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Stephens Design HD PAF Replicas-The One and Only Long Term PAF Research Project!
         
 

 

READ THE JANUARY 2015
REVIEW BY DAVE HUNTER
HD59-HDPG COMBO REPLICA SET

 

The HD PAF replicas are becoming more well known despite my low production of few pickups every year. Dave Hunter is a man who owns and plays real vintage PAF's, as do a large number of my other customers, and knows what they do and what they sound like. Dave's review reflects many of the same statements I hear over and over from customers all the time. If you missed the issue I have scanned them at legible size for you to read.

READ THE FRONT PIECE CLICK HERE.
READ THE HD PAF REVIEW CLICK HERE

 

VINTAGE LAB HD PAF REPRODUCTIONS-THE FINAL WORD

Stephens Design was the first independent small pickup maker to seriously undertake the problem of recreating vintage PAF humbuckers, 16 years ago. When I started this work no one had any interest in the subject and very little work had ever been done on the solution.

Unlike almost every other pickup maker out there, I don't buy a pile of offshore pickup parts that everyone uses, wind 'em all up an call it a "PAF." There is little in those parts that are true to what you find in vintage examples of old Gibson humbuckers. That road has been beat into the ground by others and you find little tonal difference in those products. Many hand wind these pickups, which is a huge mistake. The signature tone of a real PAF relies on a "signature" turns per layer formula that gives a distinctive resonant peak that no hand wound pickup can match, period. You don't need a vintage winding machine to replicate that pattern; I built my own machine that can copy and type of winding pattern perfectly with impeccible results.


I own 2 real PAFs and have repaired many others, and with the help of many wonderful people in the steel industry in the area of magnetic alloys, magnet wire, and vintage parts dealers and historic Gibson experts who consult for other companies, I spent literally thousands of hours of personal research, experimentation, and lengthy dissection of real PAFs, noting every oddity every dimensional measurement, unwound many coils one turn at a time, got many lab results of chemistries and microphotography of the crystal structure of every alloy used in the magnetic circuit. And other things I can't talk about... My results speak for themselves.
I was not trying to "get that sound" by using parts that have no relation to real vintage PAFs, from modern bulk parts sellers, I WANTED TO RECREATE EVERY TINY DETAIL I FOUND, HISTORICALLY ACCURATE, TO NAIL EXACTLY WHAT THOSE VINTAGE TECHNOLOGIES DID IN AN ELECTRIC GUITAR, AND LEARNED TO MAKE THOSE PARTS MYSELF. The only thing I wanted to be known as a copycat for was copying the actual actifacts; I call this "Tonal Archaeology." I put my heart and soul, and many many hours into these products and you can be sure you get what you pay for.

REVERSE ENGINEERING IS THE TRUE KEY TO AUTHENTIC PAF TONES



Here we see a microphotograph of a specific steel alloy; the forms of steel are endless, I have reproduced the correct forms of PAF steels, through endless research with the aid of a magnetic alloys specialist. Also shown are real PAF magnetic circuit parts, compared to modern sloppy commercial parts and the parts I make and plate in my own shop. No detail has been overlooked, these parts are an important piece of the PAF "puzzle."



 


 

 

 

THE VINTAGE LAB "HD" PAF REPLICAS

The HD formula replica PAF sets represent the end of the research project, as there can be no further progress using modern materials. No one can get any closer. Previously there have been the older sets along the way, (Silver Series, Vintage Lab 1-2-3-PG and JP sets), they were all good attempts but were only steps along the ongoing research route.

There aren't going to be any new PAF replica recipes, I will only be doing refinements to the existing HD replica formulas if needed, and may add one or two other HD models at some point. There is nothing left I don't know about how and why PAF's produce the tones they do, it has nothing to do with cosmetic looks, my working recipes and techniques have taken years to perfect and are unique to SD Pickups alone.

In my research I also dissected and had analyzed many commercial and boutique pickups claiming to be PAFs. NONE of them were correct, and none of them sounded right. I GUARANTEE YOU WILL NOT FIND THE EQUAL OF THESE VINTAGE LAB SETS. The amount of time it takes to make set is very high, because I am not using commercial kits like most others do, because kit humbucker parts have nothing to do with real PAFs. I make all my own magnetic tone circuit parts myself, using the same authentic methods to duplicate perfectly as possible the technology and parts of those days. Making these parts is time consuming and tedious but the rewards are in the tone. Every set sold so far has only brought joyous praise from every customer, so the time and effort has been worth it in delivering a great sounding authentic product.

 

THE HD PAF REPLICA VIDEO LINKS

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP THIS PAGE UP TO DATE, HERE ARE SOME VIDEO LINKS, BUT THERE ARE MANY MANY MORE WITH NEW MODELS AND EDUCATIONAL PRESENTATIONS. THESE LINKS WILLTAKE YOU TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL, WHERE YOU CAN FIND ALL THE MOST UP-TO-DATE VIDEO WHICH IS CONSTANTLY UPDATED.

Here are the current full 16 videos of all the HD pickup versions:
The stock HD61 bridge - The original big fat sounding bridge, the first HD pickup with over a year of customer satisfaction behind it.
Bright and exceptionally clear.
The HD bridge Lite - A less hot and a little more compression and warmth.
The SN sweet neck - big warm sounding neck
The BN bright neck - bright and clear, a tad brighter and less sweet than the SN.
The PG neck - out of phase or in phase (Peter Green spec)-very accurate Peter Green tones out of phase, or in phase more like Kossoff, Duane Allman etc. 
Hot and throaty.
The HD59 uncovered bridge - This is a hot no cover bridge, my hottest PAF, yet sharp edged, chirpy, and classic vowel tones.

CLICK LINKS TO VIEW:
HD SN "SWEET NECK"
HD BN "BRIGHT NECK"
HD PG "PETER GREEN" OUT OF PHASE NECK
HD PG "PETER GREEN" IN PHASE NECK-(DUANE ALLMAN)
HD ALL 3 NECKS IN MIDDLE SWITCH POSITION
MICK GRABHAM FROM PROCOL HARUM DEMO
JAM TRACK DEMO FOR TRUEFIRE.COM
HD LITE BRIDGE W/ HD BN NECK:
HD LITE BRIDGE REVISED SET COMPARED TO
REAL VINTAGE 61 PAF SET

HD PG NECK COMPARED TO
REAL VINTAGE PAF NECK

NEW HOT HD59 UNCOVERED
BRIDGE PROTOTYPE RECORDING TEST

HD59 UNCOVERED-COMBINED WITH
HD PG NECK

HD'S IN 18 WATT MARSHALL!
HD'S AND ZEPPELIN TONES ETC.
Billy Gibbons, VL61HD bridge test drive in a Tao Guitars "El Mirage" guitar.

EDUCATIONAL AND DEBUNKING VIDEOS-LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT VINTAGE MATERIALS AND VINTAGE PAF'S!

VINTAGE MAGNETS PART ONE
VINTAGE MAGNETS PART TWO
VINTAGE WINDERS DEBUNKED
THE TRUTH ABOUT VINTAGE
MAGNET WIRE

SOME COOL CUSTOMER DEMO'S:

DANNY CLICK WITH BUILD-A-BURST REPLICA ( THE BEST MONEY CAN BUY!) PART ONE

DANNY CLICK PART TWO


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