Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

R

rogue_one

New member
You know the story. Swapping pickups like Charlie Sheen swaps strippers.

Les Paul Classic came with 57s, the neck was mud, the bridge wasn't horrible, it just needed to be more articulate.

Send in the Seth Lovers. Beautiful and clear tone when playing clean to slightly overdriven, just missing that something extra to push things over the top. In non-descriptive terms, they need more balls. Not really 'remarkable' when playing with heavier OD and Fuzz.

Custom Shop Alnico II's. These are fantastic if not slightly 'sterile'. Maybe a little too crisp and tight. The bass definitely seems tighter. I'd like a little looser bass response.

My setup is the aforementioned Les Paul, a Laney AOR 30 (6-knob) head, Avatar Vintage 212 with V30's, various pedals. Music ranges from some lighter clean classic rock (Can't You See) to distorted country covers (Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Goodbye Earl) to Fuzzed out alt-modern rock (Black Keys and White Stripes).

So, I'm thinking I should go with a set of Pearly Gates or a set of A4/UOA5 59s.

Thanks in advance.
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

rogue_one said:
Send in the Seth Lovers. Beautiful and clear tone when playing clean to slightly overdriven, just missing that something extra to push things over the top. In non-descriptive terms, they need more balls. Not really 'remarkable' when playing with heavier OD and Fuzz.

Music ranges from some lighter clean classic rock (Can't You See) to distorted country covers (Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Goodbye Earl) to Fuzzed out alt-modern rock (Black Keys and White Stripes).

So, I'm thinking I should go with a set of Pearly Gates or a set of A4/UOA5 59s.
Click to expand...

I'd say definitely the Pearly Gates. They are not over top, can clean up very nicely, but definitely spank when needed.
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

Larry Carlton and Derek Trucks both use 57 Classics and get great tones.

Maybe the original problem with mud could have been corrected with 500k volume and tone pots? For me, that's a must regardless of the model humbuckers.

I have PGs, Seth Lovers and 59s in three different PRS guitars.

The 59s have the purest tones. I do like to replace the polished A5 magnets with Roughcast A5 magnets for Santana and Clapton with Cream type tones. And BB King, Albert King and Wes Montgomery type tones.

The Seths and PGs have more texture and more of a raw quality, to the mids especially. Great for ZZ Top, Peter Green and Gary Moore type blues/rock tones.

The Seths seem a little smoother and less raw than the PG's.

If "mud" really is an issue, I find A2 neck buckers to have bass response that is more manageable than with some A5 neck buckers.

The PGn neck is renowned for its great tone and I like the PGb just as much.

I think I'd make sure the pots are 500K and try a set of PG's.
 
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Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

Welcome to the forum!

You can even go with the 59/Custom Hybrid or the full Custom, too...I would think either of those would get you what you wanted. It sounds like you need a little more output than a vintage-type pickup.
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

beaubrummels said:
Pearly Gates set or 500T/496R
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NO offense, but my PGn swap made my stock 496r sound like a turd covered in burnt hair.

I got rid of the 496r in less than two weeks of ownership, the PGn has been there ever since and it sounds damn good and right up the ally the OP is talking about.

I'll be swapping both of mine out to a set of BKP - Riff Raffs this week, but am kind of expecting to put the PG back in, have to at least try it though.
 
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Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

Lewguitar said:
Larry Carlton use 57 Classic.
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This is simply NOT TRUE.

Larry' guitars host the following p'ups:
#1 335: Stock T-Tops from 1968. Setup by Rick Wheeler.
#2 335: '60 PAFs, bought from Gruhn, install and setup by Rick Wheeler.

OTOH, the Gibson Larry Carlton Mr. 335 model does use '57 Classics. Just Larry never played one, not in the studio, not live.

HTH,
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

Screw it man, install a Custom!

In all seriousness though, it seems like all these vintage PAFs are missing "a bit of balls" for you, which can be solved by a high output monster! :D The Custom is even somewhat PAF-ish, but plenty of output to give you the balls! Too loud? Just turn down the volume knob and it cleans up well.
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

When you find the perfect 'Can't You See' tone, will you let me know how you did it? Not only do I love the song, but that tone is one of my holy grail tones If I could make that sound, I'd be one happy camper.
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

daenius said:
Screw it man, install a Custom!

In all seriousness though, it seems like all these vintage PAFs are missing "a bit of balls" for you, which can be solved by a high output monster! :D The Custom is even somewhat PAF-ish, but plenty of output to give you the balls! Too loud? Just turn down the volume knob and it cleans up well.
Click to expand...

Nope I tried and it failed, not rich enough harmonically and too compressed sounding.
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

daenius said:
Screw it man, install a Custom!

In all seriousness though, it seems like all these vintage PAFs are missing "a bit of balls" for you, which can be solved by a high output monster! :D The Custom is even somewhat PAF-ish, but plenty of output to give you the balls! Too loud? Just turn down the volume knob and it cleans up well.
Click to expand...

I had considered it, but the sounds clips on the SD site aren't doing it for me, and the vast majority of youtube clips are very bad recordings, super speed-thrash-nu-heavy-goth-drop tuned-7-string-shred metal, in super strats, or a combination. I can't seem to find one that knocks me on my ass and makes me say, "Thats it!"

In all fairness, I do have a pre-conceived notion that the higher output pickups aren't good for anything but the aforementioned musical styles.
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

NotCardio said:
When you find the perfect 'Can't You See' tone, will you let me know how you did it? Not only do I love the song, but that tone is one of my holy grail tones If I could make that sound, I'd be one happy camper.
Click to expand...

I'm not really trying to nail that one perfectly. Basically, I play this one clean. Doesn't matter what guitar I use, play it clean and try not to screw it up. The other guitarist plays the leads and we have a violinist that contributes a lot for this one.
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

rogue_one said:
I had considered it, but the sounds clips on the SD site aren't doing it for me, and the vast majority of youtube clips are very bad recordings, super speed-thrash-nu-heavy-goth-drop tuned-7-string-shred metal, in super strats, or a combination. I can't seem to find one that knocks me on my ass and makes me say, "Thats it!"

In all fairness, I do have a pre-conceived notion that the higher output pickups aren't good for anything but the aforementioned musical styles.
Click to expand...

I feel you man, it's very difficult to find good demos and recordings for pickups anywhere.

Too bad my guitar with the Custom is in the shop right now getting a re-fret so that's not gonna be back with me for a while, otherwise I'd record you some samples!

I do have some other PAF-style pickups that I really dig so hit me up if you want to hear those.

As to high output pickups only suitable for those styles... I think not. It highly depends on the voicing of the pickup and how you set your amp. If you have a super clean amp with a ton of headroom, you can run a high output pickup like JB and still have it produce a nice clean tone, and that extra bit of output and slight compression gives you a real nice full and fat clean sound that still isn't muddy or breaking up.
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

59's and either. clean boost, or an OD pedal set properly...something with bass control like a Bad Monkey.
 
Re: Am I looking for 59's? Pearly Gates?

LtKojak said:
This is simply NOT TRUE.

Larry' guitars host the following p'ups:
#1 335: Stock T-Tops from 1968. Setup by Rick Wheeler.
#2 335: '60 PAFs, bought from Gruhn, install and setup by Rick Wheeler.

OTOH, the Gibson Larry Carlton Mr. 335 model does use '57 Classics. Just Larry never played one, not in the studio, not live.

HTH,
Click to expand...

Like you just admitted: the Larry Carlton signature guitar does have 57 Classics.

So that makes what I said TRUE.
 
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