1963 Gibson Patent No. pickups

I got an old "Gibson Patent Number" humbucker in this week to rebuild.


Early Gibson humbucking pickups had a sticker on the bottom that read “Patent Appiled For”. Gibson got the patent for its humbucking pickup in July 1959 but the PAF sticker stuck around until late 1961 or early 1962. At this time a new sticker started showing up on the base plates of the Gibson humbucker. It was “Patent No 2,737,842”. Humbuckers with this sticker from 1962 till 1965 are called “Patent Number” pickups and are starting to become very sought after.

The earliest Patent No. units are identical to the more famous PAF pickups in every way.




In late 1962 Gibson started using black jumper wires at the end of the coils and white jumper wires at the start instead of the all black ones of the PAF.



In Late 1963 they started using Polyurethane coated magnet wire to wind the bobbins instead of the dark colored plain enamel of the PAF. The bobbins are made form butyrate and prone to warping.




The magnets are sand-cast Alnico 5 magnets and the maple spacers are just like the earlier PAFs.


This one is all done and heading back out to CA. today. We didn't wax pot it because they were not potted to begin with and this is a restoration.

Jack Frost

Once in a while I actually sit down and record music. Here's a song I did a little while ago called Jack Frost.

Bobbin, Bobbin whose got the bobbin?

Mother nature tried to stop me but the new bobbins are finally in from China. Look how shinny they are!

Sand Cast Magnets

Lots and lots of sand cast magnets have made their way into the shop this week. These are going to be used in the new generation O-2 and B-2 pickups.

Jim Warkway's 1967 Fender Jazz Bass

Here's a rebuild I did a few years ago.

The W. Jeffrey Jones "Proteus"

Perhaps you remember the new prototype humbucker pickups I made for W. Jeffrey Jones a few months ago. Well, those pickups went into a guitar that is currently making the rounds at some guitar shows and feed back is great so far. Here's what one player had to say about it.



"The Proteus is one of the very best electric guitars I've ever played. Not only is the design beautiful and comfortable to play, the clarity of the sound brings out each note that I played like separate voices in a vocal quartet. The harmony comes out rich and united, yet each note has a great vocal quality to it. The guitar responded well to single-note playing as well as more contrapuntal solo jazz guitar work. I couldn't stop playing it and it made me want to keep making music. Truly, any instrument that can inspire creativity is special and this is definitely unique. Kudos to Jeffrey for putting so much love into his work."

Az Samad

It's nice to hear things like that once in a while. Oh, and Jeffrey has ordered some more of those so the shop bustling with black humbucker bobbins right now.

Six String Bliss Retro Zone #10

For the last few months I have been hosting some special Six String Bliss show while Pipes and PT take a break. We are calling them Retro Zone shows because we are covering the lost 12 shows from the guys early work. Show #10 is currently up. If you would like to give a listen just go click on this link. Six String Bliss