Description
DiMarzio didn’t just clone the original PAF — they went back to Larry DiMarzio’s own 1959 cherry sunburst Les Paul and reverse-engineered what actually made it sing. The result is this matched neck-and-bridge pair, finished in black, that captures the soft magnetic pull and single-coil-like clarity of the best 50s humbuckers without the mud.
Both pickups use Alnico 5 magnets and hand-layered 42-gauge custom-coated wire wound on computer-controlled winders for consistent, repeatable tone, then wax-dipped to kill squeal and microphonics. Nickel-silver covers with DiMarzio’s newer plating stay more magnetically transparent than vintage originals, so the top end stays open instead of choked.
- DP103BK Neck — 4-conductor wiring (1-conductor optional), 250mV output, 7.31 kOhm DC resistance. Smooth, articulate, and equally happy in neck or bridge.
- DP223BK Bridge — 4-conductor wiring (1-conductor optional), 285mV output, 8.60 kOhm DC resistance. Hotter than the neck model, with the punch of the Virtual Hot PAF and the low-end definition of the Virtual PAF Bridge, plus cleaner, bigger highs. Splits beautifully into a bright, musical single-coil voice. Introduced 2008; patents 5,399,802 & 5,908,998.
This set ships with a free pack of D’Addario EXL120 Super Light strings, so you can drop the new pickups in and get playing right away instead of hunting down strings first.
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