Re: Anyone try the WLH/Pearly Gates combo?
I have a WLH set, and it sounds great. I'd have no desire to put a PG in either slot. The wind of a PU is more important to the sound than the magnet, so I wouldn't get hung up on magnets when pairing up PU's. WLH's are warm, much warmer than '59's, and both have A5's. If you want to do something interesting, wire your PU's so the screw and slug coils are paired up in coil split in the middle position (bridge: hot black, green & bare ground, and red/white paired, and neck: red hot, white and bare ground, and black & green paired). It makes a 'virtual' humbucker, using a coil from each PU, and you could combine different winds, resistance, and magnets in 'one' pickup. That's a distinct middle sound.
When I make neck hybrids, it's combining a coil from a bridge PAF with a coil from a neck PAF to add clarity and high end. Since we know next to nothing about the winds (PU makers are like that) I go by resistance. You could combine coils in a hybrid that are similar and not get much of a change if the resistance is also close. A 5% difference in resistance between coils gives more treble, and a 10% difference gives more treble, even with a warm magnet. My '59B/'59N hybrids with an UOA5 have more high end than a stock '59N, and don't have the bassy low end that '59N's sometimes do.
