Shep Guitars 60 PAF Humbucker

The Shep 60 PAF is from the mind of renowned pickup designer David Shepherd. David has collaborations with Rene Martinez (tech for Stevie Ray Vaughan), Lee Dickson (tech for Eric Clapton), Bill Kelliher (Mastodon), Alex Lifeson (Rush), Paul Waggoner & Dustie Waring (Between The Buried And Me), as well as designing award-winning PAFs and list-topping HSP90s, Mini Humbuckers, P-90s, Filtertron, and Single Coils.

It can be said that Shepherd comes to the table with the pedigree and with the goods.

What makes these different? Just as every PAF set that comes from the late 50s and the early 60s is it’s own snowflake, this is a take on what’s best in the most highly preferred iterations to come out of Kalamazoo. A morning batch of PAFs could all be legendary. Yet ones from that same afternoon might be lame. Countless variables and the only quality control was if they made noise. LOL! Thanks to Shep Guitars, you don’t have to work your way through countless pieces of over-valued sets of old humbuckers that are covered in beer and who knows what else! HaHa!

Installation

These humbuckers are going in to a mahogany double-hum with a maple neck and a 25-1/2″ scale 22 fret maple board. The harness has Bourns 500k pots, a Switchcraft 12120X 3-way toggle, and a Pure Tone 1/4″ jack. Tuning is E standard with 10-46 strings.

A braided single-conductor lead wire is what we are working with here, so the install is a snap and we are up and running in no time at all.

Evaluation

The Shep 60 PAF humbuckers cover the bases. You’re going to be able to tell from the demos that these have chime and complexity and body and a unique musicality. These are great for clean tones and for amp settings that get in to a little grit and a lot of dirty. If you like to work the knobs, these bad boys are going to open up and reveal a whole new playground for you to have fun with.

When it comes to the neck position, it has the classic mid-neck vocal quality that you want and expect from a humbucker like this one. The rich character brings a presence to the bottom end and the low-mids. Lows are deep and bold, yet remain firm and avoid being flabby or muddy. The upper-mids and the high end are edgy enough deliver cut and attack to your lead work. The transparency is front and center as notes gradually decay to allow the mechanical noise of your fingers slip through.

The bridge position is a scene-stealer for me. It’s pristine and clear on the clean amp settings. But when you throw the amp into Turbo Mode, there is a lot of push and enough presence on display to really drive your riffage. By comparison, I have some genuinely glorious PAF replicas that require more drive to get to this same point. Having all those qualities in a single package is next-level awesome. For being in the mid-to-high 8k range, there remarkable clarity at work while being within the range to go “brown”. And if high-energy high-octane amps are your thing, you will be over the moon about this bridge pickup.

Features

Alnico 2 Roughcast Long Bar Magnets
Long Leg Frames
Butyrate Bobbins
Vintage Correct Alloys and Coil Wire
Braided Single Conductor Lead
Unpotted Coils

Specs

Yep, that’s all there is to give. This Shep 60 PAF set has covers and braided 1-con lead wire. If something changes, I will update the specs. But you cannot blame me for wanting to crack open an excellent work of art like this.

Demo

Conclusion

When considering a great set of PAFs, there is certainly a lot to consider. Just like there is certain a lot of noise and distraction. My experience is that there are some attempts out there that try to slide “59” or “PAF” in to the name and rely on marketing buzzwords. I also think that’s why we are a few generations deep in to players that think a PAF is over-wound, boomy, and brings more bombast than finesse. Do yourself a favor a take the time to get a PAF that is worthy of the investment you’re making with your guitar.

The Shep 60 PAF is going to be good for blues, funk, indie, reggae, garage, punk, alternative, classic rock, heavy rock, jazz, and more. They are available with nickel, aged nickel, and gold covers, with options for zebra, reverse zebra, and black bobbins. Contact Shep Guitars directly for additional customization.

For reference, this Shep Guitars 60 PAF humbucker set evaluation was conducted with the following: Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller. ADA MP-1 Tube Pre-Amp loaded with Tube Amp Doctor ECC83 Premium Selected tubes, using the ADA MC-1 MIDI Controller. Fryette LX II Stereo Tube Power Amplifier. Physical cabs use are Marshall 1960B, Mojotone British, and Peavey 6505 cabs loaded with Celestion Classic Series Vintage 30s and Classic Series G12M Greenbacks.

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