NEW PICTURES & MORE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS ADDED 5/6/06... see post #128 for additional details...
OK... anyone who has tried it knows that the coolest pickup in the world is the ALNICO 59/CUSTOM HYBRID... it combines the Clarity and Vintage Response of the 59 Model with the Punch, Drive and Body characteristic of the Custom 5 and Custom Custom.
It is fabricated from 1 59 Model coil and 1 Custom coil with an Alnico magnet... it measures out about 11.25k and balances prefectly with typical vintage type neck humbuckers like the 59, Jazz, Seth Lover, Pearly Gates and Alnico pro II.
The problem when you overwind a PAF style 42 guage wire pickup(59 Model, Seth, EVH, etc.) is that it starts getting congested and garbled sounding above about 9k which happens to be right where the excellent Custom Shop EVH/78 Model is... if you wanted some more beef to your tone the next step was one of the 43 gauge Custom models (which all use the EXACT same coils) wound to just above 14k which is the best range for tone with that wire...
The comprimise is that you lose the articulation and dynamic response of the PAF and start to suffer from compression due to the signal travelling through a thinner and greater length of wire, but it is an EXCELLENT tone none the less!
With the Hybrid you get a Meritage of the 2 pickups... the BEST OF BOTH WORLDS... also, each coil has a different resonant peak so the combination is less "peaky" or "one notey" than a standard humbucker. The mis-matched coils also cancel less harmonics so the tone is more complex and posseses some qualities exclusive to single coil pickups. The original vintage PAF's had coil mismatches since they were wound by sight "until they were full" and not to a specific number of turns or resistance... that is one of the many reasons they sound so great.
My favorite NECK pickup is 59/Jazz Hybrid...
Many of the coils can combine to make great Hybrids... read through the posts and see the variations!
STEP 1 - Get your 59 Model and CUSTOM 5/CUSTOM CUSTOM prepared for surgery by removing the tape surrounding the coils.
STEP 2 - Remove the tape protecting the lead wires and pull them away from the coils
STEP 3 - Very carefully remove the tape on the lead wires and De-solder the leads that come from each coil... a braided 2 conductor pickup has the screw coil start lead wire soldered to the baseplate and the finish wire is Black instead White
STEP 4 - Remove the little brass screws from the bottom of the coils
STEP 5 - Remove the coils to be exchanged
STEP 6 - Install the swapped coils on each pickup
STEP 7 - Re-install brass screws on bottom plate to secure the bobbins... tighten LIGHTLY
STEP 8 - Re-solder the lead wires(shown on left) and tape to prevent shorting out(shown on right)
STEP 9 - Heat the whole pickup with a hairdryer to get the potting wax flowing... press everything together tightly and then tighten the screws on the bottom snug to secure the whole assembly...
STEP 10 - After it cools down, carefully tape the whole pickup... I use premium 3M SUPER 33+ as is stays put even with the thin layer of wax around the edge.
FINAL STEP - Install your new pickup and try to wipe the huge grin off your face after plugging in and discovering the most even sounding and responsive Bridge humbucker you have ever heard!