The Pearly Gates Poll

[JOEBACCA]

Re: The Pearly Gates Poll

I've only tried the Pearly Gates Neck, which I have in my Schecter Ultra currently. If I was playing blues or classic rock the majority of the time then I'm sure I'd love the PG a lot more, I think its a great pickup for those styles. But conversely the PG Neck IMO does not work well for heavier styles, tone wise the bass is way too spongy and dark with very little attack or note definition. But that tends to be the case for most A2 Neck Pickups I guess. I need to get my hands on the WLH Neck or Sentient, either would most likely be a better fit for my needs.

 

[Drunken Bowling]

Re: The Pearly Gates Poll

I'll have to try one.

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: The Pearly Gates Poll

I have a Pearly Gates neck and bridge pickups in a Hamer Studio.
I've noticed they have a wider dynamic range than say, a Custom Custom. The CC has a smoother, more compressed attack.
The Pearly Gates bridge pickup has a nice, slicing, percussive attack on power chords and riffing. I don't think listening to ZZ Top necessarily would give you an accurate idea what the PG sounds like because there's compression and other studio processing applied. Plug the guitar straight into an amp and you'll hear the percussive, dynamic sound.

The PG neck pickup in my Studio has a similar dynamic response. It's great for bluesy tones, with the humbucker counterpart to the ping you hear with some of the great blues players soloing on the neck pickup on a great Strat.

Some pickups are great for smooth, fluid tones. The PG is great for percussive, dynamic riffs and lead playing.

 

[Artie]

Re: The Pearly Gates Poll

I love threads like this. It really shows the differences in individual tastes. Some people like 'em in Superstrats with 250k pots. Some with 500k's and others with 1Megs. Some say it's too bright, others that its dark or lacks midrange. (I think someone said that.)

I voted, "Love the Neck, bridge ok". Although, I could just as easily have said, "One of Seymours best".

Anyway, I just put my PG set in my Cort CL-1000 this afternoon. (All mahogany set neck, 500k master vol/tone with pp for coil split.) Here's my observations:

I can't believe I've been hanging around here this long and just now tried these. Especially the neck. As soon as I struck the first note, I thought I had plugged in my acoustic-electric. Have you ever played an acoustic-electric at "bedroom" level? You know, where you hear the acoustic portion around the same volume as the amplified part? It's a sweet, complex tone. That's exactly what the PGn did. I could hear two distinctly different tone modes. It was almost as if the pup was bi-amped, with the highs going through one amp and speakers and the mids/lows through another. An amazingly harmonically rich tone. I believe this could easily become my favorite neck pickup. (I want to give it more than a few hours of playing before I commit to that statement.)

The bridge was good. It was different enough from the neck to be missing the "magic", but similar enough as to not be . . . well, different enough. I might try others suggestion of replacing it with a CC. Again, let me give it more of a fair chance than a few hours playing.

I'm glad I finally tried these. Amazing set.

Artie

Edit: Btw, the PG set, especially the neck, was made to be used with a good chorus. Not too much. Just a smidge. Absolute tonal nirvana.

 

[Aceman]

Re: The Pearly Gates Poll

Nice post Artie.

A couple of points:

1. That Acoustic/Electric at bedroom levels - THIS is the tone you get from the Epiphone Ultra's…The 339 with an Under Neck transducer AND hum buckers! Just amazing.

2. PG w/ Chorus eh? That explains why I'm digging it in my 80's Metal project!!!!!!

 

[Artie]

Re: The Pearly Gates Poll

PG w/ Chorus eh? That explains why I'm digging it in my 80's Metal project!!!!!!

Yup. I will have to post clips of this when this work week is over.

 

[InbredJunk]

Re: The Pearly Gates Poll

I have never played one to the best of my knowledge. After reading this however, I'm dying to try one in the neck.

 

[Jocelyn]

Re: The Pearly Gates Poll

I have never played one to the best of my knowledge. After reading this however, I'm dying to try one in the neck.

Yes me too.

 

[blueman335]

Re: The Pearly Gates Poll

I have never played one to the best of my knowledge. After reading this however, I'm dying to try one in the neck.

If you like warm. fat neck tones, you'll like PGN's.