’57 PAF

’57 PAF – Low-Wind Clarity & Limited-Traverse Bloom

The ’57 PAF recreates the breathy, highly articulate voice of the absolute earliest humbuckers. It is ideal for players who love lower-wind dynamics, offering a highly responsive, vocal edge that lets your guitar’s natural tone shine through.

The Sonic Profile

• Open and present top end with a clear, detailed, and airy clarity.
• Vocal, touch-sensitive dynamics that respond instantly to your picking attack.
• Soft, balanced low end with an unmistakable three-dimensional harmonic bloom.

The Machine-Wound Magic

The earliest 1957 winding machines had a primitive mechanical constraint: a limited traverse that could only lay wire through the center portion of the bobbin. As the coil grew, the wire naturally slipped outward to fill the edges.

We program our machinery to replicate this exact vintage behavior, recreating those precise mechanical inconsistencies, uneven layering, and subtle variations in tension. Combined with a slight coil offset, this lowers capacitance and raises the resonant peak for an incredibly open tone with perfect consistency from set to set.

Period-Accurate Construction

Every single component follows strict vintage specifications to reproduce the exact behavior of the originals:

• Bobbins & Wire: Low-wind 42 AWG plain-enamel wire wound onto authentic butyrate bobbins.
• The Steel: Low-carbon steel screws and slugs to preserve the sweet high end.
• Baseplates & Covers: Pure nickel-silver, never copper-plated or brass, for maximum transparency.
• The Core: UK-cast Alnico II magnets for that “played-in” feel, gentle compression, and musicality.
• The Details: True maple spacers and brass bobbin screws complete the assembly.

Engineered Specifications (Measured at 1 kHz)

• Bridge: 7.8 kΩ | 3.9 H | 5.14 nF
• Neck: 7.3 kΩ | 3.38 H | 5.75 nF

Engineered the exact way they used to be. For players who still care how tone is made.

Not quite the flavour you’re looking for?

The ’57 is our clearest, most expressive low-wind clone. If you want to tweak this baseline vintage tone, explore our other historical eras and specialty sets:

• For our ultimate balanced baseline: See the ’58 PAF (Our flagship, quintessential late-’50s tone)
• For smooth highs & thicker mids: See the ’59 PAF (No-offset Leesona pattern, ~8.3k)
• For more immediate bite & punch: See the ’60 PAF (’58 offset pattern with Alnico V)
• For the legendary “Greeny” blues tone: See the PG PAF (Featuring the iconic, magnetically out-of-phase middle position)