Mick Taylor's 1959 Les Paul Standard Burst: The PAF Pickups and the 'Can't You Hear Me Knocking' Solo

Mick Taylor’s main guitar from 1969 to 1974 was a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard with a sunburst finish—the exact instrument he used on Sticky Fingers and the solo that tears through “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.” He bought it new old stock in London shortly after joining the Rolling Stones, paying around £200. The guitar has a famously slim neck profile and weighs a touch over nine pounds, but the real secret is in the pickups.

Those original Patent Applied For (PAF) humbuckers are what give the solo its impossible balance of warmth and attack. The PAFs use un-potted coils with Alnico II or IV magnets (the exact mix varies by batch), which allows the magnets to vibrate microphonically. That produces the singing, slightly compressed sustain you hear when Taylor bends into the upper register around 2:45. The unpotted coils also let the guitar breathe—notes bloom without going muddy, and the bridge pickup cuts through Keith Richards’ open G tuning without stepping