Which is better for Duane Allman stuff? Pearly Gates or 59...

Wound_Up

Wound_Up

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In the neck? I've already got a 59 in the bridge and I'm looking for a neck pickup to go with it. Thinking about Pearly Gates or a 59.

Which would be better suited for Duane Allman licks? I feel like Peay Gates would be better with it's mid heavy sound. What say you?

No, I'm not trying to chase his tone. Just looking to get something that works. Thanks.
 
PG, I'd think. But it doesn't have a mid-heavy sound. There is more high end than anything. BTW, I was thinking of his tone on Layla.
 
Mincer said:
PG, I'd think. But it doesn't have a mid-heavy sound. There is more high end than anything. BTW, I was thinking of his tone on Layla.
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I think I meant mid-focused? Isn't that how it's described?

Edit: yea, that's what I was intending to write. I've read about the high end, also, which seems like it'd be perfect. Hence my post.

"The Pearly Gates vintage output passive humbucker pickups pack ton of focused midrange attitude with raw Texas punch and sizzle."
 
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Pearly Gates is one of the best PAF type necks, so I would side with that. It doesn't seem mid-focused to me, but it does just about everything you need from a vintage PAF-type.
 
If anything, the Pearly Gates is more high-end focused than mids. When I think of middy humbucker, I think of the Alnico II Pro and Custom Custom.
 
I think a lot of Duane's tone was the Fender amps he was playing. They have an undeniable brightness and spank to them.
 
Wound_Up said:
In the neck? I've already got a 59 in the bridge and I'm looking for a neck pickup to go with it. Thinking about Pearly Gates or a 59.

Which would be better suited for Duane Allman licks? I feel like Peay Gates would be better with it's mid heavy sound. What say you?

No, I'm not trying to chase his tone. Just looking to get something that works. Thanks.
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I would not call the PG mid heavy...
 
Wound_Up said:
I was just going by Seymour Duncan's description, which I updated after that post. They call it mid-focused. I was only repeating that and used the wrong word.
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The PG can be described as "focused" since its resonant peak has a higher Q factor than other Duncan P.A.F. replicas. IOW, it has a pointier resonance, more... focused. :-)

Is it MID focused? Not if played at home through a short cable... it can even be piercingly bright in some guitars in such a situation... but on stage, through a long cable in the old school fashion, stray capacitance drags down the resonant frequency and the focused peak effectively concentrates the sizzle... in the high-midrange.

Below is the resonant frequency of a Duncan PG through the kind of long cable played on stage (12m, parasitic capacitance = 1700pF). The peak was effectively "mid focused" in this case (with the nasal tone related to such an electrical response).

PG1rzHighCapCable.jpg

Sorry for the crappy pic. It's 20 years old but it's the only one that I've at disposal in this computer right now...

... and I don't post all that to argue, BTW: I just try to explain the logics behind the official description. Deciphering it on the basis of the explanation above makes it more understandable IMHO. YMMV.

Regarding SH1 vs PG for Duane Allman, I've no opinion: the man used relatively clean 1957 P.A.F.'s as well as 1959 ones among the hottest (in his "Hot'Lanta" LP), so I find difficult to recommend a single model.

Good luck in your quest.
 
So let's add another option.

What about an SH-55N unpotted Seth Lover neck pickup?

Thank you all for the replies and recommendations. I'm taking them all into consideration. Even the Alnico 2 Pro. Thanks!
 
freefrog said:
The PG can be described as "focused" since its resonant peak has a higher Q factor than other Duncan P.A.F. replicas. IOW, it has a pointier resonance, more... focused. :-)

Is it MID focused? Not if played at home through a short cable... it can even be piercingly bright in some guitars in such a situation... but on stage, through a long cable in the old school fashion, stray capacitance drags down the resonant frequency and the focused peak effectively concentrates the sizzle... in the high-midrange.

Below is the resonant frequency of a Duncan PG through the kind of long cable played on stage (12m, parasitic capacitance = 1700pF). The peak was effectively "mid focused" in this case (with the nasal tone related to such an electrical response).



Sorry for the crappy pic. It's 20 years old but it's the only one that I've at disposal in this computer right now...

... and I don't post all that to argue, BTW: I just try to explain the logics behind the official description. Deciphering it on the basis of the explanation above makes it more understandable IMHO. YMMV.

Regarding SH1 vs PG for Duane Allman, I've no opinion: the man used relatively clean 1957 P.A.F.'s as well as 1959 ones among the hottest (in his "Hot'Lanta" LP), so I find difficult to recommend a single model.

Good luck in your quest.
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Thank you for posting that. I actually prefer an over abundance of info so that's right up my alley lol

You could essentially say I use a really long cable. I've got 20+ pedals hooked up all together. Some through the front and others through the FX loop. So it takes some top end off.
 
So I ended up ordering a Seth Lover neck pickup for it. It was $15 off and I just couldn't pass it up lol. If I don't like it, I'll just return it but I doubt that'll happen. I got it for myself for my birthday tomorrow, although it won't be here until Thursday.

I really appreciate all of you you guys' help :oo :thanks:
 
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late to the party but here goes anyway since this is right in my wheel house. duane used three les pauls over the years. the '57 gold top, the '59 cherry burst (with the pups from the gold top), and the dark burst which is either a '58 or '59 (serial number wasnt readable). usually marshall amps on the stage. he used a bunch of stuff when he was a session cat.

duane used the middle and bridge positions a lot, not to say he didnt use the neck by itself, but that wasnt his go to. dickey lived on the neck pup most of the time on the other hand. the seth lover is a fine choice to get close to his tone and will mix well with the 59b. the goldtop and cherry burst were brighter than the dark burst which duane only played for about five months before he died.
 
jeremy said:
late to the party but here goes anyway since this is right in my wheel house. duane used three les pauls over the years. the '57 gold top, the '59 cherry burst (with the pups from the gold top), and the dark burst which is either a '58 or '59 (serial number wasnt readable). usually marshall amps on the stage. he used a bunch of stuff when he was a session cat.

duane used the middle and bridge positions a lot, not to say he didnt use the neck by itself, but that wasnt his go to. dickey lived on the neck pup most of the time on the other hand. the seth lover is a fine choice to get close to his tone and will mix well with the 59b. the goldtop and cherry burst were brighter than the dark burst which duane only played for about five months before he died.
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Yea I went with the SL because it sounded sweeter than the 59 to me. And many of the reviews I read said it has awesome clarity, which I'm looking for. The neck pickup coming out of the gold top is a generic alnico 5 HB that actually sounds really really good. So good, in fact, that the stock gold top pickups that were/are being replaced are going into another guitar with an iced tea burst finish that's got a neck pickup that I can only describe as extemely "wooly". The opposite of clarity, I think. (isn't that a coincidence. Putting my gold top pickups in the burst...just like Duane did. He's the reason I play and who I got my middle name, Duane, from. :headbang:

I'm not sure why I hadn't thought about doing that before now. I already have the bridge pickup out so I couldve went ahead and installed it months ago. Oh well. That'll give me a chance to rewire it to 50s wiring when I swap pickups. It got a little better when I swapped in a new Gotoh abr1 bridge, steel Faber conversion posts, and Faber nickel aluminum tailpiece and locking studs but it's going to take a pickup swap to really fix it.
 
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