How will a Pearly Gates set do in an agathis body?

vegetablejoe

vegetablejoe

New member
... as compared to putting them in a mahogany-bodied guitar?

I have Antiquities, Seths, and A2Pros in different guitars (lp, tele, and semi-hollow respectively). They all sound great and I don't wanna swap pickups for any more tweaking and testing.

But I'm still looking for a bit more growl and snarl (ala Warren Haynes) and would like to try a PG set. I have a choice of getting a mahogany-bodied Squier Esprit or a agathis-bodied Squier Tele Custom.

There's a lot of feedback on PG's in mahogany, but I've not read a review of PG's combine with other wood types. Does anyone have any related experience?

I've tried '59's as well, but find them too modern sounding. I guess I'm partial to A2's.

Thanks in advance for feedback/inputs.

Jaime
 
Re: How will a Pearly Gates set do in an agathis body?

Agathis isn't well-regarded as a tonewood. Generally considered a cheap alternative to cheap basswood. Known for a bland sound, not much bass or treble, nor much complex character in the mids.

That Esprit is a chambered mahogany set-neck, mahogany body. Should be beefier than an SG, plus it looks like they fixed the neck pickup location.

I'd go for the Esprit, it's more likely to be a good match for the PG.

The PG is pretty comfortable in different woods, but if you are looking for classic ZZ Top sounds, mahogany is probably the best place to start looking.
 
Re: How will a Pearly Gates set do in an agathis body?

I don't think the PG is bright enough for Agathis personally. You want a bright pickup, Agathis is very dark.
 
Re: How will a Pearly Gates set do in an agathis body?

^ +1

The only Agathis guitar I have right now is a Squier Tele Custom II (the P90 variant). There is an argument for saying that the "darkness" of Agathis supplies some of the deeper end that a traditional Tele normally lacks.

My recommendation is to go back to the music store and make an A/B comparison between the regular Squier T Custom with HBs and the Custom II with P90s. You may be pleasantly surprised.
 
Re: How will a Pearly Gates set do in an agathis body?

Despair said:
Agathis isn't well-regarded as a tonewood. Generally considered a cheap alternative to cheap basswood. Known for a bland sound, not much bass or treble, nor much complex character in the mids.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily so.
In my opinion, I have a guitar with it, is similiar to a light mahoghany, not as good in terms of balance but it has a good resonance and a decent definition. It's definitely louder.
I had good results with a Custom in it.
 
Re: How will a Pearly Gates set do in an agathis body?

Yeah, I have a strat made out of agathis... sure it is probably the darkest guitar I've ever played but it does sound really good and is very resonant.
 
Re: How will a Pearly Gates set do in an agathis body?

if you want a warren type tone a single cut short scale guitar with pearlys will do fine. its hard to dial out the snap of a fender scale when trying to get his tone
 
Re: How will a Pearly Gates set do in an agathis body?

Thanks to everyone for your very enlightening feedback.

I will hold off on getting another guitar to house a PG set, and just swap pups in my LP instead.
 
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