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King Loudness « Pearly Gates = Tonal Heaven »
Published on 04/18/11 at 17:48The Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates is designed to be like a standard P.A.F pickup, but with that little bit of extra "mojo," as requested by the Rev. Billy Gibbons. I purchased this pickup used several years ago to install in my main ax at the time, a 1985 Tokai Flying V. I was unimpressed with the cheap EMG knockoff humbuckers that had been installed by a previous owner and so I decided to purchase a more vintage voiced bridge humbucker to make it sound a bit more vintage and less processed and digital sounding.
Now, this is supposed to have a connection to Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top's guitarist. I don't listen to them, so I can't really make a judgment on how close the tone of this pickup is to Billy's P.A.F in the Pearly Gates Les Paul 'Burst, but based on what I've read about Billy's gear choices, it sounds like it is pretty dead on to what the Pearly Gates PAFs sound like. It's got that classic mild overdrive tone of the Gibson humbuckers of yore, but hidden somewhere inside is a bit of extra kick to push the pickup to a point that it's just over the top enough to scream. It's not a ridiculously high output pickup either, so don't buy it expecting gobs of saturation...
I particularly like this pickup because it fits right in with my theory on getting a good hard rock tone. I prefer to get a lower output pickup and make the amp produce the saturation. This allows me to use dynamics and not be stuck with a ton of output from the pickup. The PG is a prime example of this. I was able to use it for the rock, jazz, and blues projects I was in, using a mildly overdriven sound as my core tone, rolling the volume back to clean up the volume, and using one of my overdrive pedals to push it to the limit.
All in all, I was extremely impressed with this pickup when I owned it. I tried it in a few different guitars over the years, all with the same great result. Seymour Duncan definitely has a winner with this pickup. If you're after a great all rounder pickup that won't break the bank... give this one a try. You won't be disappointed!
Now, this is supposed to have a connection to Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top's guitarist. I don't listen to them, so I can't really make a judgment on how close the tone of this pickup is to Billy's P.A.F in the Pearly Gates Les Paul 'Burst, but based on what I've read about Billy's gear choices, it sounds like it is pretty dead on to what the Pearly Gates PAFs sound like. It's got that classic mild overdrive tone of the Gibson humbuckers of yore, but hidden somewhere inside is a bit of extra kick to push the pickup to a point that it's just over the top enough to scream. It's not a ridiculously high output pickup either, so don't buy it expecting gobs of saturation...
I particularly like this pickup because it fits right in with my theory on getting a good hard rock tone. I prefer to get a lower output pickup and make the amp produce the saturation. This allows me to use dynamics and not be stuck with a ton of output from the pickup. The PG is a prime example of this. I was able to use it for the rock, jazz, and blues projects I was in, using a mildly overdriven sound as my core tone, rolling the volume back to clean up the volume, and using one of my overdrive pedals to push it to the limit.
All in all, I was extremely impressed with this pickup when I owned it. I tried it in a few different guitars over the years, all with the same great result. Seymour Duncan definitely has a winner with this pickup. If you're after a great all rounder pickup that won't break the bank... give this one a try. You won't be disappointed!