fisted **** :)

Roo
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: MDV on August 28, 2008, 06:42:44 PM
Pens and watches are functional too.
But a $3000 pen is no more or less effective at putting lines on paper than, say, a biro...
If it were a quill for calligraphy, I could let that pass!

Just a different mindset I suppose. I'm just a tight-fisted **** :)

Roo

Oh, no doubt.

I have an uncle, who earns about the same as me and lives in london so he gets to play with less of it, that has a collection of pens from a few hundred quid to about a grand each. Pure dick-swinging status cr@p. He also cant mention a single item in his possession without the price following, unasked for, in the next breath.

Go figure.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: headtheball on August 28, 2008, 06:44:51 PM
I actually get it with PAF's though. The good ones would be making a measurable tonal difference &c.

It's when we get to people paying fortunes for old pickguards, screws, pots, switches etc. that I have to put the hand up and say "Hold on, you're just being stupid now".
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: WezV on August 28, 2008, 07:04:59 PM
as i am about to drop a 1962 (according to the pot codes) wiring loom into a LPJ i can see the appeal.  I have the opportunity to do it and it just seems right.  I dont know yet if it will make much difference to the tone but i wont till i try it.  If i had the disposable income i would be the one spending £8k just to see what they were like, can always sell them on again with no loss if they are not a particularly special set.

its a good job i have no money aint it
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: dave_mc on August 28, 2008, 11:01:42 PM
The sound is the LAST thing that interests the ppl with the buying power for these pups. They will sell for more than $8k in all probability. If an $8k investment will make your original '50s LP double in value with these pups, which it will, serious buyers will line up for it!

+1

they're not buying them for the tone, they're buying them to make their '58 LP be worth $500,000. It's pretty sensible... spend £8k to make your LP rocket £100k? seems like a no-brainer if you have a real '58/'59/whatever years came with pafs and you don't have the original pickups. :)
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: Ratrod on August 29, 2008, 01:13:49 PM
There's also a set of old rusty Strat saddles on ebay for $1200.-
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: HTH AMPS on August 29, 2008, 01:46:53 PM
also bear in mind they are double-whites and as such command a premium over double blacks and zebras.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: Philly Q on August 29, 2008, 01:47:44 PM
There's also a set of old rusty Strat saddles on ebay for $1200.-

I can understand the argument about buying these parts to increase the value of an original piece, but only if you are actually planning to sell the thing and make a profit.  If it's going to sit in a vault, why bother?

But in themselves I really don't believe an old set of PAFs would have any special "magic" to justify that price.  But then I'm just not the sort of person who'd buy the most expensive watch, pen, suit etc - even if I had money to burn.

As for the saddles, I'd rather spend $100 on a set of rust-proof titanium ones.
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: TwilightOdyssey on August 29, 2008, 02:09:40 PM
also bear in mind they are double-whites and as such command a premium over double blacks and zebras.
QFT. A double white SET are like hen's teeth!!

To quote Kim Cattrall from Big Trouble In Little China: That'll cost extra! It's like leather bucket seats!
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: Kilby on August 29, 2008, 04:22:28 PM
Personally I'd simply like to have enough money in my bank account to choose not to buy those pickups not that I would, (unless I happened to have a 58 or something similar lurking under the bed to make them)

Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: dave_mc on August 29, 2008, 07:14:48 PM
There's also a set of old rusty Strat saddles on ebay for $1200.-

I can understand the argument about buying these parts to increase the value of an original piece, but only if you are actually planning to sell the thing and make a profit.  If it's going to sit in a vault, why bother?

But in themselves I really don't believe an old set of PAFs would have any special "magic" to justify that price.  But then I'm just not the sort of person who'd buy the most expensive watch, pen, suit etc - even if I had money to burn.


might as well get it, if you ever need to sell later, it'll make you more money. i guess. :)
Title: Re: 8,000$ for a pair of PAFs
Post by: broken cord on September 03, 2008, 05:21:52 PM
its all about the mojo

Damn, that much Mojo must be eatin' a hole in your wallet. :lol: :lol: :lol: