The Experiment: Finding Van Halen's Flying V P.A.F. Tone (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of two parts. Paul had a theory about what makes some Gibson P.A.F. humbuckers not merely good, but great-sounding. He wanted to capture the tone of the bridge P.A.F. in Edward Van Halen's 1958 Gibson Flying V guitar, which was used to record numerous guitar tracks on the album "1984" (as well as the title track to the album "5150"). So he designed an experiment and asked his friend, Jim Gaustad, to be the subject who would test 7 P.A.F. designs, with 3 magnets, in an effort to test Paul's theory. After that, Paul designed round 2 of the experiment and Jim again rose to the challenge to find the pickup recipe that delivers the sound of Ed's Flying V bridge pickup. In Part 1 of this two part video, Jim explains his experience in the experiment, and plays the P.A.F. pickup that achieved the goal. In Part 2, Paul gives the background, discusses the design of the experiment, and shows the pickups as they were being built. Paul named the pickup that resulted from this experiment the "VAF": a P.A.F.-style pickup that captures the tone of the P.A.F. in the bridge position of Edward Van Halen's 1958 korina Flying V guitar. Paul sells his pickups - which are not mass-produced - on his https://tone-slinger.com online store exclusively. TIME STAMPS: 0:13 The Gibson P.A.F. 5:20 How were Gibson P.A.F.s wound? 9:27 Why do some P.A.F.s sound better than others? Edward Van Halen's 1958 Flying V pickup 13:34 About "unbalanced" coils 20:28 The experiment 25:45 Building the pickups 32:49 The results of round 1 37:11 The results of round 2 37:59 The VAF and how to get one