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DiMarzio DP151 PAF Pro
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DiMarzio DP151 PAF Pro

Humbucker guitar pickup from DiMarzio belonging to the Medium Power series

21 reviews

Buy new DiMarzio DP151 PAF Pro

  • Thomann In stock / Delivered in 24h €109.00
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  • Thomann Not available / N/A €109.00
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4.4/5
(21 reviews)
48 %
(10 reviews)
38 %
(8 reviews)
5 %
(1 review)
5 %
(1 review)
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Value For Money : Poor
RiceEatin2010GTRiceEatin2010GT

Came stock in my Fender

DiMarzio DP151 PAF ProPublished on 10/21/12 at 13:21
The PAF Pro was actually one of the original pickups that DiMarzio made, and it’s one of those that really started to catch on during the whole 80s rack scene. I remember everyone running these pickups back in the day - Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and the list just keeps on going. A lot of OEM manufacturers actually started putting this pickup in their guitars too. This came stock in lots of Ibanez guitars, and it even came stock in my one Fender stratocaster. The output is enough in that it’ll work in either the neck or the bridge. In the bridge, it matches great with single coils and other medium output neck pickups. It’s fairly open sounding with some slight bite on...…
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The PAF Pro was actually one of the original pickups that DiMarzio made, and it’s one of those that really started to catch on during the whole 80s rack scene. I remember everyone running these pickups back in the day - Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and the list just keeps on going. A lot of OEM manufacturers actually started putting this pickup in their guitars too. This came stock in lots of Ibanez guitars, and it even came stock in my one Fender stratocaster. The output is enough in that it’ll work in either the neck or the bridge. In the bridge, it matches great with single coils and other medium output neck pickups. It’s fairly open sounding with some slight bite on the top end. In the neck, you get one of the famous neck tones of the 80s. It’s clear and bright without sounding too trebly or thin. It’s also quite dynamic, which is something a lot of people had issues with when they started running a lot of rack gear back then. However, the pickup seems to be a bit dated today. While I still really enjoy this pickup, I recently sold off my last one because it’s just not what I’m looking for these days. I’m starting to prefer more modern sounding pickups as of late, and so I decided to part ways with this. That said, if you’re looking for one of the most versatile pickups ever made, this could suit you. It all depends on what kind of tone you’re aiming for. Today’s DiMarzios come with four conductor wiring, so if you want to experiment with different wiring setups, this would probably be the perfect pickup to do so. It seems to work in anything you throw at it and work in any configuration you wire it in.
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tjon901tjon901

A modern sounding PAF suited for the neck

DiMarzio DP151 PAF ProPublished on 05/23/11 at 08:17
The Paf Pro was designed in the 80s for the guitar players at the time. Guitar players were still using Gibson style PAF pickups in their guitars but by then the guitar rigs had become so much larger and more complicated. Guitarists back then all wanted to have the biggest racks so they would add stuff they did not really need and this would just suck more and more tone out of their signals. So Dimarzio took the old PAF design and boosted the high end on it. This allowed the sound to cut through all the gear and effects and still sound good. It is still voiced like an old PAF with the very open traditional sound. The Paf Pro can be used in both positions but it may be took weak to be put...…
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The Paf Pro was designed in the 80s for the guitar players at the time. Guitar players were still using Gibson style PAF pickups in their guitars but by then the guitar rigs had become so much larger and more complicated. Guitarists back then all wanted to have the biggest racks so they would add stuff they did not really need and this would just suck more and more tone out of their signals. So Dimarzio took the old PAF design and boosted the high end on it. This allowed the sound to cut through all the gear and effects and still sound good. It is still voiced like an old PAF with the very open traditional sound. The Paf Pro can be used in both positions but it may be took weak to be put in the bridge position for modern music. Its output is only 8.4k so its not much hotter than the old original PAF but that is part of the classic sound. It also has four conductor wiring, something the old PAF pickups did not have. With the four conductor wiring you can split the coils in the pickup for a single coil sound. The sound is good and does exactly what it claims. It gives the classic PAF sound with an little extra high end to get you though all your effects without the tone disappearing on you. Its open sound is something you do not get from most modern pickups. Its low output helps it maintain this open vocal tone. Like many old school pickups the mid range does a lot of the work. It has an even mid range that sounds good without making it sound like you have a wah pedal on. In the neck position it goes well with all the hot bridge pickups. So if you are looking for an old school pickup that can hang with the modern gear and modern music this may be fore you.
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King LoudnessKing Loudness

Decent pickup for hard rock or shred.

DiMarzio DP151 PAF ProPublished on 05/01/11 at 08:11
I purchased a 1987 Yamaha RGX1212s (Jackson Soloist clone) that was loaded with one of these in the bridge position. I had always read that the PAF Pro was essentially meant to be a PAF, but supercharged for those shred metalists of the eighties. Indeed, Paul Gilbert was a huge proponent of this pickup at one time, which backs up the opinion that it's meant for shredding. I agree with this assessment as well. At the time that I purchased the Yamaha, I was playing almost solely neoclassical shred guitar and this pickup worked very well for that.

It's not the most versatile pickup by any means. I found it to be fairly one dimensional in its sound quality, so clean tones were passable at...…
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I purchased a 1987 Yamaha RGX1212s (Jackson Soloist clone) that was loaded with one of these in the bridge position. I had always read that the PAF Pro was essentially meant to be a PAF, but supercharged for those shred metalists of the eighties. Indeed, Paul Gilbert was a huge proponent of this pickup at one time, which backs up the opinion that it's meant for shredding. I agree with this assessment as well. At the time that I purchased the Yamaha, I was playing almost solely neoclassical shred guitar and this pickup worked very well for that.

It's not the most versatile pickup by any means. I found it to be fairly one dimensional in its sound quality, so clean tones were passable at best. They had a nice low end at times for thicker/bluesier textures. However, for that classic eighties LA clean tone, this pickup was just too thick and one dimensional. The same flaw was true if I tried to play more blues or classic rock with a mildly overdriven tone... it just didn't have the right texture for that. It almost felt to me like I had to use a bunch of gain to get this pickup to really shine, and considering the demographic that it was aimed at, this is no surprise to me.

The overdrive tones were killer. I was playing shred in the neoclassical vein as stated and this pickup was great for that. It was very articulate with faster alternate picked passages, and you could easily hear all of the notes through the gain. Definitely ideal for what I was doing musically at the time. The rhythm tones were nice and chunky at higher gain settings as well, which I felt was excellent. As I shifted away from playing shred 100% of the time, I begun to like the pickup less and less and ultimately, after moving directions to a more basic rock sound, I ended up selling the guitar with the pickup loaded in it.

All in all I felt the PAF Pro was a great sounding pickup for shred based tones. It did the Paul Gilbert fast picking thing really well and was articulate enough to handle a barrage of notes. However, the tonal spectrum of this pickup was too one dimensional for my tastes, so anything other than shred metal type sounds didn't seem to sound as good. If you're looking for a good shred pickup... give this a whirl. It's not quite as high output as the Evo or D-Activator, but it still takes gain like a champ.
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HatsubaiHatsubai

Updated PAF

DiMarzio DP151 PAF ProPublished on 03/23/11 at 09:02
The PAF Pro was one of the first variants of the PAF to ever hit the market. DiMarzio wanted to create a pickup that was geared towards the players of the time, which happened to be the 80s. That means it was created for shredders with huge racks and running tons of effects. The goal was to maintain enough treble and presence to cut through all the tone sucking devices that were abundant due to the lower quality AD/DA converters back then.

The PAF Pro features four conductor wiring with tunable allen head bolts instead of regular slugs that most other pickups featured. DiMarzio says it’s a transparent sounding pickup, and it kinda is, but it really hypes the treble compared to other...…
Read more
The PAF Pro was one of the first variants of the PAF to ever hit the market. DiMarzio wanted to create a pickup that was geared towards the players of the time, which happened to be the 80s. That means it was created for shredders with huge racks and running tons of effects. The goal was to maintain enough treble and presence to cut through all the tone sucking devices that were abundant due to the lower quality AD/DA converters back then.

The PAF Pro features four conductor wiring with tunable allen head bolts instead of regular slugs that most other pickups featured. DiMarzio says it’s a transparent sounding pickup, and it kinda is, but it really hypes the treble compared to other PAFs on the market. This isn’t your daddy’s PAF.

Sound wise, this pickup is fairly open. There is some hyped treble that you don’t find on most PAFs, but it helps really cut through and give some clarity to the notes. The low notes have a wonderful “vowely” quality that sounds just like the old school humbuckers from back in the day. Midrange is fairly even and lets the other frequencies do most of the work without making it too boxy or scooped sounding. This pickup sounds pretty cool split, but I tend to prefer running it in series. The beauty of this pickup is that it can be used in either the bridge or the neck. In the bridge, it’s a medium output humbucker that stays open. In the neck, it’s a clear, precise pickup that really sings. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of this in the bridge because it doesn’t compress to my liking, but some really adore that aspect of it.

If you’re looking for an updated, higher output PAF that’s not over the top, this is definitely a pickup worth trying. There are tons on the market, so you should be able to find them at a good price. If you don’t like it, you can always sell it for roughly what you paid.
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Tech. sheet

  • Manufacturer: DiMarzio
  • Model: DP151 PAF Pro
  • Series: Medium Power
  • Category: Humbucker guitar pickups
  • Package weight:200 g
  • Added in our database on: 07/08/2012

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Other names: dp151pafpro, dp 151 paf pro, dp151 pafpro, dp151paf pro