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MountAnDewMe « Classic PAF sound with some attitude. »
Published on 08/01/12 at 16:22 Seymour Duncan's Pearly Gates Plus was designed to produce an enhanced version of the old PAF sound of that slightly over wound tone we generally attribute to the Les Paul. I have one of these installed in the bridge of a '97 American Stratocaster. I love the response that this pickup provides in my alder Stratocaster. It offers both a standard hum bucking mode and a single coil mode. I have mine wired up in conjunction with the neck pickup to work in either series or parallel when in single coil mode in position 2 and 4 on the five way selector.
The sound reproduced in hum bucking mode is warm and rich with a bit of aggressive edge to the top end. The harmonic content of this pickup is enormous. This pickup sounds wonderful playing most any type of rhythm and holds up very well when pushed into a gain laden amp. The notes remain thick but without losing much definition or muddying up. For a bridge pickup lead sounds remain satisfying and complex. They tend to not be thin or weak sounding like many other bridge pickups. Due to the mid bump and slight edge these have harmonics will simply fly from your fret board with ease.
When placed into a single coil mode the pickup behaves very differently. Depending if you are in series or parallel wiring configuration the sound can go from a thinner version of the hum bucking tone with what seems like only a drop off in output to a convincing replication of a true single coil. It has a jangle very close to many other single coils I have played over the years and the sound is very useable, providing the proper vibe to execute songs requiring those tones. The pickup is truly and all around winner in the bridge position.
At just under $100 dollars this pickup is more than others but the quality of the sound it produces along with its versatility makes it worth every dollar. I believe this pick up to be useable for most types of music except types requiring a large mid scoop as that would be counterintuitive to its design. I find the tone of this pickup indispensable to me and I am extremely satisfied with it.
The sound reproduced in hum bucking mode is warm and rich with a bit of aggressive edge to the top end. The harmonic content of this pickup is enormous. This pickup sounds wonderful playing most any type of rhythm and holds up very well when pushed into a gain laden amp. The notes remain thick but without losing much definition or muddying up. For a bridge pickup lead sounds remain satisfying and complex. They tend to not be thin or weak sounding like many other bridge pickups. Due to the mid bump and slight edge these have harmonics will simply fly from your fret board with ease.
When placed into a single coil mode the pickup behaves very differently. Depending if you are in series or parallel wiring configuration the sound can go from a thinner version of the hum bucking tone with what seems like only a drop off in output to a convincing replication of a true single coil. It has a jangle very close to many other single coils I have played over the years and the sound is very useable, providing the proper vibe to execute songs requiring those tones. The pickup is truly and all around winner in the bridge position.
At just under $100 dollars this pickup is more than others but the quality of the sound it produces along with its versatility makes it worth every dollar. I believe this pick up to be useable for most types of music except types requiring a large mid scoop as that would be counterintuitive to its design. I find the tone of this pickup indispensable to me and I am extremely satisfied with it.