"It must sound old, but lively - preferably slightly nasal, but please with tight bass and brilliance in the highs."

That was the wish that prompted the development of the Classic series.

Classic Standard: underwound humbucker with an extremely clear and well-defined tone and fast response.

Our Classic "Standard" PAFs are a departure from our Spirit of 59 and resemble a fat single coil, but are still full humbuckers.

Creating this magic wasn't as simple as reducing the number of turns.

To achieve the optimal sound and feel, we adjusted the winding pattern, coil offset, and magnet selection. The result is a perfect underwound tone that lets the natural resonance of the guitar shine through, making chords ring and arpeggios sing.

After many tests, two variants have emerged:

A Classic "Standard" with AlNiCo II magnet and a variant with AlNiCo III.

We simply couldn't decide which of the two magnets made the humbuckers sound best.

The AlNiCo II version sounds warm, with clear mids, "softer" bass and a softer attack.

The AlNiCo III version is slightly brighter in comparison, with stronger string separation and warm bass.

Technical information:

The neck pickup has a DC resistance of approximately 6.9 kΩ.

The bridge pickup is at approximately 8.3 kΩ.

Both pickups are wound with the historically correct #42 plain enamel wire.