Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Humbucker

[Trixie Cant Act]

I installed a pearly gates humber in my strat in the bridge position. I also installed an SL59 in the neck position, both with a switch to split the coils. I here a difference on the 59 when i throw the switch but not a noticeable difference with the pearly gates when i throw the switch. Is there enough of a sound difference in the PG to hear a difference when splitting the coils? ( I assume there should be)

Also is there a noticeable difference in sound from the the slug side of the PG and the adjustable side?

Thanks in advance for any info and input.

joe

[pauseflash]

Answer your questions to both... nope.

The pearly gates are designed to work well with Single Coils.... meaning a low output for a HB. Most the time splitting it doesn't yield as big as a difference as with other HB's.

[SwedishLuthier]

OK, for this:

Answer your questions to both... nope.

I would like to use the old BAD ADVICE banner, but I can’t find it.

Take this from someone that actually have studied pickup for a long time and actually wind them myself. There is a significant volume drop in ANY HB when split. No matter of construction and design. You are using HALF the amount of winding (half a pickup). Period. You obviously don’t have much of a clue to how the Pearly Gates are designed. It is most noticeable designed with lower flux Alnico2 magnets. That way it will as a side effect have a lower output. But it is NOT to match the output to a SC, but to use the A2 magnets to SHAPE the TONE in a desired way. The Pearly Gates were originally a custom pickup for Billy Gibbons of ZZ TOP and I have rarely seen him with a SC equipped guitar. Go figure.

If a difference between HB mode and split mode can’t be heard I must start to ask trixie if he/she use it in a hi-gain amp with lots of overdrive. That way the volume drop isn’t that noticeable. But in clean…if you do no notice a different you have wired the pup wrong.

And there is on the contrary a bid difference in sound between the slug side and the screw side of a HB. The slug side have much higher magnetic flux due to the fact that

1 the slugs “conduct” the magnetic field better due to higher mass, and

2 the screw continues down under the magnet and create a completely different shaped, weaker magnetic field. So I always recommend trying every pickup in normal and in 180 degree rotated position. Placing the higher output slug coil closer to the bridge will give an emphasis on the treble compared to “normal” position. I also recommend trying both coils separately before deciding what coil to use in split mode. IMHO the slug coil is always more SC like and balance the out put of a sc better than the screw coil. Also try the PARALLEL mode. While still humbucking it give you an approximation of a SC sound but with a higher output to match SCs better (compared to a split HB).

[pauseflash]

If I'm not mistaken, which could be, The slug on a pearly gate is wound more then the screw side, to not give the massive sound dive when switching it. At least in comparision to the 59.

Lindy Fralin also does this with the unbucker. Only they wind the majority of theirs on the screw side of the house.

Hagstrom also does this with their humbuckers as they come factory split and they were designed for the fact.

I did not intended for the thread to imply that the pickup was made for single coils, but they were designed to be lower output then most HB's. Which has, shown through trial and error, to blend well with single coils.

The orignal thread did not state there was no volume dive, just less.

[Trixie Cant Act]

Ok so here's another novice question... It seems to me that the tone on the 59 when split is different even though it is louder when in humbucker mode as opposed to single coil mode... is that my imagination because the volume does drop? And is there a way to add a resistor or something in line or somewhere to make the volumes equal in both modes other than adding something that requires a battery or a boost but rather cut or lower the volume on the Humbucker mode to match the single coil mode...

Hope that made sense and wasn't to 'Pickup 101' for this forum

[SwedishLuthier]

If I'm not mistaken, which could be, The slug on a pearly gate is wound more then the screw side, to not give the massive sound dive when switching it.

were designed to be lower output then most HB's

Quick answer: No and no

Long answer: I have a Pearly Gates pickup and the coils match more or less perfectly when measuring the DC resistance. The slug side coil give a higher output because the magnetic field is higher, and directed differently through the slug side coil. Pls, have a look at my prior post about the output of slug vs screw side coils.

The Pearly Gates is also not a low output HB. Let me quote the SD on-line description: “slightly-hotter-than-vintage”. It is lower in output compared to distortion models and “active” pickups but higher that most PAF clones. A standard SC do not by no means match the output of my Pearly Gates pickup.

... It seems to me that the tone on the 59 when split is different even though it is louder when in humbucker mode as opposed to single coil mode... is that my imagination because the volume does drop? And is there a way to add a resistor or something in line or somewhere to make the volumes equal in both modes

Well, the sound IS different. That’s the nature of split coil HBs. Let me ask you a question: If you would like to have the same sound in split mode and the same sound level…why do you want to split the pickup? Or am I misunderstanding you here?

You can always add resistors and things to the circuit to lower the output of the HB so that it matches the output of the split mode. But then you will have a really low output version of the beautiful sounding Pearly Gates pickup (one of my all time favs). And the added resistor will change the sound a bit. Unfortunately I have not seen any schematics for this specific setup (HB with resistor + split without)