Need neck or potentiometer recommendations for Pearly Gates for Tele Bridge.

[Home Skillet]

I recently put a Pearly Gates for Tele Bridge in my Tele with a 500k pot. The issue I'm having now is that the single coil neck pickup (Lollar Special T) is very bright and seems louder than the bridge, no matter the height adjustments of the PUs. I play mainly rock.

1) Should I get a matching SD Tele neck PU?
2) Would adding a resistor to the neck PU be an option?
3) What is the recommended potentiometer value when matching this type of humbucker to a single coil?

 

[TVFV]

I would just go down to 250k.

 

[CK71]

I use a 250k with my pg for tele and it sounds very good. I also found that the pickup is a little under powered. I have used it with a full sized pg in the neck and then switched it to a more standard single, which I found that the volume balanced better. Ultimately I really like this pickup a lot.

 

[Chistopher]

Are you sure it's the treble or is it the upper mids

 

[Home Skillet]

I use a 250k with my pg for tele and it sounds very good. I also found that the pickup is a little under powered. I have used it with a full sized pg in the neck and then switched it to a more standard single, which I found that the volume balanced better. Ultimately I really like this pickup a lot.

What are you using for the neck now? Do you notice a volume mismatch when switching between bridge and neck?

 

[Home Skillet]

Are you sure it's the treble or is it the upper mids

I'll have to look at it on my RTA, but to my ears it sounds more on the treble side.

 

[Mincer]

I think the PG for Tele was designed to drop right in a standard Tele with no other changes, so 250k all around.

 

[Aceman]

I'll be the voice of reason here: Get the PG neck as well.

 

[CK71]

What are you using for the neck now? Do you notice a volume mismatch when switching between bridge and neck?

I currently use a fender twisted tele and find the volume better matched than when I used a full sized humbucker. The twisted tele is often compared to a standard strat neck pickup, which I agree with. I bet the lil pg would also do well with a mini humbucker.

 

[freefrog]

https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/...ors-to-a-coil-to-change-the-tone-of-my-pickup

https://www.fralinpickups.com/2018/10/17/using-resistors-in-guitars-101/comment-page-3/

 

[CK71]

I'll be the voice of reason here: Get the PG neck as well.

That is the exact combo I used. Tone and eq wise I thought they were an excellent match. However no matter how much I adjusted the heights of the puckups or the pole pieces I couldnt get the volumes to match close enough for my liking. Ymmv

 

[Aceman]

However no matter how much I adjusted the heights of the puckups or the pole pieces I couldnt get the volumes to match close enough for my liking. Ymmv

I wish I understood this problem, but I don't. I have PG sets, A2P sets, T-Top/Distortion, PAF/Super Distortion, and PG/Custom sets....never had a problem getting the volume matched.

Wish I knew what you guys were doing...

 

[CK71]

I am talking about the lil pg for tele not the full sized humbucker.

 

[esandes]

I recently put a Pearly Gates for Tele Bridge in my Tele with a 500k pot. The issue I'm having now is that the single coil neck pickup (Lollar Special T) is very bright and seems louder than the bridge, no matter the height adjustments of the PUs. I play mainly rock.

1) Should I get a matching SD Tele neck PU?
2) Would adding a resistor to the neck PU be an option?
3) What is the recommended potentiometer value when matching this type of humbucker to a single coil?

In my humble opinion, single coils only sound good with 250k pots. I'd get a dedicated 250k pot for the single coil and a dedicated 500k pot for the HB.

 

[freefrog]

With a 500k pot, all is needed is a 500k resistive component from hot to ground of the single coil to make it believe it "sees" 250k. Granted, it won't have the same taper than a 250k but a resistor is cheaper than a pot and mounting it should be easier than drilling a hole for a third pot in a Tele...

If the guitar has two 500k pots (=250k of global load) and if one wants the SC to believe it sees two 250k pots (=125k of resistive load), then a resistance of 250k across the SC should do the job.

Yeah, we know typical resistor values are numbers like 470k, 270k or 220k. But pots rarely measure their official 250k or 500k values, anyway.

And again, cable capacitance is to take in account as well with SC's and can be emulated to soften / darken the tone with another cheap component - Bill Lawrence was recommending to mount a 2nF capacitor to emulate the darker sound with greasy mids due to coily cords used by Hendrix : a small cap from hot to ground of a pickup or jack plug is less expensive and less cumbersome than a long curly cable.

Maybe such advices might be stored in a stricky here, instead of staying buried in the FAQ's or exiled in the explanations from other pickups makers (?)...