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Chicago area based Audio/Video management pro, guitarist for over 40 years - have seen and heard 1000's of axe-and-amp combos, and still hungry to hear more! I remain a student of the sound, and yet, have a lot to share!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Gibson Tim Shaw pickup


I just connected with one of my guitar engineering "heroes" online.

I own a 1980 Gibson Heritage 80 Les Paul, in a brown case next to my 1979 Les Paul KM. To make a long story longer, 32 years ago, I yanked out the Gibson pickups on my newly bought Heritage 80 (traded a BC Rich Seagull for it, good move on my part), thinking that they were just another not-so-great humbucker created by a then budget-conscious Gibson. 

Gibson Guitars were coming out of a bad period of ownership changes and accompanying not-so-great engineering. Craftmanship on a budget. Success wasn't coming easy for them at this point, as the glorious 1950's and 1960's were a full generation past.
I put a pair of Seymour Duncan JB's in this Les Paul, and proceeded to love the sound for the next 25 years or so. Great pickups, but perhaps not the authentic sound of the 50's vintage originals. I didn't know of any other options.

As the internet grew, I eventually started viewing the various Les Paul websites and discussion forums, and on occasion I used to take note of a name mentioned once in a while, a Gibson engineer named Tim Shaw who had been working on their now infamous humbucking pickups.   Who's Tim Shaw? Whatever....

Gibson was creating the Heritage 80, Gibson's first re-issue of the coveted 1957-1960 Les Paul Standard. They recreated the 50's neck carve, maple top "dish" carve, tuning headstock shape, deep neck tenon (neck joint) and other re-creations to answer the growing call for vintage Les Pauls, an internal decision was made at Gibson to have someone in engineering do whatever it took to re-create the original PAF (patented applied for) humbucking pickups for this model.  It was getting known that Gibson was not making good pickups over the past few years.  Duncan and DiMarzio were creating great products and killing the market for Gibson's pickups.   

Gibson assigned one of their engineers to take apart the old PAF's, analyze the magnets, scope all the electronic data for the wiring specs, output voltage, capacitors, etc, etc. 
Tim Shaw was that engineer.  He created, without any fanfare or publicity from Gibson, an identical 1959 Gibson PAF humbucker.  Nothing out of the ordinary was said about these pickups in the press releases.  

I had recently been reading online that the "Tim Shaw" pickups were now valuable and selling for over $150 each.  Huh?  That's a lot of money for some regular old pickup made by Gibson, I thought.  I was snobby and thought my Seymour Duncans were the best and Gibson was clueless... But his name and public adoration for these pickups was getting a grass roots following.

Hmmm. Uh, wait a minute - I saved those old pickups, didn't I? (I never throw any guitar electronics away to the chagrin of my beautiful wife) Where the hell are they?

After a one week search I found them in my basement in the bottom of a large box full of music cassettes from when we moved to our current house 22 years ago. The mildew was quite aromatic. I checked out the serial numbers and stickers and compared my pickups to now-online photos that others had put online of these special design pickups.  

Holy %@#*! Tim Shaw pickups. I actually own a vintage SOMETHING.


I put the pickups and now faded chrome original pickup covers back on my Heritage 80. Re-strung the guitar and plugged it in with nervous anticipation.  Mesa Boogie Mark IIC. Lead channel, drive at 7, master volume at 1. (it's loud, kids.) 
B string, pick it hard and hit a D on the 15th fret and bend it up to an E. Slight quiver of vibrato.

Wow – do you know how a picture, a smell, or an aroma can instantly bring back a memory?

My guitar sounded like the1957 Les Paul I once played in a music store in Evanston Illinois in the mid 1970s.  That LP was being offered for sale for $1200.  $1200 bucks for an old finish-cracked Les Paul goldtop?  (I'm about 21, so it's like tastes in wine at that age – not refined.) BUT I remembered the sound that old finished-cracked guitar made through the Marshall combo back then. Nice guitar, but I passed. I wanted a new Hamer instead.

Returning to 2008, I am hearing that sound again through a guitar I actually own.  Wow.  I never knew that the "middle" pickup position (both pickups on) had a clear bluesy creamy tone that I never heard with my gear, as my hard rock roots kept me nailed to the bridge position full time. The neck pickup wasn't muddy, it had that jazzy tone that matches up well with a vintage Hammond B-3. And the bridge pickup had a sparkle that even when overdriven through my amp settings, had a definition and a sparkle even with a bar chord in full drive. Welcome back to the future. The former replacement pickups made great sounds in all the positions, but not like this. I never gave the Gibson pickups a chance back then, but no one knew Gibson was working overtime in their lab and opening up the 1950's pickup winding archives. They didn't name the pickups (as they do now) when they had them installed in these Les Pauls in 1980. But now they are being called the Tim Shaw pickups. Is he alive or dead? Did Henry Juszkiewicz retain Tim after he acquired Gibson? Did Tim retire? I never knew. I just speak of his pickups to anyone who plays Gibsons and anyone else who will listen or pretend to listen.

In May of 2012, a name surfaced by accident as I was scouring contacts on Linked In. I'm connected to some people at Gibson, Fender, and many other Audio/Video/Musical Instrument organizations. I always had a dream to represent a guitar maker, so new online tools make it fun and easy to seek out and make connections. As I was rapidly scrolling through a section of Linked In called People You May Know, a name came and went quickly. Tim Shaw. Nah, can't be, common name, must be hundreds online. Let's go back and look. Tim Shaw, Director of Project Management, Guitar Design, Fender Musical Instruments. If I'm a betting man, I think I'd win this one. Got to be him. Fired off a contact request and asked if he was the Tim Shaw that designed the re-issued PAF Humbuckers for Gibson back in 1980. He replied a week later. Yes, that was him, he said, "glad I liked the pickups". Bingo, he's alive and well and now working for Fender. Fantastic. Brought out my Fender Strat Elite from 1982 and got it back in stage playing condition. Tim later indicated in another email that he designed this pickup version closer to the original specs that Seth Lover, the inventor, had intended. The output was lower, and Tim said he preferred this specification in order to hear what the guitar is doing as “a structure”.  

Gibson now makes great pickups and some of the best guitars in their history, but I can't help but think that Tim started the big resurgence in electric guitar pickup design when this re-issue was released.

Well, this man is a living legend to me. He quietly turned the guitar pickup world around for Gibson, and the rest of the pickup manufacturers upped their game from that point forward. No headlines, no big publicity for Tim in the trades. He does what he loves, and now Fender will certainly benefit from his expertise, experience and passion in their instruments. Who's Tim Shaw? 

 Doesn't matter – I know.

21 comments:

  1. thats a great story
    i just received my 1982 korina gibson moderne c090 serial number
    and through the internet i found my pickups numbering black stamp in the back to match ones supposedly made by tim shaw i came across your article and well as always i find stories like this, to keep my love for gibson growing
    Texas
    Leonard
    ps. great story

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  2. Have an 83 335 dot, has the Shaw's, rubber stamp 330 383. about 7.42k each. Very nice pickup's and was totally unaware of what they were when I got the guitar. Fortunatly I never changed them. Hard to believe the guitar is now 33 yrs old. Norlin era gets a bad rap as some of these guitars are very nice,( as is this one).

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  3. I have a 1983 Spotlight Special LP with Shaw PAF humbuckers in it. People that have real 59's have played it and said it's as close as it if not identical in sound to their '59. There were only 211 Spotlight Specials made , and if you ever get a chance to get your hands on a Spotlight Special don't pass it up.

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  4. I have a 1983 Spotlight Special LP with Shaw PAF humbuckers in it. People that have real 59's have played it and said it's as close as it if not identical in sound to their '59. There were only 211 Spotlight Specials made , and if you ever get a chance to get your hands on a Spotlight Special don't pass it up.

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    Replies
    1. Hey there jmr. When you say you have a "Spotlight Special LP", are you referring to the model with dot inlays on the fretboard rather than the trapezoid shape? I have a 1984 LP Studio Custom with dot inlays and Tim Shaw pick-ups.

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  5. Great read. Thanks! Just bought an 1980 Les Paul Standard with Shaws and I'm REALLY looking forward to playing it - more so after reading this!

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  6. got tim shaws in my 1982 Gibson Les Paul Custom fantastic guitar ut dam is it heavy both in tone and weight. No weight relief that one. That guitar sounds and plays amazing.

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  7. got tim shaws in my 1982 Gibson Les Paul Custom fantastic guitar ut dam is it heavy both in tone and weight. No weight relief that one. That guitar sounds and plays amazing.

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  8. So I have a 1980 Custom, are these the same pick ups your talking about? My guitar buddys have called them "T bucket's" is that a reference to Tim Shaw?

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  9. I own one of those Gibson Les Paul Heritage Standards - bought it used from Guitar center - made them send pics of the pickup backs to make sure they were the Tim Shaws - they were used for about 3 years on the heritage series LPs (Heritage Series had the word Heritage printed on the Bell cover on headstock) 2 models - Standard and Custom, the higher end used a burled / fancier maple top, the Red dye was beautiful, as was the deep scoop carved into the top. Vast majority of Tim Shaw PUs have ink stamped numbers printed on back of PU in additional to the engraved stamp part number - the ink stamp for the bridge started with 138 and neck 137 - also had date ink stamp - for the ones made without these ink stamps, there are internet sites that can tell you exactly what to look for but the easiest was to see if it is worth investigating is to measure DC resistance of each P/U - should be about 7.5K and the spacers under the bobbins must be white plastic (other Gibson P/Us used maple wood) - apparently the ink stamp could contain other 6 digit codes - again there are websites that have pics of these pickups and what to look for
    Chris

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  10. Funny story, Tim is my uncle, but I didn’t know much of anything about what he did until a few years ago! I knew he worked for Fender (has for quite a while now), but had no clue what he did! Let me just say that there isn’t much funnier than watching Tim play Guitar Hero all those years ago! He was getting so frustrated that I thought he might throw the guitar controller across the room! He said “that’s not a guitar!” Haha! Another funny story was told by my aunt. She mentioned going to one of Sting’s concerts and meeting the man himself backstage when Tim presenting him with a custom guitar. My aunt, sweetheart that she is, didn’t know who Sting was until she met him! Truly, Tim is just a down to earth guy that has an incredible love for music, guitars, and family.

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  11. Just landed on this blog. I also have a 82 Custom. The guitar is dark soundiong but I believe this has to do with the existing 300k pots. I don´t know whether it as Tim Shaw´s. Do you know how to identify them?

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  12. Just picked up a 67 SG melody maker that had the single coils changed out for these... I ain't even mad, because they sound amazing! :D
    Great Story!

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  13. I'm currently searching for an '87 Les Paul Custom, simply because this is a very unique and tragically short-lived period of excellence in Gibson's history. Tim Shaw began making his amazing pups in the early 80's; Gibson got itself out from under Norlin's cheapo ownership in 86. 1987 is the only year where you get Tim Shaw buckers in the newer, higher quality craftsmanship guitars that Gibson made as standard prior to opening the Custom Shop in '92. Simply put, in 1987 the best guitar Gibson could make was a Les Paul Custom and a large part of why they sound so incredible is the Shawbuckers. Anyhoo, the OP is not alone in yanking out the Gibson pups and finding a 30 year old Custom with verified original Shawbuckers is proving tough. No doubt it'll be worth it.

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    1. Tim Shaw pickups were long gone by 87. believe early 84 was the end

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  14. I have an'83 Gibson SG Special with Shaws. Love the sound

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  15. And this is why you don't upgrade for no reason. You gotta play it like it is and then upgrade your pickups when you are 100% sure they even need to be upgraded.

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  16. Good morning, I was hoping that someone on here knows if it was standard to put these TS pu's in the LP Standards in 84 after the company moved to Memphis...I own a mint 84 Candy Apple Red one..unfortunately I don't have the expertise to open it ...nor the balls.afraid I'd screw up the finish.

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  17. So you bought a guitar and immediately ripped the pickups out, they sat in a box for a few decades and then after reading all the hoopla about Tim Shaw you reinstalled them in the very same guitar and suddenly after one note they are the holy grail? Did you actually even play the guitar when you first bought it? Sounds like you have fallen for all of the Tim Shaw hype. The Duncan '59 is the pickup every Tim Shaw pickup wants to be when it grows up. I had one of those Heritage 80 Les Pauls just like yours. Mine was good but not a keeper. This was before I became hip to Duncan pickups and to the JB in particular, my all time favorite pickup.

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  18. In picked up an '84 Custom mostly for the price. It was advertised as having Tim Shaw pups. I had no idea about them til I looked online to see what I could learn. Wow! When I plugged her in, sweet, clear tone. Neck, smooth and sweet, no mud. Bridge, rich, clear, slightly dark. Nice! The original little PAF stickers are still on the mount rings. This is a better sounding Custom than a '68 I nearly bought. Shaws rock!

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  19. I had a 86 L.P pre re issue which was purchased with Classic 57's in it, but came with the original pickups he had removed. That guitar was stolen in 2007, but i still had the pickups in a box.

    They've been sitting for 21 years

    I was thinking of putting them into a newly acquired 2001 LP Classie Plus. I dug them up , and looked at the back, and went on line to research. Low and behold, i have the 138 282 (august 1982) stamped on the back and compared with pictures.
    Holy crap. Anyway,,the classic came with the 498R and 500T ceramics. the 500T had a resistance value of 15.7k. Waay too much for my liking and just seem to break my amp up even with vol down.
    Took them out, and put in the pickups that the seller took out in 1996. There is one pickup that doesn't have a stamp, and that is the neck pickup with 7.7K. Bridge was 7.2. These pickups are so transparent, and will expose all the shittyness or awesomeness your pedals, or amps, or settings you might have.Full spectrum. They sound unpotted. I popped them in and the new Pearly Gates pickups i picked up on black friday are still in the box,and may return them. To sum it up,,,never head anything like this, and the middle position gives it a Tele kinda quack to it. I think they are staying in.

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