Jimmy's pickups, like all PAFs are very chimey and ring like bells... they are almost like a P-90 when you strike them... but immediately after that, they start to bloom, and Jimmy's immaculate phrasing is totally based on the touch sensitivity required to take advantage of that bloom and sustain in order to pull off such mesmerizing and entrancing solos. If you take Jimmy's guitar in isolation you'll notice the tone is mid-heavy and the bass on his amps is extremely low, since he depends on the bass-work of John Paul Jones to provide all the bass that is necessary for the song to remain the same in a perfect example of how a band's individual instruments should meld together to seamlessly produce their signature sound.
Jimmy Page used a ton of gear on stage and has had a million different tones characterized from early on with what he referred to as "the lost art of tone control" (a.k.a. extensively and masterfully using the tone and volume knobs). His telecaster defined his early work and his Humbuckered Les Pauls afterward, which is naturally where our interests lie.
The pickups in Jimmy's #1 Les Paul were changed quite a few times over the years and while there is endless speculation as to what those pickups actually were, the most notable tone change came in 1972 when he damaged his bridge pickup in Australia and decided to replace it with something less traditional, yet quite a bit ballsier.
Our rendition of Jimmy Page pickups is, therefore, simply divided into a more traditional "Before72" set and a more modern "After72" set through which we feel can be derived the myriad tones attributed to this Guitar God. And since not everyone has a Marshall stack to dime we have baked some gain in to thicken it just enough (with the proper tone control) with whatever amp you happen to be running.
The Before72 set comes stock with double cream bobbins, plain enamel wire, 2-conductor leads, and long, unoriented A5 magnets with a VERY hot bridge impedance of 8.9kΩ and an equally hot 8.2kΩ in the neck. Gibson PAFs sometimes ran hot when the ladies winding them weren't keeping an eye on the turn count... and while having 2 hot pickups, was a bit on the rare side, it was what obviously caught Jimmy's fancy when he acquired the guitar from Joe Walsh.
The After72 set retains the same double cream high power PAF clone in the neck, but it (and the bridge) has 4-conductor leads for coil-splitting, series/parallel wiring and out-of-phase switching should you decide to take advantage of the plethora of tones Jimmy used post Zep. The bridge is based on the Patent Number pickup that is currently in the guitar, replacing the T-Top that remained in the guitar for the duration of Led Zeppelin... it is wound with polyurethane-coated wire on uncovered, black bobbins to 7.9kΩ with a short unoriented A5 magnet. If you practice Jimmy's lost art of tone control the tonal variations possible with the 4-conductor leads are staggering and each one of them rings out loud and true.
You can, of course mix and match all of the above options, and we will install whatever magnets float your boat... but after extensive testing these are the ones that we feel will get you closest to those coveted tonez and that best represent the sound of the immortal Jimmy Page.