ThroBak Pickups: The Closest Thing to a Real PAF
If you've ever chased the tone of a late-1950s Les Paul, that warm, open, slightly asymmetrical sound that blooms when you dig in and cleans up when you back off, you already know what a PAF is. Patent Applied For. The pickup Seth Lover designed for Gibson in 1955. The pickup that defined the electric guitar blues and rock sound.
Real PAFs sell for thousands of dollars apiece when they turn up, and their tone varies wildly from set to set. Chasing that sound has kept the pickup industry busy for forty years. Most PAF replicas try to approximate what those pickups sounded like. ThroBak does something different: they went and found the actual machines that wound the originals, and they use them every day.
That's not marketing copy. ThroBak owner Jon Gundry has spent years tracking down the exact coil winding machines that were inside Gibson's Kalamazoo factory in the 1950s and 60s — and the story of how he found them is worth understanding before you ever hear one of his pickups. Because the machine isn't just a detail. The machine is the tone.
FROM THE COUNTER
We carry ThroBak pickups at High Voltage Guitars because they're the most honest answer to a question we get constantly: what's the best PAF replica? The answer is complicated — but ThroBak is the place to start that conversation.
Why the Winding Machine Matters
Here's the thing about vintage PAF tone that most pickup companies don't want to explain: you can't get there with a modern CNC winding machine, no matter how carefully you spec the wind.
The coil winding pattern on a vintage PAF pickup is irregular. The wire doesn't lay in perfect, orderly rows the way a modern precision-wound pickup does. It scatters slightly, inconsistently, in ways that depend on the specific traverse mechanism of the machine doing the winding. That scatter affects the distributed capacitance between turns, which directly shapes how the pickup responds to high frequencies. Different scatter patterns produce different high-end character. Different machines produce different scatter patterns.
Gibson wasn't using a single winding machine, either. Different machines were in use in Kalamazoo at different periods, which is part of why vintage PAFs vary so much from pickup to pickup — not just in resistance, but in character. The machine used to wind a 1957 PAF is different from the one that wound a 1960 PAF, and they sound different as a result.
ThroBak's approach is to work backwards from this fact. Rather than trying to simulate the output of these machines, they found the actual machines and put them back to work.
The Machines: A History Lesson Worth Knowing
ThroBak has assembled the most remarkable collection of vintage pickup winding equipment in existence — four machines that between them cover the full production run of Gibson's PAF era. Each one produces a different coil geometry, and Jon Gundry has documented exactly what that means for tone.
The Leesona 102 — The Workhorse
Photo from Throbak Electronics
The Leesona 102 was the most widely used machine in Gibson's Kalamazoo plant during the PAF era. It's the machine responsible for the majority of late-50s and early-60s PAFs that collectors obsess over today. ThroBak has both a standard Leesona 102 and a Leesona 102B, and uses them to wind their flagship SLE series pickups. When people say "PAF tone," the Leesona 102 is what they're hearing. Only three operational Leesona 102s are known to still be winding guitar pickups in the world — ThroBak owns two of them.
The Gibson-Made Slug 101 — The Rarity
Photo from Throbak Electronics
Jon Gundry found the Slug 101 in 2008 in the old Parson's Street Gibson factory building in Kalamazoo — sitting unused for decades next to the old spray booth. It's a one-of-a-kind machine, built by Gibson themselves rather than a commercial manufacturer, and it was likely Gibson's very first dedicated PAF winder. The Slug 101 winds only slug-side coils, which means PAFs made with its coils have a natural mismatch in coil geometry between the slug and screw sides. That mismatch creates a specific character: more low-end clarity, a looser, more open feel in the midrange.
The KZ/LP-115 — Les Paul's Machine
Photo from Throbak Electronics
The KZ/LP-115 was rescued from Gibson's Kalamazoo factory by Les Paul himself as Gibson was packing up to move to Nashville. It sat unused for decades, then was purchased by ThroBak at a 2015 Guernsey's auction of Les Paul memorabilia. Sales records for the machine still exist — it was ordered new in February 1950, and date codes show the electric motor was replaced in 1956. The wear marks on the original aluminum fixtures show use with both PAF and P-90 bobbins. It is a time capsule of Gibson's 1950s pickup winding process — and it still runs.
The Meteor ME-301 — The Patent Number Era
Photo from Throbak Electronics
The ME-301 covers the later transition period: the "Patent Number" pickups that followed the PAF era in the early-to-mid 1960s. Tracking this machine down required interviewing former Kalamazoo plant employees and studying historical photos to reconstruct the exact wire guide and tension configuration of the original Kalamazoo setup — details that were modified when Gibson moved to Nashville. The ME-301 produces the winding pattern responsible for the signature tone of 60s ES-335 and SG pickups.
THE SHORT VERSION
ThroBak owns all four vintage winding machines Gibson used to wind PAFs and Patent Number pickups in Kalamazoo. No other pickup maker can say this. It's not a marketing claim — it's a provenance you can trace.
Watch the Machines in Action
The ThroBak Pickup Lineup — Which Series Is Right for You?
ThroBak organizes their PAF humbucker lineup by output level, medium, low, and high, with each series wound on the historically appropriate machine for its target era and tonal character. Here's what we stock at HVG and how to navigate the options.
MEDIUM OUTPUT P.A.F.
Medium output is where most vintage PAF replicas live, and where the majority of players should start. These pickups have the dynamic range and harmonic complexity that defines the late-50s Les Paul tone — they clean up with your volume knob, bloom with single-note sustain, and respond to how hard you pick in ways modern pickups often don't.
SLE-101 MXV — The Flagship
The set that put ThroBak on the map. Wound on both the Leesona 102 and the Slug 101.
- Winding Machines: Slug coils on the original Gibson-made Slug 101; screw coils on the Leesona 102
- Output: Medium — classic late-50s PAF spec
- Magnets: A2 vintage clone sand cast — the standard 50s PAF configuration
- Character: Complex, articulate, and dynamic. The coil mismatch between the two machines creates a layered tone that's harder to pin down than a single-machine pickup — in the best way
- Who It's For: Players who want the definitive, most-referenced ThroBak set. If this is your first ThroBak, start here
SLE-101 Plus MXV
The SLE-101 with higher output magnets for more presence and punch.
- Winding Machines: Leesona 102 and Slug 101 — same as SLE-101
- Output: Medium — slightly more presence than the standard SLE-101
- Character: More forward mids, a bit more cut. Still fully vintage-correct in spec and feel
- Who It's For: Players who loved the SLE-101 character but need a little more push through the mix
LOW OUTPUT P.A.F. & PATENT NUMBER
Low output doesn't mean weak. It means more headroom, more dynamic range, and more harmonic detail before the pickup starts to compress. These are the pickups for players who want the most open, three-dimensional vintage PAF character — the kind of tone that sounds massive through a clean amp.
KZ-115 MXV — Les Paul's Machine
Wound on the machine rescued from Gibson Kalamazoo by Les Paul himself.
- Winding Machine: The original KZ/LP-115, purchased by ThroBak at the 2015 Les Paul estate auction
- Output: Low — center-focused coil geometry produces a fuller bobbin for fewer turns
- Character: Woolly low end, crispy/crunchy mids. The most distinct-sounding ThroBak set.
- Who It's For: Players chasing the earliest PAF dynamics; anyone who wants their pickups wound on an irreplaceable piece of guitar history
Pre-T-301 MXV — Patent Number / Pre-T-Top Era
The transition pickups. Mid-60s ES-335 and SG tone, wound on the Meteor ME-301.
- Winding Machine: Vintage Meteor ME-301, restored to exact Kalamazoo-era wire guide and tension configuration
- Output: Low — wound with 42 AWG red poly wire, duplicating the rarest late Pre-T specs
- Character: Articulate and treble-detailed with lush low end — the sound of the best mid-60s Gibson Guitars
- Who It's For: Blues and jazz players chasing that specific mid-60s 335 or SG clarity. If your reference tones come from that era rather than the Burst years, this is your set
HIGH OUTPUT P.A.F.
ThroBak's high output sets push harder into an amp and sustain longer, but they're still built on the same vintage-accurate machines and materials as everything else in the lineup. These aren't modern hot pickups — they're high-output vintage PAF specs, which is a different animal entirely.
MC-102B MXV
High output PAF tone. More drive, more sustain, vintage winding accuracy.
- Winding Machine: Leesona 102
- Output: High — wound to higher resistance specs than the standard SLE-101
- Character: More sustain and push than the medium-output sets, with the same vintage harmonic complexity underneath
- Who It's For: Players who need more output without sacrificing vintage character; anyone moving from modern hot humbuckers who still wants that open, vintage top end
What ThroBak Pickups Sound Like
Tone descriptions are always a bit futile, but here's the honest summary from spending time with these pickups in the room.
ThroBak pickups don't sound hyped. There's no exaggerated midrange to make them seem "vintage" through a YouTube video. They sound correct in a way that's almost disorienting if you've spent years with modern humbuckers — there's a dimensional quality to the high end, a bloom when you sustain a note, and a dynamic range that rewards playing technique rather than fighting against it.
The volume knob actually does something. Roll from 10 to 7 and you get a genuinely clean, clear tone — not a muddy reduced version of the full-up sound. That's the thing players mean when they talk about PAF dynamics, and it's something that's very hard to get right with a modern winding process. ThroBak gets it right because the machine gets it right.
Different series have meaningfully different characters. The SLE-101 is the most referenced and versatile; the KZ-115 has more low-end warmth and scatter; the Pre-T-301 is the pick for 60s clarity. If you're unsure which series fits your playing, call us — this is exactly the kind of conversation we're here for.
FROM THE COUNTER
At HVG, we have personal guitars loaded with ThroBaks so if you want to try them let us know and we'll make sure a guitar is at the shop for you to experience yourself!
ThroBak vs. The Competition
There are a lot of excellent PAF-style pickups on the market. Lollar, Wolfetone, Klein, Fralin — these are all serious makers producing genuinely good pickups. If you've already tried them and found what you're looking for, there's no reason to keep searching.
Where ThroBak separates itself is in the literal provenance of the coil. Every other PAF replica, regardless of how carefully it's made, is trying to approximate the output of machines that are no longer in use. ThroBak is using those machines. That's not a small distinction if you care about accuracy — it's the entire difference between a photograph of something and the thing itself.
For players who are seriously chasing vintage PAF tone and have already worked through the mainstream options, ThroBak is typically the next conversation. And for many of them, it's the last one.