Well after years of wondering i finally had a chance to......

[gimmieinfo]

....try a set of pearly gates. Nickel cover. You never know what to believe when u read reviews and i read a LOT of them and saw 2 main viewpoints....they're great classic rock pickups with a tight low end, and they're too bright and thin and u can't dial it out. Sadly i heard what the latter camp did. None of the pickups i have tried in 2 LPs were not TIGHTER than the PGs. That kinda shocked me because so many people said the ow end is really tight. I found the lows dull and sorta muddy. The naysayers also jived with my experience of the top end...skinny as hell. I think the thing that really bothered me is the only mids i heard were in the highest range that are almost considered treble, and those fat mids in the 500-800 Hz range seemed so attenuated that they were just not there at all. The gibson custombuckers that i thought were thin sounded went back in and are fatter then the PGs. So now the PITA of trying to sell them. Oh well. Just another example of why reviews impossible to put any stock in. You're gonna see some that are dead on, but no way to know which ones are.

 

[Mincer]

In some cases, only personal experience in your particular guitar is what you need to make a decision. By your description, I'd think 59s would be the ones you'd like.

 

[gimmieinfo]

Yeah, those were one of the possible models i was considering, but i'm already stuck selling these which is a royal PITA, so i'll just stick with the custombuckers. I think whats needed is a WLH or something in that output range, 8.7-9k for the bridge which is where i have the most issues. I was actually all set to try those but having always wanted to try PGs for years i changed my mind. Maybe down the road.

 

[Mincer]

In the end, reading about how things might sound in your guitar is a pretty imperfect system. We have all been there- I've bought and sold many pickups because I thought they might sound perfect in my guitar. And yeah, it totally sucks to find out things don't work. Just know you aren't alone there.

 

[gimmieinfo]

Funny how pickups can be so tricky. I tried an A5 tonerider i don't care for in it a while back and it was pretty good but like the times i have used it before i wasn't thrilled with it. It always sounded like a low quality pickup to me whatever i have put it in. Today out of desperation i threw an A2 in the tonerider and loaded it into the LP and lo and behold the thing sounds great. To the point it not only doesn't sound like a low quality pickup, but the voice is very very close to what i was looking for. I'm not sure i could find anything better easily because i think this is so close to what i wanted that there are now a far smaller selection of pickups out there that are likely to be better. So it's staying. I thought the custombucker was exceptional in tone quality (tho voicing wasn't there for me) but the tonerider sounds right there with it. Of course this only adds to what i already know that there are no great pickups, only great matches between the pickup and guitar. The biggest difference is it's incredibly airy and transparent with a slightly beefier low mid, all of which makes for a smoothness. But it's a good smooth that happens with gain and gets clearer and chimier as i roll the volume down for cleans. It's 8.7k which i suspect is a big part of why it sound so good. Being a bright LP it needs that to keep from being brittle like the custombuckers and other low winds i have tried in it. Anyways, just goes to show it's the match between the guiatr and pup that you have to find regardless of price.

 

[Mincer]

You can spend a lot on a pickup but it doesn't mean it will sound good. For bright LPs, I've found A2-based pickups are much better. Alnico II, either Slash, or Custom Custom. The Pearly Gates is A2, but it is a lot brighter than these. You can't always go by magnet type as there is a lot that goes into a pickup design, but it can give you some clues on what to look at, and what to eliminate.

 

[gimmieinfo]

Yes, A2 is what i usually gravitate to but the guitar came wit custombuckers so i tried to make them work for me but they just didn't. I think it's not just the A2, because i did try A2 in it before but i think it was a combination of that and the DCR thats a bit overwound at 8.7K. A 8.2k A2 i tried was not enough to do the trick. Funny thing is, it cleans up much better with my volume knob than any other i tried, not just in how clean it gets but the EQ curve when i do so is better.

 

[Mincer]

So what EQ shape do you think would be right for that guitar?

 

[gimmieinfo]

So what EQ shape do you think would be right for that guitar?

Like u said basically, translating tone to words isn't particularly an accurate way to convey it. But i felt it needed more mids in the 400-800Hz range because it's lacking there made it sound thin, and it needed a smoother more compressed gain tone that gives way to shimmering cleans when turned down. It had a rather hard attack before that had no significant give to it. It now has those things. Whether to the degree i'm done, i dunno. time will tell, u know how that goes. Will find out saturday after next how it cuts it in a band mix, that'll be the real test. At this time tho i feel `like if i were to try and find better it would be nit picking.

 

[jeremy]

a good eq should be something every musician has if they are amplified