Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

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Hey guys! I have a brand new arctic white Stratocaster 2015-16 and I am upgrading the pickups. Amazing guitar btw!

I am going to put a CS69 in the neck, a Texas Special in the middle and I will be using the pickup covers that came with the guitar (I Think they are Parchment colour)
Now I´m thinking of a Pearly Gates Trembucker for the bridge. How will the white SD Trembucker fit colour wise to the other pickups I´m putting in ? Should I perhaps get the Pearly Gates Plus (Parchment) instead ?

I will post a few pictures of the guitar below.

All input greatly appreciated!=)


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Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

The PG Plus is an alnico 5 pickup.

And the regular PG is alnico 2.

Alnico 2 is the magnet I prefer in a PG.

Alnico 5 will be brighter and maybe a little louder and maybe have a touch more bass and a touch less midrange than the same pickup with an alnico 2 magnet.

The regular PG will have more mids and a softer, less sharp treble response. It's the classic sound of a PG.

Your single coils will prefer 250K pots.

The PG will prefer 500K pots and might sound dull and have reduced volume with 250K pots.

The brighter alnico 5 PG Plus might do better with 250K pots than the alnico 2 PG, but the PG Plus doesn't have the Pearly Gates sound. It leans more towards a 59B in tone than it does a regular PG.
 
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Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

The PG Plus is an alnico 5 pickup.

And the regular PG is alnico 2.

Alnico 2 is the magnet I prefer in a PG.

Alnico 5 will be brighter and maybe a little louder and maybe have a touch more bass and a touch less midrange than the same pickup with an alnico 2 magnet.

The regular PG will have more mids and a softer, less sharp treble response. It's the classic sound of a PG.

Your single coils will prefer 250K pots.

The PG will prefer 500K pots and might sound dull and have reduced volume with 250K pots.

The brighter alnico 5 PG Plus might do better with 250K pots than the alnico 2 PG, but the PG Plus doesn't have the Pearly Gates sound. It leans more towards a 59B in tone than it does a regular PG.


Thanks a lot for this detailed response. Do you know if there is a chance to buy the regular PG Trembucker in Parchment color ? I can't seem to find it
 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

Your single coils will prefer 250K pots.

The PG will prefer 500K pots and might... have reduced volume with 250K pots.


That could be beneficial in balancing the relative PU outputs in an HSS guitar.
 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

Thanks a lot for this detailed response. Do you know if there is a chance to buy the regular PG Trembucker in Parchment color ? I can't seem to find it

You're welcome! I'm still listed as being a Seymour Duncan dealer although I got really sick a few years ago and haven't done much of anything except try to get back on my feet. I'd like to get Lew's Guitars going again. We'll see.

Call the Duncan Company and ask. 1-805-964-9410.

Parchment should be a standard color but you might have to special order it from a dealer.

You might also call the Duncan Custom Shop and speak with Mj. Everything Mj has wound for me was a cut above the regular production pickups in sound quality.

I'm certain she could wind you a parchment color PG Trembucker and that it would sound even better than already excellent production model.
 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

Yes, guitar color isn't necessarily a key consideration in PU selection.

Yeah, I realize that. However I do like the look of my current pickups and I would like to hold on to that look even though I want to change the sound of the guitar a bit. That's why I'm going to use my current pickup covers on the CS69 and the Texas Special. The PG+ is available in parchment and I am looking for reviews between the standard PG and the PG+ in a strat. If they both sound great then I would prefer the PG+ since it is parchment colored.
 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

You're welcome! I'm still listed as being a Seymour Duncan dealer although I got really sick a few years ago and haven't done much of anything except try to get back on my feet. I'd like to get Lew's Guitars going again. We'll see.

Call the Duncan Company and ask. 1-805-964-9410.

Parchment should be a standard color but you might have to special order it from a dealer.

You might also call the Duncan Custom Shop and speak with Mj. Everything Mj has wound for me was a cut above the regular production pickups in sound quality.

I'm certain she could wind you a parchment color PG Trembucker and that it would sound even better than already excellent production model.

I'm really sorry to hear about your health issues! Hopefully you will get back on your feet as soon as possible.
Thanks again for your response, you definitely seem to know your Duncan's alright!=)

I'm in Iceland so so guess I'll just email the custom shop and check if they would be so nice as to custom wind one for me. Who is MJ, what is her name just for me to be able to ask for the right person :)
 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

I don't believe that is parchment... It looks like plain white to me.

 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

image.jpg

Which color do you think my pickup covers are ?
 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

The pickguard is parchment as well as the switch tip, but the knobs are "white plastic". What do the pickups match better in person?

Yeah they kinda match pretty close in color to both the switch tip and the vol/tone knobs
 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

Fender's "Parchment" color is actually much closer to pure white than most other "parchments" out there, including Duncan's. The Fender parchment is a very classy and beautiful color. Just a slightly soft/dingy white, while most other parchments out there are a bit sickly looking. It looks like white unless you have it next to something that is truly white. It just has a slightly softer appearance than bright white.

If you put a Duncan parchment pickup against Fender parchment, it will definitely stick out as being more yellow than the Fender plastic parts. IMO, if you have parchment Fender plastic parts, then you should get a white Duncan pickup. It will stick out, but less so than parchment. Also, the white will slightly yellow over the years, getting closer to Fender's parchment.

All that being said, it looks like the pickguard might be the only plastic part on your guitar that is actually parchment. It's hard to tell from photos that aren't professionally lit and color balanced, but it looks like the knobs, switch tip, and pickup covers and humbucker bobbins might be pure white.

FWIW, it's a gorgeous guitar. I've always wanted a white on white on white Strat (though I want it to be '50's style).

The PG bridge is the standard PG that Duncan has had for a long time. The PG+ was a pickup commissioned by Fender for OEM use, and used for a time (now replaced by the in-house Fender Diamondback, which AFAICT is basically a reverse-engineered PG+). It only appeared in new Fender guitars, i.e. it was not sold by Duncan to the public. The design goal of the PG+ was to have the same exact tone of a regular PG, but with slightly more output. Duncan thought that the best way to achieve this was to overwind the pickup and use an A5 magnet instead of A2. IMO, they were successful. The pickup sounds just like a PG in terms of e.q., but it hits the amp harder. Another difference is that PG+ were [oddly] only made as humbuckers, while the regular PG can be a humbucker or a Trembucker. Obviously, if you want a PG+, you'll have to buy it used from someone who has pulled it from a Fender guitar, and you don't really get to pick your color. You can buy the regular PG Trembucker off the shelf new, in any color Duncan make. I prefer the lower output PG in a Strat anyhow (matches the singles better IMO), so for me the choice would be clear: a regular PG Trembucker.
 
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Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

as far as i know fender used normal spaced pg+, not trem spaced. also i think there is a fairly different tone from the pg+ compared to the normal pg. i also prefer the normal pg and think it matches with singles very well
 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

as far as i know fender used normal spaced pg+, not trem spaced. also i think there is a fairly different tone from the pg+ compared to the normal pg. i also prefer the normal pg and think it matches with singles very well

Right on the spacing. I knew they only used one spacing; forgot that it was an odd choice of humbucker spacing.

As for the tone, I thought the e.q. in and of itself was basically PG. But it hit the amp harder, which can make a big difference in tone, especially if your amp doesn't have much headroom.

I moved my PG+ along. Too much output for me; it's a bit more output stacked on top of a pickup which is already a bit hot. I actually like the PGn in Strats with HSS with two vintage style singles.
 
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Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

Thanks for the clarification. I just took a photo of the guitar with a standard white A4 paper next to it. What do you guys think ?image.jpg

Fender's "Parchment" color is actually much closer to pure white than most other "parchments" out there, including Duncan's. The Fender parchment is a very classy and beautiful color. Just a slightly soft/dingy white, while most other parchments out there are a bit sickly looking. It looks like white unless you have it next to something that is truly white. It just has a slightly softer appearance than bright white.

If you put a Duncan parchment pickup against Fender parchment, it will definitely stick out as being more yellow than the Fender plastic parts. IMO, if you have parchment Fender plastic parts, then you should get a white Duncan pickup. It will stick out, but less so than parchment. Also, the white will slightly yellow over the years, getting closer to Fender's parchment.

All that being said, it looks like the pickguard might be the only plastic part on your guitar that is actually parchment. It's hard to tell from photos that aren't professionally lit and color balanced, but it looks like the knobs, switch tip, and pickup covers and humbucker bobbins might be pure white.

FWIW, it's a gorgeous guitar. I've always wanted a white on white on white Strat (though I want it to be '50's style).

The PG bridge is the standard PG that Duncan has had for a long time. The PG+ was a pickup commissioned by Fender for OEM use, and used for a time (now replaced by the in-house Fender Diamondback, which AFAICT is basically a reverse-engineered PG+). It only appeared in new Fender guitars, i.e. it was not sold by Duncan to the public. The design goal of the PG+ was to have the same exact tone of a regular PG, but with slightly more output. Duncan thought that the best way to achieve this was to overwind the pickup and use an A5 magnet instead of A2. IMO, they were successful. The pickup sounds just like a PG in terms of e.q., but it hits the amp harder. Another difference is that PG+ were [oddly] only made as humbuckers, while the regular PG can be a humbucker or a Trembucker. Obviously, if you want a PG+, you'll have to buy it used from someone who has pulled it from a Fender guitar, and you don't really get to pick your color. You can buy the regular PG Trembucker off the shelf new, in any color Duncan make. I prefer the lower output PG in a Strat anyhow (matches the singles better IMO), so for me the choice would be clear: a regular PG Trembucker.
 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

Well, you could always get a parchment one and get some parchment duncan single coil covers so the pickups will for sure match. Just gotta make sure they are the right measurements
 
Re: Pearly Gates or Pearly Gates+ in Parchment for Arctic White Strat

Thanks for the clarification. I just took a photo of the guitar with a standard white A4 paper next to it. What do you guys think ?View attachment 70269

That's really weird. Arctic White should be much whiter than that, like about the same white as the paper.
 
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