If you’re been reading any of the guitar magazines over the last few years, odds are you’ve seen that ad with the shirtless gentleman with a handlebar mustache about to bare knuckle fist fight. It’s a great logo, and “Bare Knuckle Pickups” is just about the greatest description for a brand I could think of. There’s really no thinking about what they well, or what their pickups sound like – it speaks for itself.
Today we’re going to review the “Mule” humbucker pickups because I’ve been researching some options for PAF ’59 pickups. There are so many options, Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio, and even original Gibson re-issue PAF ’59’s. PAF is the famous “patent applied for” name given the pickups first made famous in Les Paul guitars – and the SG’s and others. They had a 100% nickel silver baseplate, maple spacers, and nickel plated slugs, and Alnico magnets.
So the question is – could a modern pickup sound as good as the original ’59 PAF? I want you to see something that floored me, check out this video from a parts guitar with The Mule pickups installed:
here’s another video of The Mule installed in a ’59 burst replica:
I’ll warn you now – they cost a little over $300 for a pair (and they’re worth every penny). You can find them both with and without chrome covers on Amazon.
[atkp_product id=’5751′][/atkp_product]
Here’s some on ebay right now:
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