Pearly Gates vs. Hotrodded Set

[thendrix]

Need some advice. I am replacing the pickups in a stock Epiphone Les Paul Standard and have narrowed it down to two choices. I am either going with Duncan Pearly Gates or the Hot Rodded Set which consists of the SH2 and SH4 (I think). I love the southern rock, Allman Bros. tone but I sometimes need a little more crunch. Which of these two would you recommend? I am not looking for a HOT pickup, but a little more output would be ok. Also, can I get the Hot Rodded set with chrome covers or are they black only?

[big_teee]

Need some advice. I am replacing the pickups in a stock Epiphone Les Paul Standard and have narrowed it down to two choices. I am either going with Duncan Pearly Gates or the Hot Rodded Set which consists of the SH2 and SH4 (I think). I love the southern rock, Allman Bros. tone but I sometimes need a little more crunch. Which of these two would you recommend? I am not looking for a HOT pickup, but a little more output would be ok. Also, can I get the Hot Rodded set with chrome covers or are they black only?

IMO I like the low wound pickups. The Pearly gates Neck is my all time favorite.
You can't beat the tone of a 7.3k Alnico 2 in a Les Paul neck pickup.
Warren Haynes plays this pickup in some of his guitars.
I like a little hotter bridge pickup.
In my own guitars I wind the neck 7.2-7.3k A2 Magnets.
Then I make a hotter Bridge A2 Pickup 9.1-9.4k .
This pickup sounds vintage and is hot enough to distort and Crunch.
I always thought the trade offs of higher wound pickups to be Lacking.
Good Luck,
Terry

[hippybilly]

Pickup choices are like opinions and we all know how many opinions on a subject a feller can run into. PERSONALLY....I like the Hot Rodded set. You can put that Hot Rodded set in any guitar on the face of the earth and play many different types of music by making suttle adjustments in volume, tone and occassionally stompboxes if you use them. I bought a new set of Pearly Gates and spent a little over $200 for them. Left them in my Les Paul about 10 minutes. They were so harsh and high pitched that I took them out and put the Hot Rod set in. That's my ears talking to me though. I used 500k pots and I do however wish I'd put a set of 250k pots in and see if the change in pots would have melowed them out and sounded better. I didn't though. If you have pickups that are too high pitched and you're using 500k pots you can knock some of the top end off of them using lower valued pots. I've been playing music for over 40 years and have around 20 guitars, each I've customized, searching for "My Sound". There are few things that I've learned I'll pass along. First of all, if you ever get a sound that you like, it's been my experience, you better leave things alone. I've had sounds that I liked on bone stock guitars with cheap parts and thought if I do this and this and this it'll make it even better. Most cases that is wrong. Even sutble things like changing tuners, or a nut, just anything will change the configuration that gave you the sound you liked. It might not make sense but if it sounds good, becareful deviating from the components that gave you the sound you liked no matter how simple or subtle. Trying differnt tone caps - make yourself a little piece of cardboard or something that you can mount different types and values of tone caps on to where you can hook two wires up to your tone put and then maybe a selector switch or something to where you can select the various tone caps and see which sounds best in a paticular guitar. You'll find it's a matter of choice and what your ears like. There is no right or wrong. Just what you like the best. Bumble Bee caps to me are magic and you cant go wrong with putting them in anything. I cant explain it but they are magical for some reason. Another thing I've seen that I'll address is the difference in tube amps and solid state amps. I sold a friend of mine a customize bastard guitar with lace sensors that he just loved playing thru the Rocktron solid state amp I sold him with it. Then, he went out and bought an Eggnater Renegade 65 tube amp and called me wanting to sell the piece of _hi_! back to me cause it sound like crap. I said you use to love it now you hate it. The lace sensors and most normal single coil pickups don't push a tube amp near hard enough to make it react favorably.....unless....you use something like a pickup booster or something with a little "poop" so that it'll push those preamp tubes a little harder and get some decent sound out of them. I"ve got a strat copy with Fender Vintage Noisless pickups in it. Sounds like crap with a tube amp (thin and gutless), but I can hook it up to my Peavey Classic VT (solidstate preamp, tube output) and that combination is just killer. Just remember tube amps have to be pushed a little harder and like humbucker or single coils with a high output. The best things is to play and try all the guitars and amps you can. If you see hear a guitar you like, see what the guitar is and also what the amp is it's playing thru. It's USUSALLY the combination of the guitar and amp that makes the complete sound you're hearing that you like. Not just one or the other. I'm trying an output transformer change in my Marshall Haze 40 to see if it does all the neat stuff I've heard about that change making. I broke my bias adjustment trimmer in the process so I can't give you an opinion on that change just yet. Be sure and take an ohm meter and measure each and every pot when you get them. They are for the most part so far off from what they are suppose to read it will blow your mind. Same thing with your tone caps. Measure them and physically see and write down the value so you'll know exactly what it is, not what it says it's suppose to be. In my opinion over the years pots have gone down hill and finding a good one with a good curve and good specs is harder to find all the time. I'm getting ready to try some of the more expensive ones next. I gut and save parts from chassis before I throw them away and sometimes you can get some good old school parts from them. Hope this helped. If you have any questions I'll tell you what I know and what I've learned. This whole post is just my opinion and we all know that opinions are like ___holes, everybody has one. Good Luck and pay attention to your ears as much as you do to what somebody tells you.

[freefrog]

According to my direct experience with these pickups and IMHHHO:

-SH4 + SH2 = versatile but "neutral" / middle of the road. Not much character...

-PG= more personality. Yes, they are gritty / trebly but it's not a definitive flaw... Mount them with 2 nickel covers + PIO tone caps (50's wiring) then use your tone pots, set down their screw poles if necessary (especially under the plain strings) and use a LONG cable or any high capacitance cable (1000pf/1n) to plug the axe in the amp, in order to push the "resonant frequency" of your pu's towards the midrange. You should be in the ballpark, with a more convincing southern tone than with the hot rodded set.
BTW, low resistance PU's clean up more easily when you lower the volume pot....

FWIW, these pu's won't change any Epi LP in a Gibson LP, though: the maple cap on mahogany body creates a narrow dip around 500hz in a Gibson LP, with a "rounded" response in the bass and high ranges. This effect will be absent with mainstream Epi's, whose resonance often reminds an alder body (= flat midrange and peak around 4khz). Once again, I say it after a direct experience with these things : I've miked the acoustic resonance of various Epi or Gibson Les Paul's and have some screenshots of this resonance... :-)

Hope it helps...

[big_teee]

I agree freefrog.
To start with you need to figure what magnet sound you like.
the Hot rod set has A5 Magnets.
The Alnico Pros and Pearly's have A2 Magnets.
If you want that AlBro Sound its hard to get with the brighter A5s.
You need the A2s IMO for that.
I make my own pickups, so I tune to suit.
I have Neck pickups in most of my axes wound in the 7.2-7.4k DCR range.
I like a hotter bridge, but don't really like the small wire High output pickups.
I usually wind up with a bridge with about all the 42 Gauge SPN, or 42 PE wire I can get on there.
Usually in the 9.2-9.5k DCR range.
I put the rough Alnico 2 Addiction Fx Magnets in both Neck and bridge.
That's what works for me!
Good Luck, whatever you decide.
Terry