Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: fbloke on February 12, 2012, 03:29:05 PM
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Has anyone tried the SD Pearly Gates set in a LesPaul? I'm looking for a similar tone but want to stay loyal to Bareknuckle. Black Dogs maybe?
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mule
maybe the PG blues
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Black Dogs would be closest I think...
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Black Dogs would be closest I think...
Thanks Twinfan - am I right in thinking you used to own a Pearly? A local luthier told me that he found the Pearly pickups too bright and toppy. What's your view on this?
I fancy Black Dogs as I know with confidence that Tim will have balanced the ranges nicely.
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I have found the PGs very toppy and found myself wondering how Billy G copes
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Processing, go and look at the eqing they do to his live rig.
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In terms of specs, the closest to a PG would be a Mule - or maybe Riff Raff(?), depending on how the coils are wound - but with an Alnico II magnet.
In terms of tone, I'll defer to my colleagues above. :)
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The PGs I had in my VOS Pearly were bright but punchy. I liked them after I got used to them, and they took a while to dial in.
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Processing, go and look at the eqing they do to his live rig.
Oh yes of course - I've seen the video with his tech where they EQ every guitar to sound the same using rack mount graphic EQs
http://youtu.be/u6DrxfrbbF8 (http://youtu.be/u6DrxfrbbF8)
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I'd have thought an IV Mule would do the trick, or (on second thoughts) a Riff Raff might be closer.
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I'd have thought an IV Mule would do the trick, or (on second thoughts) a Riff Raff might be closer.
I was thinking too.
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Mules aren't hot enough, and neither are Riff Raffs. BKP don't really do an overwound AII/AIV PAF as Tim feels it sacrifices clarity.
The Black Dogs I've just bought for my PRS Singlecut seem to be the cloest in the range to a hot PAF, even though they have an AV magnet they have the 42.5AWG wire which takes a bit of the edge off, and I'm liking them a lot so far.
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the black dog sounds nothing like a PG, in my opinion
the rounded top is not due to the thinner wire or the insulation... au contraire
the thinner wire allows a higher resistance with less overwinding, and having less turns retains more high end
it's still quite overwound, though, so it the top is tamed
I'm using the neck cold sweat in the bridge, as I posted in another thread, and it has the same magnet, wire gauge and type of the black dog, but more symmetrical coils and with a lower DC, equivalent to the bridge riff raff
it has a lot more top end than the black dog, pretty close to the riff raff high end, but with the midrange density of the black dog
I'll still vote for the mule or PG blues
the riff raff as a third option
duncans in general are hotter than BKP's, so a mule is usually not as hot as a duncan or modern gibson 'equivalent', but the extra bite of the black dog doesn't make it closer tonewise
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It's all just opinion isn't it? :) It's down to fbloke to decide which he'd rather go with.
I should say that my PG experience is based on the SD Custom Shop verisons I had in VOS Pearly Les Paul, which I believe may be different to the 'stock' PG pickups...
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It is many years ago that I had a SD Pearly Gates bridge pickup. Output was good but not mega hot. What surprised and disappointed me in that pickup is that it did not have any bass, and I had it in a Les Paul where I had sufficient bass with other pickups (a T-Top included). Such strongly subdued bass response may have worked well for a neck pickup but for a bridge pickup it sounded rather thin.
I don't think any BKP will sound like a SD Pearly Gates.
Cheers Stephan
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I'd go for Mules.
If it is not hot enough, i think VHII would be a better choice than black dog for pearly gates voicing.
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I had a Pearly Gates in the neck position of a Les Paul for years and really liked it. I now have a Riff Raff in the neck paired with a Black Dog in the bridge of the same guitar.
As Stephen said the Pearly Gates lack bass, so worked well in the neck position. I can imagine them to sound a bit thin in the bridge though.
The Black Dog has a completely different mid range voice than the Pearly Gates does, and would definitely sound alot thicker than the Pearly Gates due to it's rather large push it has in the mids.
I think the Mules would be too smooth sounding, they're not as bright nor have the same top end bite that the PG has.
In my opinion the Riff Raff is probably the closest voicing wise, but wouldn't say that any BKP will completely nail that sound 100% (which is a good thing).
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by the way, angus young's pickups (the duncan custom shop ones) are based on the pearly gates model
maybe he was actually looking for the riff raff 8)