Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

[jcmathews]

My friend has a Special Edition Telecaster FMT HH with a Pearly Gates Plus in the bridge. He's having trouble cleaning it up -- it appears too hot for the tones he's trying to get. Can anyone recommend the optimal pickup height for that pickup, or have any other setup tips he might try? In other forums it's been suggested he might try a 250K pot, for example.

Thanks!!!

 

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

It should just be set high and then lowered until it sounds good. I think 1/16th to 3/32nds of an inch is in the ballpark though.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

You could try a spin a split. As you roll a spin a split back, the pup immediately sounds less gainy (and is less hot).

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

You might also consider a series/parallel switch. PG+ in parallel has a certain Tele-like character.

 

[Artie]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

I know that you can't always "throw money" at a problem, but if this pup doesn't have the sound he wants, maybe he should get one that does. There are always good deals in the Trading Post, and then a PG+ would always get some return. The total outlay could be very modest. Just a thought.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

the pg+ is bright, too bright for my taste. is it the output he is having issues with or the tone or both?

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

I found the PG+ easy to work with, but I've seen several reports over the years of the PG+ being difficult to get a smooth clean sound out of in some guitars. Options:

• Adjust the pickup farther away from the strings
• Roll back the volume knob
• Swap the A5 magnet for an A2/A3/A4
• Swap the pickup out for something else. Lot's of options in the "PAF" and low-output realm and he'll at least break even by selling the PG+

NOTE: Moving to a 250K pot will just pull back the highs and upper mids for the most part. Before doing that, he should try an A2 magnet swap, which takes $5 and 10-minutes. It'll reduce the output and smooth out the top end without needing to change pots.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

Many others have had the same issue with the PG+. To me, it takes what I like about the great PG and sort of ruins it so Fender could have a 'special' pickup. You can either do wiring tricks, like spin-a-split, or parallel, or pickup height. But in the end, he just might not like that pickup.

 

[Bowtomecha]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

I think the pg+ was just meant to be something that was more chimey when split along with a neck humbucker or middle single coil. It came out on the big apple and lonestar strats and i read back then that sd said it was a close comparison to the 59. You should try an Alnico 2 if it’s the voicing that bothers you.

 

[jmcorey]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

Literature at the time stated that PG plus was designed to improve the output of the bridge pickup relative to the neck pickup in the Big Apple Strat, which had a 59 Neck. A regular PG in the bridge, by report, would have have had a too diminished output relative to the 59 Neck.

 

[jmcorey]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

I think the reason that some of the respondents in this thread have stated that your friend may not like the PG+ is that the PG is meant to sound rude, which I interpret as gritty, and which I interpret as not clean. So what your friend is hearing may be inherent in the pickup design itself.

 

[elelpe]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

It should just be set high and then lowered until it sounds good. I think 1/16th to 3/32nds of an inch is in the ballpark though.

PG+ is a hot vintage/PAF pickup so it's actually won't be that hard to adjust the height to achieve cleaner sound.

I actually like it a lot. It's what '59 bridge wish to be. I have it paired with Phat Cat neck in HH T-style alder body and all maple neck with 500k pots. No annoying brightness. Just right.

 

[jcmathews]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

Great suggestions all, thanks! I've heard the guitar, and frankly I like the pickup. But I think ultimately he's going to need to swap it out unless I find that he has it adjusted WAY to high or some other obvious problem. In another forum, someone suggested swapping the tone pot for a 250K. We might try that if he doesn't want to replace the PU.

 

[jcmathews]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

the pg+ is bright, too bright for my taste. is it the output he is having issues with or the tone or both?

No, it's just output. It's hotter than expected and hotter than his other guitars, so he can't swap it out on stage without dramatically altering tone settings.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

the pg+ isnt really that high output, try lowering it. are his other guitars all single coil instruments? a 250k tone will tamp down the high end which might help some?

 

[TD9]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

I don't know what bridge your friend has but I have a bridge humbucker on a teleish rig that I was able to make a noticeable difference in clarity by changing my brass 3 saddles out to 3 titanium saddles. It really cleaned the bridge sound up... very noticeably..
I went from Rutters brass saddles (which I now have on a different T-partscaster that helped there) to a set of Gotoh In Tune Compensated Titanium Tele Guitar Saddles which I am using with a Rutters half bridge. It did make a difference.
Best price I found for the In Tune compensated Ti saddles was at MojoTone.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

If the issue is simply one of output yes, just lower the pickup as suggested already.

I too hate redialing for individual guitars. But the PG+ is not prohibitively hot unless his other guitars are extremely low-output. That said, the PG+ has a pretty aggressive character for its relatively moderate output, especially in a Fender-scale guitar.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Cleaning up Pearly Gates Plus bridge

250K pot will NOT change the output in the way you are thinking

Lower the height of the pickup relative to the strings or swap the magnet to a lower-output magnet as already suggested