The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

[gripweed]

Since the original Pearly Gates was a '59 Les Paul, is it possible that the original Pearly Gates pickup had an Alnico V magnet? I look at the tone chart and the PG has quite a bit of treble. Is the Alnico II magnet a way to get the tone of an old pickup when it originally had Alnico V? Frank or Evan, can you enlighten us (or would you have to kill me after you told me? )

 

[jeremy]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

it could have been alnico II or V, maybe even IV but probably not since it was a '59. alnico II doesnt sound like alnico V, old or not. you can "age" a magnet artificially like seymour does with the antiquity series

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

I have spoken with Evan about this before and I think some of you would be surprised at the answers...

I'd love to let Evan chime in if he sees this...

 

[LtKojak]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

They were definately A2 magnets on those PAFs. The guitar itself had a unique bright-ish sound. Seymour got the ground sound of those and designed'em to have that vibe in most guitars.

All I can say is "mission accomplished".

 

[SFW]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

I don't know how close Seymour came to the real Pearly, but I absolutely LOVE my PGs!!!

 

[hamerfan]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

I have spoken with Evan about this before and I think some of you would be surprised at the answers...

I'd love to let Evan chime in if he sees this...

He won't, so cough it up! We are waiting .....

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

I can't imagine EVER replacing my PG. Best humbucker...period!

 

[tc]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

I have spoken with Evan about this before and I think some of you would be surprised at the answers...

I'd love to let Evan chime in if he sees this...

When it comes to tone, you DO NOT want to keep us all in suspense. You might end up hurt haha! j/k.

But seriously. Post the conversation transcripts from those PG discussions with evan. NOW.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

So wait, the original PG (as in, Billy's Les Paul he named Pearly Gates) had pickups in it from 1957?

Were they even doing Alnico back then? I'm betting it was a ceramic magnet that had lost some charge.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

They didnt have ceramic magnets in pickups back then. They were all alnico.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

IMO, a factory potted Brobucker/PGn is about as perfect as it gets.

I only specify factory potted on the Brobucker, because the original design, which was either not or lightly potted squealed on highgain with nickel cover. That's why I always suggest to those ordering one to have it potted like the rest of the production Duncans.

 

[gripweed]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

So wait, the original PG (as in, Billy's Les Paul he named Pearly Gates) had pickups in it from 1957?

Were they even doing Alnico back then? I'm betting it was a ceramic magnet that had lost some charge.

I'm not sure why you said '57. Pearly Gates is a '59. Gibson175 is right about alnico.

 

[jeremy]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

So wait, the original PG (as in, Billy's Les Paul he named Pearly Gates) had pickups in it from 1957?

Were they even doing Alnico back then? I'm betting it was a ceramic magnet that had lost some charge.

as others said, pearly is a '59.

alnico was around way before ceramic and ceramic dont lose their charge like alnico.

 

[gripweed]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

bumpity bump bump

 

[ACH91332]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

Yeah someone said it. Billy had Les Pauls but Pearly Gates had a brightness to it. It had more presence than his other ones and he liked it. Maybe that guitar had a thicker maple cap or maybe it was just a goofy slab of mahogany. He said that he liked his Pearly Gates and wanted his other guitars to sound the same way so basically they mad a hot rodded an A2 PAF and added some upper mid presence to it which basically made his other guitars sound closer to his Pearly Gates. Maybe that guitar did have A5 magnets but honestly if that was how he was getting a brighter tone then Duncan would have probably said it had different pickups and made clones of them for his other guitars. I think he had a regular A2 PAF in there and it was just one of those guitars that had a little bit different of wood which gave it more bite so Duncan made pickups to compensate for the lack of that extra bite for his other guitars.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

Well...after digging through my old PM's and notes abnd getting some more info from Evan I feel comfortable passing off this info as fact...

When Seymour first looking into replicating the sound of Pearly for BFG he look into her stock pickups.

By that time they were already 20+ years old and aging a bit but the best Seymour could tell they quite likely started off an Alnico 5 pickups that had aged.

At the time Seymour wasn't yet messing with degaussing magnets yet so rather than try and degauss alnico 5 magnets Seymour used alnico II and tweaked the rest of the tone with the wind.

This is why SD PG pickups have a big firm low end when compared to other alnico II pickups...Seymour was trying to get an aged alnico 5 sound from alnico II magnets!

Let this also be proof that the wind has a HUGE impact on the sound of a pickup!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

Ttt

 

[gripweed]

Re: The Original Pearly Gates Pickup

It just made too much sense -- a '59 LP with pickups that had a very bright top end. Thanks Christian!