Got the Custom Shop Pearly Gates for tele installed tonight. This is one pickup I have been dying to hear because there's not that much info out there, and precious few clips. I read some reviews calling it dark, it's more a question of mids. There are a lot of them! It basically has the sound of a full size bucker but thankfully I wired the 3-way mini toggle in for versatility. My tele has a SM-1 in the neck and a 4-way switch, so combined with this, there are lots of different tones. Probably the best part for me is having a noiseless option for the bridge. In series, it's pretty hot and rude, drives nicely and sings well. Clean, the mids are sort of honky like many PAFs. In split, the tone is much better than I expected, a lot like a real single coil (though not one with alnico rod magnets). It's totally usable. Parallel has less output of course but still has some honk to it. Though I have not heard the Lil 59, I am convinced that the alnico mag in this one keeps the tone warm/organic and repels harshness. It's a high quality sound (well it better be coming from the custom shop @ $150). So far I like it plenty but I wish I could drop some mids/honk out to get it to sound more balanced.
![](http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn73/Nathan_C/IMG_3809.jpg)
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