Pearly Gates on Les Paul Studio has real bright top end

M

Mr Natural

New member
After playing a friends Les Paul Standard with Pearly Gates pickups, I installed a pair in my Studio. When we compare them, I'm getting a noticeable "glare" in the high end with the Studio that isn't nearly as pronounced on their Standard. All I can think of is that the pots on the Studio are a different value. I think the Studio has 250K pots and the Standard has 500K??? The Studio does have an ebony fret board, where the Standard is rosewood, but I have a real hard time believing that this is where the difference lies. If what I'm hearing is the difference in the values of the pots, is there any way I can compensate without having to change them???

Thanks......
 
Re: Pearly Gates on Les Paul Studio has real bright top end

There are several factors that can play a part in this. Certainly the pot value can have a large affect on brightness. But I think the Standard has 300k pots. The particular mahogany blank can have a dramatic affect. Your ebony board will also contibute to the brightness of your guitar.

If, in fact, your pot values are similar (250k vs 300k), then the difference is mostly due to the body wood. Not much you can do about that. Every guitar is different. Even two Standards may sound dramatically different.
 
Re: Pearly Gates on Les Paul Studio has real bright top end

500K would be brighter than what you likely have - 300K, so I wouldn't mess with the pots. A Studio w/ebony will be a somewhat hard and bright sounding LP, so it probably has most to do with wood, setup, string gauge, pick, etc.

Start by raising the bridge pickup so the strings and pickup have about the thickness of a nickel between them. Then, set the neck pickup height to balance with the bridge.

If you started with Gibson 498T/490R pickups, the PG's will be brighter and lower output than what you're used to. Cut some treble on your amp or guitar.

Or, use the SD exchange policy and get a C5/59n, Seths, or APH set. Those aren't as bright. Personally, I love the PGn but like something beefier in the bridge like a C5, Brobucker, or 59/C.
 
Re: Pearly Gates on Les Paul Studio has real bright top end

do you have covers on the pups? i like my pg's with covers usually.

the bridge pg is bright, not in the same way as the 59b which tends to be sharper, the pg is more like a strong tele pup. ebony is a pretty bright zingy wood
 
Re: Pearly Gates on Les Paul Studio has real bright top end

Some Les Pauls are just very bright. Can you tell us a bit more? If you have an ebony board you probably don't have a mahogany top, right? Do you know whether your is swiss-cheesed or chambered?

I don't think it's the ebony board.

There is some hope checking the bridge section for crap used or loose fitting things.
 
Re: Pearly Gates on Les Paul Studio has real bright top end

The Studio I have is a '94, so it is not chambered (it's way too friggin' heavy anyway). I don't really think it's the differences in wood either. When I back off my volume and tone controls about a quarter/third of the way the guitars sound very close. I'm thinking that maybe I had it backwards and the Studio's got the 500k pots. I looked at the pots in my guitar, but I didn't see any values stamped on them and after getting the pickups installed didn't have the motivation to get back in there with a soldering iron to measure them. I also have switches installed so I can move the coils of each pickup from series to parallel. Switching the coils to series wiring works real well when playing clean. Using overdrive, the parellel wiring and the extra energy and top end make some real nice harmonics.
 
Re: Pearly Gates on Les Paul Studio has real bright top end

The pots don't make that much difference.

So you say acoustically they sound very close.

Does that still apply when you put your ear directly on the top curve of the guitar?
 
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