Tim Shaw pickups/What is the BFD?

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JohnnyGtar

JohnnyGtar

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Tim Shaw is a genius! He invented the Gibson Dirty Fingers. For that alone he should be Knighted. He's designed many others as well, such as the new Fender Cunife pickups.

 
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They replicate the coveted PAF tone well. I have a set from an 87 LP and they're great pups. I don't think they're worth the insane asking prices though. Half of the cost is built on the hype and legacy these pups carry. As time marches on the BFD factor will only increase.
 
Recently reinstalled the stock one in my SG…nothing special and it squeals. It will come back out next string change. Back to the JB.
 
I agree. The old Dirty Fingers are amazing pickups that for me embarrass any recent hot pickups I’ve tried when compared in the same guitar. They have a rawness, angry growl and complexity to their sound that just doesn’t seem to be in the cards for recent pickups or even many other vintage highoutput pickups. Yes, they squeal and the huge low end can be a bit much maybe for some setups or styles, but it’s undeniably still awesome sounding

The PAF’s I’ve had from him might even be the closest pickups I’ve had to sounding like my actual paf. I have an unusual Shaw paf set where the bridge pickup is almost 16k and the neck ~9K. They also sounding amazing. Once you get into these great vintage pickups they just make most current stuff so bland and flavorless (for me at least)
 
The 80s Shaw PAFs sounded fantastic. Touch sensitive, great definition, and that airy quality in the top end like many real PAFs.
But they squealed really badly at 1980s stage volumes and I had to pull them from any guitars I was gigging.
Might be totally usable at today's reduced levels, though. I'd consider putting them back in my Moderne.
 
eclecticsynergy said:
The 80s Shaw PAFs sounded fantastic. Touch sensitive, great definition, and that airy quality in the top end like many real PAFs.
But they squealed really badly at 1980s stage volumes and I had to pull them from any guitars I was gigging.
Might be totally usable at today's reduced levels, though. I'd consider putting them back in my Moderne.
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They still are not useable…bedroom and recording in a different room sure. Band levels, nope.
 
Greazygeo said:
They still are not useable…bedroom and recording in a different room sure. Band levels, nope.
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I have 2 early 80s DFs. I use a Decimator in my signal chain. The strange thing is; when I double boost my 72 Tremolo with the lower gain pedal combo, the DF squeals like a pig. But, when run an Uzi Distortion pedal (BE OD clone) and go heavier with the double boost, it for the most part is quiet. Twice as much gain, and almost modern levels...but no or very little feedback even cranked. Very strange.

That's the main issue I have with the vintage pickups I've tried...99% of them aren't potted, and are almost unusable with the amount of feedback I deal with.
 
Greazygeo said:
They still are not useable…bedroom and recording in a different room sure. Band levels, nope.
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Good to know. Too bad, though - I remember them sounding great.

The Moderne has BKP Rebel Yells these days. Not very PAF-ish but they can do vintagey with volume rolled back and the tone down just a bit.
Nice cleanup, plenty of sparkle, and they really sing in korina when opened up. I like BKPs; also have Polymaths and the Holy Divers.

I've got an '05 LP Trad Plus that came with unpotted Burstbuckers. They were useless at band volume too.
To be fair, that one's unusually bright for an LP.
 
Racerxrated said:
I have 2 early 80s DFs. I use a Decimator in my signal chain. The strange thing is; when I double boost my 72 Tremolo with the lower gain pedal combo, the DF squeals like a pig. But, when run an Uzi Distortion pedal (BE OD clone) and go heavier with the double boost, it for the most part is quiet. Twice as much gain, and almost modern levels...but no or very little feedback even cranked. Very strange.

That's the main issue I have with the vintage pickups I've tried...99% of them aren't potted, and are almost unusable with the amount of feedback I deal with.
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With my Phalanx gate I can usually manage ok the noise of my vintage pickups, except with my 72 SuperLead. That’s one amp that seems to be a lot harder to tame noise with. I should try my Golem Gate. It might work better than my phalanx. I don’t seem to have noise problems with most of my vintage Bill Lawrence’s or ‘50’s PAF probably since it’s a darker leaning pickup. My Tone Specific’s were fine with noise, but not sure if anything is done to tame that or not. They’re the non-vintage pickups I’m still using
 
braintheory said:
The old Dirty Fingers are amazing pickups that for me embarrass any recent hot pickups I’ve tried when compared in the same guitar. They have a rawness, angry growl and complexity to their sound that just doesn’t seem to be in the cards for recent pickups or even many other vintage high output pickups.
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You hit the nail on the head. To my ears the original DF's have a real snappy attack that reminds me of a pissed off vintage Tele and the grind is insane. Once I heard that, I was hooked.
 
JohnnyGtar said:
You hit the nail on the head. To my ears the original DF's have a real snappy attack that reminds me of a pissed off vintage Tele and the grind is insane. Once I heard that, I was hooked.
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Yeah those and the vintage Bill Lawrence’s and Mighty Mites just have a way spoiling one lol. Your description is very much actually what I get out of my ‘70’s Bill Lawrence L90’s. I love a good Tele too for their grind they can have
 
Racerxrated said:
I have 2 early 80s DFs. I use a Decimator in my signal chain. The strange thing is; when I double boost my 72 Tremolo with the lower gain pedal combo, the DF squeals like a pig. But, when run an Uzi Distortion pedal (BE OD clone) and go heavier with the double boost, it for the most part is quiet. Twice as much gain, and almost modern levels...but no or very little feedback even cranked. Very strange.

That's the main issue I have with the vintage pickups I've tried...99% of them aren't potted, and are almost unusable with the amount of feedback I deal with.
Click to expand...
My first Gibson V had the DF in it. Man did that thing have the hoot owls. Drove me nuts. Switched to a Duncan Distortion and never looked back. Never cared for the DF tone anyway, too fuzzy.
Not a noise gate fan, too much volume knob stuff for me.
I don’t mind the tone of the Shaw, it is ok but nothing special. The squeals suck, forgot about that. Same thing with my SG Custom, it has the paf’s with the circuit board’s supposed to be Lawrence designed? Sounds like I want but squeals, back to the Duncan or maybe a Fralin.
 
eclecticsynergy said:
Good to know. Too bad, though - I remember them sounding great.

The Moderne has BKP Rebel Yells these days. Not very PAF-ish but they can do vintagey with volume rolled back and the tone down just a bit.
Nice cleanup, plenty of sparkle, and they really sing in korina when opened up. I like BKPs; also have Polymaths and the Holy Divers.

I've got an '05 LP Trad Plus that came with unpotted Burstbuckers. They were useless at band volume too.
To be fair, that one's unusually bright for an LP.
Click to expand...
I don’t mind the Shaw tonewise, if tou have it try it. Might be fine, mine squeals. Totally forgot about that. Haven’t used that pickup since the 80’s. Thought it would be cool to go back to the stock pickup. Could wax pot it I suppose…
 
Greazygeo said:
I don’t mind the Shaw tonewise, if tou have it try it. Might be fine, mine squeals. Totally forgot about that. Haven’t used that pickup since the 80’s. Thought it would be cool to go back to the stock pickup. Could wax pot it I suppose…
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Be aware that the ink stamps on old Shaws will smear in hot wax. One of mine was lightly potted at one point.
That did make it a bit more resistant to feedback, but it also made the date code illegible.
 
I’ve got a set in a ‘81 LPC, great pickups, very dynamic and open sounding.
Not worth the insane asking price imo, but nice pickups nonetheless.
 
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