Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

[clearance]

Hey everyone,
Is this right? I have PG in the neck and SH-5 in bridge position in my orville LP. Both pickups work fine and i'm really satisfied with 'em. But it seems PG is a bit louder than SH-5. Bridge pickup is a little closer to the the strings. Is there anything wrong here? I mean shouldn't it be the other way around since SH-5 is ceramic and has a bigger output?
Thanks for reading!

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

SH5 should be louder unless something was wired up weird. Especially if the SH5 is closer to the strings. Do you have one wired in parallel and one in series or something?

[chris effect]

Re: Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

The neck pup should typically be about 2x as far from the strings the bridge pup, If the neck is still louder then that's weird. Remember, the neck pup is louder because of more string vibration- hence why they are made with lower output and suggested to be a a good bit further away from the strings. good luck!

[clearance]

Re: Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

I didn't wire it up by myself - my tech did it and it's supposed to be 50's wiring, so no fancy stuff here. I'll measure the exact distance and check it with the 2x formula then. Hope that would be it.

[DonP]

Re: Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

Doesn't sound right to me. SH5 should easily be louder.

[uOpt]

Re: Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

Neck pickups in a LP can be very boomy. If you play clean chords a Pearly Gator in the neck can easily beat many bridge pickups. And the SH-5 is not a fire-and-forget pickup. It needs quite a bit of guitar to drive it correctly. In addition the ceramic magnets ensures that as you play harder the sound gets more compressed, not louder.

So if you are strumming full chords clean then the neck pickup can overwhelm the bridge easily.

[clearance]

Re: Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

It happens on dirty/distortion also. It's a slight difference, but makes me feel uncomfortable.

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

Have you double checked the wiring? I mean just in case

[clearance]

Re: Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

As far as i remember everything was fine with the wiring. The PG is about 4mm (0.158") under the bottom of the E string and the SH-5 is about 3.5mm (0.138"). So the bridge pickup should be closer, around 2mm? Is it true that putting a pickup closer to the strings reduces the sustain?

[Rockstar216]

Re: Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

As far as i remember everything was fine with the wiring. The PG is about 4mm (0.158") under the bottom of the E string and the SH-5 is about 3.5mm (0.138"). So the bridge pickup should be closer, around 2mm? Is it true that putting a pickup closer to the strings reduces the sustain?

Yes depending on the strength of the magnet. Closer will get you louder, lower will get you more sustain and clarity. I had a similar issue with my PGn when I was using a Custom Custom. Once I switched to a C8 the output balanced out but the PGn seemed bigger and fuller but I figured it was because of how much bass the PGn has and that it is a neck bucker. Try lowering the PGn a lil and see if that works

[jorge5150]

Re: Pearly gates N louder than SH-5?

As far as i remember everything was fine with the wiring. The PG is about 4mm (0.158") under the bottom of the E string and the SH-5 is about 3.5mm (0.138"). So the bridge pickup should be closer, around 2mm? Is it true that putting a pickup closer to the strings reduces the sustain?

I think 3.5 mm is too far for a bridge pickup. My Custom Custom is about 2.5 mm from the strings and the neck pickup is about 3 mm (with the E string pressed at the last fret).