How bright is the Pearly Gates?

[gripweed]

I thought I'd decided on the PG set for my Les Paul, but I keep seeing these threads about how bright the PG's are. So how bright are they? I have a kind of love/hate with the 59's because of the icepick highs in them. So how does it compare to the 59's? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[TheArchitect]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

I'm not sure how to answer that as I don't hear the 59 as having ice pick highs. Most of the time this can be corrected by turning the presence down. I think the correct answer is that the PG isn't 'brighter' than the 59 but its resonant peak is in a different place.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

Everyone talks about how bright the PG's are...I hear a nice spike in the upper mids, but no more true treble than any other PAF style bucker...Les Pauls can be fickle guitars...some are ralyl fat on thier own, some are bright on their own. Depending on the Paul in question the PG's might be great, or you might not like them...Im gonna wager this though...if you don't like the treble in the 59 you won;t like the PG either. If you are looking for a smooth PAF tone and you happen to have a LP that is a tad on the bright side (if you think that the 59's are icepicky, I would bet that your LP is a tad bright) look into a set of Alnico II Pro's or Seth Lovers...those will warm up any guitar!

 

[gripweed]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

Everyone talks about how bright the PG's are...I hear a nice spike in the upper mids, but no more true treble than any other PAF style bucker...Les Pauls can be fickle guitars...some are ralyl fat on thier own, some are bright on their own. Depending on the Paul in question the PG's might be great, or you might not like them...Im gonna wager this though...if you don't like the treble in the 59 you won;t like the PG either. If you are looking for a smooth PAF tone and you happen to have a LP that is a tad on the bright side (if you think that the 59's are icepicky, I would bet that your LP is a tad bright) look into a set of Alnico II Pro's or Seth Lovers...those will warm up any guitar!

God I love my Seth in my Flying V! I wanted a different sound in my Paul though so I thought I'd try the PG's. I thought about the Ants but decided against them because I thought that my V had a close enough sound to that.

The Epi Paul I'm picking up on Tuesday has pickups in it that are already Alnico V, and I actually thought they were ok, but they definitely needed to be changed to Duncans. The 59's were the second choice. I think I'm still gonna go with the PG's.

 

[sufferinrewind]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

Go here to listen to Seymour's humbuckers. The vintage humbuckers (Pearly Gates, Seth Lover, Alnico II Pro, and '59 models) are the first 4 in the list. Also, you can click the links at the top of the page and they'll send you to his Strat pickups or his Tele pickups section, where you can listen to those as well. If you have Quicktime, they'll open in the internet window that you are already using, otherwise they'll open in WMP. Enjoy!

Also, you might want to go here to view the specs. on it, and maybe some of his other humbuckers.

 

[gripweed]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

Go here to listen to Seymour's humbuckers. The vintage humbuckers (Pearly Gates, Seth Lover, Alnico II Pro, and '59 models) are the first 4 in the list. Also, you can click the links at the top of the page and they'll send you to his Strat pickups or his Tele pickups section, where you can listen to those as well. If you have Quicktime, they'll open in the internet window that you are already using, otherwise they'll open in WMP. Enjoy!

Also, you might want to go here to view the specs. on it, and maybe some of his other humbuckers.

Thanks, but I've never found those clips terribly useful. I also have those on the CD's.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

I've never found the 59s to be ice picky and I agree that when I've tryed the PG pickups,the mids stand out more...The PG also has that "knarly sizzle" in the mids...

 

[Aceman]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

They certainly "cut" through better than a 59' but I wouldn't call them overly bright. They are still a "scoop" eq classic paf. Definitely a little hotter, and I fully agree with the upper mid focus comments. But a seth in a V and a Pearly in a Paul? That might sound really similar. I'm assuming the V is kinda bright. Get a JB/Jazz for something really different. Seth/59/PG is a real close group.

 

[ex-250]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

'59 icepicky? damn. ive always found it to have a helluva lotta low end

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

'59 icepicky? damn. ive always found it to have a helluva lotta low end

Exactly....Boomy but not icepicky..

 

[korovamilkdud]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

I never found PG to be icepicky. Never found 59 icepicky either, but oh well.

I found PG and 59 to be fairly similar. The 59 has more bass from the A5 mag, and PG has more mids, but if you found the 59 harsh or icepicky or whatever, why not try a warmer pickup like a Seth or an APH-1?

I don't really think the PG is much, if at all, warmer than the 59.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

"I don't really think the PG is much, if at all, warmer than the 59"

The lows are about the same,but the PG has that spike in the mids and is more aggressive and has Texas "sizzle"....

 

[gripweed]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

'59 icepicky? damn. ive always found it to have a helluva lotta low end

Yes it has a lot of low end I agree. But it also has a really super bright top. Okay so maybe *icepicky* wasn't the right word. Sometimes I love that sometimes it drives me crazy. I guess it depends on the guitar or my mood that particular day. Does bright top compare or not?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

If you have two pickups that both have a bright top end, but one also has a deeper stronger bass response, then the one with "more bass" will not sound as bright as the other one...even though both might be equally bright.

I don't think the PGN is brighter than the 59N...but like most alnico 2 humbuckers, it does have less bass than a typical alnico 5 humbucker.

Also: I don't hear any humbuckers, especially neck humbuckers, as having a bright glassy tone! I would only use the term glassy to describe a single coil pickup like the alnico 5 Antiquity Surfer or SSL-1 or a vintage Strat pickup. I have never heard a full size humbucker who's tone was bright ebough that I would call it "glassy".

Lew

 

[jeremy]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

true enough.

i think the pg is a great pup and i think it has a more middy voice (especially in the bridge) than a 59. both have a strong high end but i wouldnt say either is ice-picky.
im assuming you have 500k pots?

 

[Artie]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

Okay so maybe *icepicky* wasn't the right word.

But it might be. I too, had problems with the 59's being "ice-picky" when they were in my Patriot. I had to dial the tone down to "5" to make them listenable. A move to the Predator solved the problem. They have the classic bluesy, jazzy PAF tone there.

The guitar can make a big difference.

 

[gripweed]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

true enough.

i think the pg is a great pup and i think it has a more middy voice (especially in the bridge) than a 59. both have a strong high end but i wouldnt say either is ice-picky.
im assuming you have 500k pots?

Not in the guitar I'll be putting them in. Its an Epiphone, so I'm assuming that its 300k.

 

[Aceman]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

That 300k might be just what you need to take the point off of the ice pick. I kept my 300k in the bridge. Didn't like the brightness of a 500k there. 500k in the neck really opened that up, though. I say 300k with kicken bucker in the bridge and 500k with something more low key in the neck is my magic mojo combination!

 

[jeremy]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

the last few epis that ive worked on had 500k pots

 

[Quencho092]

Re: How bright is the Pearly Gates?

Also: I don't hear any humbuckers, especially neck humbuckers, as having a bright glassy tone! I would only use the term glassy to describe a single coil pickup like the alnico 5 Antiquity Surfer or SSL-1 or a vintage Strat pickup. I have never heard a full size humbucker who's tone was bright ebough that I would call it "glassy".

Lew

Took the words out of my mouth lew. I cant imagine a harsh, super trebly HB.

If you want to relieve this, get a smaller capacitor .022 or .01 uf so that you could roll the tone knob down more without losing mids. You won't reduce as much frequency, just the harsh tips of the treble- this way you can turn the knob down much more than before and keep your other frequencies intact.