SKATTERBRANE PAF Clone

they're humbuckers

Yamaha Lord Player 500. great guitar I liked the pickups neck was a little thin for me and wanted more warmth. but I used it that way for a year and was fairly happy

I looked at these pickups for about two years now. read all the reviews, listened to any sound clips I could get my hands on and at the end of the day they don't mean sh*t. your guitar your room your effects your amp.... it's going to sound different. I told Rod he almost caused me a marriage cause after I got them in I couldn't stop playing. They Piss me off cause now everything else I pickup leaves me disatisfied and I have lots of guitars they just sit there. But as far as humbuicker goes the only other pickup I would ever use is maybe an EMG active set, but only if I wanted the cleanest most sterile void of personality tone I could find just for haevy effects. THese pickups are not potted. I thing there is some wierd kind of magic in the space between the wires. They are without a doubt the most stunning pickup I have ever heard.
But Like I said I am just some guy whose opinion means nothing. I really stuggled forking over the money for these and then one day it dawned on me. I had been watrrching ebay for a used set.... for over a year. I have seen every imagineable botique pickup on ebay at one time or another but never ever any used scatterbranes. Same thing spending coutless hours search craigslist, apparently when you buy them that's it. Tone quest over. I know it is for me. Almost 30 years and I found my pickups

If they were stolen I am assuming the guitar would go with it. This wouldn't be a good thing at all.

I recently became acquainted with Rod Kinkade founder of SKATTERBRANE Pickups based in Arizona, USA by shear chance. I purchased a set of SKATTERBRANE Alnico II Humbucker pickups with Polished Nickel covers hand wound with 42 gauge wire in a skater wound formation on the best rough Sand cast alnico magnets, standard steel braided 2 conductor leads, on wax potted. Out is roughly 7.5 on the Neck & 8.4 Bridge,they vary just like the original PAF's.
Price range $ 299.-450.00 per set , Each Pickup can be purchased seperatly with various options on covers etc. Recently SKATTERBRANES released P90's soap bar or dog ear,Intend to purchase soon once I find the right guitar to put them in.

Like most tone seekers I have tried & spent thousands of dollars worth on pickups on the so called high end Pickups,Fralins, Lollars,Gibsons,J moores,Duncans,Bill Lawrence,Joe Barden,Rio Grande the list goes on, and I have tried all their Humbucker winds, get the picture, got Nothing that thrilled me or inspired me tone wise. Except for BARE KNUCKLES. Really I had stopped using Les Paul???s altogether because of this, and was using Strats & Tele's & PRS with a bunch of pedals to find what I was searching for........Bring on the SKATTERBRANES

So I wired in the SKATTERBRANES plugged into a 1972 Orange OR 120 head with a custom cabinet with 4 Heritage Celestion G 65's,I have it biased & set up to run on Tube position 2 & 3 giving me 60 watts of output rather than the mind blowing 120 it also has the Master control knob on the back. So you dial off the gain get 1 the best clean tones around.
The 1st Thing I noticed in the NECK position is how the SKATTERBANES so natural, so pure touch sensitive, alive. The notes seem to jump out of the rig with just the right amount of punch, yet balanced & airy almost 3-D like, crystal with wonderful warm bell like chimes, I was stunned, back off the Tone & open up the Volume you get the elusive woman tone every love and wants. Vintage sound, warm, rich and sweet with outstanding clarity and harmonic detail. I switched to the mid position with volume even on both pickups tone at 8, Now I rarely use the Mid position ,infact I am a bridge guy, but with the SKATTERBRANES you will have a whole new perception of what tone is really about, in the mid position it had Greater articulation and better string balance with just the right level of authority to make itself heard, Switch to the Bridge My favorite of all with the Vol. wide open , wonderful bite ,harmonically rich overdrive, that vintage growl & roar we love & yet still lost no note definition with riffs solos & bends.Some say because they are non wax potted there could be issues with mirophonics at High Amp Gain levels, B ut I have found no issues at high levels,even with pedals,if you want Death Metal gain these are not for you, The SKATTERBRANES are suitable for most applications & playing styles.I myself play Blues, Garage rock/Blues classic 60 & 70's punk .I also tested SKATTERBRANES with a few boutique pedals Landgraff, Klon,Ethos,proanalog,KR Musical if anything they made the pedals sound better in everyway.
I have since boxed up Stratocasters & Tele's & purchased 2 more Gibson les Paul???s I have also purchased 3 more sets Of SKATTERBRANES the A5'S with Nickel Covers, the Limited Edition RAW Nickel A2 Set with hand selected Alnico Magnets & I just received the Mar-t-v Nickel set with the Peter Green Reverse wind Mod for the neck position.. Some say they are expensive. But you get what you pay for, and you should never put a price on the best tone!!

As far as gear ,Les Paul R7,R8,R9 & 2 Traditional???s, 3 Paul Reed Smiths,1 Gretsch Custom Shop Duo Jet,6 Custom Shop Fender Strats , 5 Bill Nash Tele's & 1 Gibson J45 Acoustic. Amps -72 Orange OR 120, 68 Marshall small box Plexi,Fuchs ODS 100,a Real 65 Fender Twin Black Face, Fender Fibro King, Swart Atomic, Swart Mini Tweed,Fargen Black Bird,Divided by 13 FRT 37.Pedals- Klon,Ethos,Landgraff.Kr Musical all the Skreddys,Bjfe's,Sweetsound the list goes on & on.... I have slowly been testing the SKATTERBRANES through all the this gear and it all sound better than I remember. I am extremely happy in the pickups, and the inspiration I have found again which seemed to have reached a plateau.
I also wanted to Commend Rod Kinkade on his product, His outstanding & personal customer service, his time & patience he spends with repeat customers & future customers. Rod has extreme knowledge on Les Paul???s & Humbuckers, I would class him as a historian, and I always listen & trust his recommendations on choosing the pickups for my Guitars.
I only wish Rod the best, as he deserves it. It???s a 1 man show at SKATTERBRANES so you can guarantee quality and attention to every detail.

Just dicovered Skatterbranes a few weeks ago and ordered a set.
Mine sport the raw nickel covers and of course the "Patent Applied for" stickers.

I put them into a Gibson R9 that was aged by RS in Kentucky. Not that I am a fan of paying more for a beat up looking guitar, but this is how I bought it from another musician. The guitar came with RS/Fralin True 60th and I thought they were actually pretty good.
The fact that I owned an original vintage 58 and 60 Les Paul Standard however always left me unsatisfied with newer guitars. I experimented a lot with different pickups and used a set of RS/Fralin Psychobilly pickups. They sounded better to me than the True 60th. I put I pair of Tom Holmes in there that Tom built for me. They were unpotted and sounded better than the RS/Fralins, but still left me unsatisfied. Since Tom's pickups are considered by many to be the very best "good sounding" PAF clones on the market I thought that the reason I was not quite happy had to do with the guitar itself. After installing the Skatterbranes I can confess that these are much more convincing as PAF clones.

Output level is like good PAFs were and should be. The golden rule seems to be 8kohms for the bridge and around 7.5 for the neck.
This pickups have it all, shimmer, balls, character, dynamics, harmonics, you name it. It is all there in perfect balance and harmony. Warm and fat but not too dark or muddy like the Fralins. Noticably more personality and feel than even the Tom Holmes. My search, and I am pretty sure your search for that elusive classic sound will end here. These pickups are the final word. You can't improve on these.

I ordered a second set already for my SG61 RI and are going to order one more set for my ES339.

8.0 ish

Edwards 98LST

Both

Duncan

Looking for tone

PAF output.

Budda Twinmaster and Giller 36 EF86 Amp

Sweet

I play all kinds, but these rock.

Both positions outstanding

If I could get a deal I'd buy them again, over and over.

I've been playing steady since 1963.

I love these because they have the sweet full sound that Gibson hasn't had in a long time and rarely had in the past.

I love these pickups.

They tube distort perfectly and sometimes have that PAF double/traling tone that brings back memories. There's a lot of great pickups out there and this is one of them.

Double Creme Humbuckers Ordered as a set with Alnico 4 magnets. Not hot output. They use vintage wiring so coil tapping is not an option.

These pickups went in a Les Paul copy. I wanted to see how close to the real thing I could get. They are in the Neck and Bridge and replacing the stock Alnico V pickups. Again I wanted to see how close to the real thing I could get with an inexpensive copy.

The output is not hot, it has a very nice tone, especially the Neck pickup. It has a sort of spank to it. It has been described to have a "woman tone" which is pretty accurate, I just am in love with the neck pickup though. These pickups are perfect for blues and they will do any other style extremely well but I dont think you can find a better pickup for blues.

Compared to the price of the guitar these pickups cost almost as much LOL. They were worth every penny though I would replace my guitar before I ever replace these pickups. Again I absolutely love the Neck pickup, generally I am not a treble kind of guy, but the treble on these are amazing, very warm and spanky. If I was on a tight budget I might try to just order the neck pickup and a mass produced bridge, but its worth it to get the set.

I am 100% satisfied with the Neck pickup I would not ever search for a different pickup for that position. The bridge is amazing as well but I leave my switch on the Neck, it is THAT good.

These are well made and I am certain they will outlast my guitar.

These Skatterbrane humbucking pickups are traditional PAF style pickups in appearance with nickel covers and were ordered with the alnico 2 magnets. The bridge pickup measured 8.56K and the neck pickup measured 7.75 on my meter. According to the Skatterbrane website: Features rough sand cast 2 1/2" magnets, 42awg enamel coated coil wire, and uneven coil windings. Unpotted with nickel covers. All individually hand wound and tested.

I installed these pickups in my 2006 1960 VOS Historic Les Paul to replace the stock burstbucker pickups. Prior to these pickups I have tried and tested extensively: Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers, multiple sets of Antiquities, Wolfetone Doctor Vintage humbuckers, as well as the stock Burstbucker 1 and 2 combination. I spent a great deal of time adjusting and tweaking all of the above mentioned pickups in order to fairly evaluate each model at it's best. When I played my guitar with the Skatterbranes, I knew from the very first chord that they would stay in my guitar.

The output level of these pickups are very similar to a real set of PAFs that I owned several years ago. They are not hot, but they have plenty of punch and power in wonderful balance with clarity and outstanding midrange complexity. They are very harmonic and rich sounding and my lasting impression from these pickups is that everything sounds bigger, fatter and deeper than any other combination I have tried. One area of concern for many folks is a muddy sounding neck pickup. With some of the other pickups that I tried this has been a problem. With the Skatterbranes the sound was fatter and more articulate than any other pickup I have tried. They are very touch sensitive and respond well to both volume and tone control changes. I play through a hand wired Metro Amps JTM45 clone and a 4x12 cabinet with eminence privatejack speakers. I also use an 18 watt plexi style head and a BF Princeton Reverb on occassion. I play blues and classic rock. For me great tone is paramount. It is what inspires me night after night and it is what makes one note say more than a flurry of 20.

I have been playing for 28 years and I have owned some fine vintage gear through the years. I have played professionally for 5 of the 28 years before settling down with my family. I have had the good fortune to be able to own and compare some fine vintage stratocasters and les pauls as well as some great vintage amplifiers during that time. This experience has been most valuable to me in finding affordable gear to "play out" with and still get the great tone that the finest vintage gear delivers with out the worry of damaging expensive vintage guitars on the job. Rod's Skatterbranes really get it right and they bring the many facets of great PAF sound into one pickup without the 5K to 10K price tag!

These pickups are humbucking PAF clones made by Skatterbrane. They feature AlNiCo 2 magnets, mismatched windings per coil and come with covers. Nothing fancy or groudbreaking about the features or how they look. The bridge impedance is around 8.5ohms, the neck is around the high 7's... 7.9 I think.

Gibson 1958 reissue made in '06. The guitar is stock except for the Skatterbranes in both neck and bridge position. These pickups replaced the stock Burstbuckers that came with the guitar. I used this guitar for a pickup shootout on the Les Paul forum a few months ago and it's had just about every aftermarket PAF clone known to man in it... Antiquities, WCR, Timbuckers, RS/Fralin, Wolfetone Dr. Vintage to mention a few.
I tried the Skatterbranes when I was contacted by the man who makes them and asked if I'd like to try them. I did try them and they're not leaving the guitar.

The output level is dead on to a real set of PAF's. These aren't "loud" pickups and neither are real PAF's, a lot aftermarket pickups seem to miss the point in this respect and end up driving the amp too hard/too early with output.
The amps I use in the studio and live are mainly BF Princeton and Deluxe Reverbs, BF Super Reverbs, a '64 Vibroverb, a '58 tweed Deluxe, a variety of vintage Gibson amps, Supro's, Silvertones, an 18 watt 2x12" Blockhead, Marshall JCM800 2x12" master volume combo from the early '80's and a real '59 Bassman.

These pickups come closer to a good set of PAF's than anything else I've ever tried... it' all there... the "chirp" PAF's have is here, the upper mid emphesis, the full swirling double tone on the top end... the Skatterbranes have all that. The wound strings have that hollow tone and the plain strings all get the classic PAF "crying/double tone" thing that makes a good set of PAF's so great. The Skatterbranes are warm without being muddy in the neck, the middle position really reminds me of Dickie Betts' tone on the ABB "Live at the Fillmore East" record. The bridge pickup, my favorite place to play, is otherworldly... thru a clean/cleaner sounding amp the tone is very reminicent of Mike Bloomfield's sound and thru a Marshall the tone really does head for Duane's sound on the Fillmore record.
These pickups just have "more" sound built inside them than any other aftermarket pickup I've ever heard.
The pickups aren't potted and are every so slightly microphonic... and that's another good thing... more overtones with pickups that "ring" a little bit. If you play thru dimed 100 watt Marshalls there might be a problem with feedback from these pickups in smaller venues. I had no problem with them in a small studio with a '50 watt JCM800 that was turned up to painful levels.

If I get another Historic, I'll get another set of Skatterbranes for it.
I've been playing for over 30 years, I've owned many vintage Les Pauls, including bursts from the late '50's, many late '50's and early '60's 335/345 and 355 guitars. I'm very familiar with good PAF tone.
I love these pickups for their sound, these things truly have some killer tone. I would compare them with a good set of old PAF's and that's about it. A close second might be the Timbuckers, my other fave PAF clone... and that's about it for contenders.
Wish list for the Skatterbranes? Maybe DMC covers and that's about it.
I'm satisfied with these pickups, the search for a good set of PAF clones is over.

Humbucking PAF design. Neck 7.8K. Bridge 8.6K

1996 Gibson Les Paul 59 Reissue. Set replaced the 57 Classics. I wanted something more dynamic. I tried Burstbuckers and older PAF reissues. T-Tops SD Antiquities, SD Seth Lovers, Bill Lawerence, Lindy Fralins, etc.

Typical output for a PAF, not too loud like some aftermarket PAFs. I use a Fender 57 twin RI. These PUs are not harsh in the bridge position like so many PAF style pickups. Very dynamic and touch sensitive. The neck pickup is creamy without being muddy. Adds weight and never thin or grainy sounding. Rich harmonics. Strangely enough it adds weight or balls, and yet it is not dark. The LP I put it in had trouble with being a bit dark and muddy, and these PUs really improved the tone immensely.

I have used many Humbuckers made by Gibson through the years, and other boutique ones as well. I plan on using these in all my Les Pauls from now on!