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DiMarzio DP103 PAF 36th Anniversary Neck
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DiMarzio DP103 PAF 36th Anniversary Neck
James... James...

« The closest you are going to get in this price range »

Published on 08/04/11 at 12:51
It's no secret that the most chased after pickup design is a perfect 59 PAF replica. It's considered the holy grail of humbuckers. Dozens of high end boutique winders have their clones of them. Everyone swears they have the most accurate one, whether they charge $100 or $500 for them. In the past it's been a consensus of mine and a few other people that the only way to get a good PAF clone was to shell out $300+ bucks for a hand wound set using original materials.

When Dimarzio came out with these I was very very skeptical. I've used dimarzio's with success before, but that was in high gain applications. I've never looked at them as being a good provider of low gain pickups, or even very high quality pickups. Just an okay manufacturer. However, my friend told me I needed to try these. He said they were the real deal, so I figured it couldn't hurt to put them in my Les Paul standard.

I found out later that Larry Dimarzio did some pretty heavy research to make these. He actually simulated the aging of the magnets. On top of that he made sure the materials were all correct and the winding was done right. It makes sense because well...they sound spot on. I've played a lot of high end PAF clones and these are right up there. They just have that tone. Creamy, sweet, mid gain PAF tone. They are well balanced and clean up great. The cleans in the neck are ace. The bridge roars like a PAF should.

You really need to try these in a Les Paul to get the full effect. They were made for that function and they thrive in one. The value is tremendous. They have the boutique tone for a third of the price.