New Build HH Tele

[rubberduck]

Started with a new build and decided on the following

Black Korina Tele Body
HH
Narrow flat mount
Black Clear Burst
Wenge CBS strat neck right hand reverse

Looking at a Pearly Gates Neck and Bridge pickup

Question: What do you think of the pickups?
Follow Up:  Looking for a good hard tail bridge.  Want something with some mass.

 

[Rick]

I guess it depends on the music you play, when I think pearly gates I think vintage rock to ZZ Top, but they will handle anything you throw  at them. 

 

[Samhain]

Funny, I just built this same setup using a USA fender HH body, but I can’t get down with the lack of an arm contour and the belly cut, so I’m shopping to custom build a tele body like you. Black Korina, black to clear. 

The pickups I have are
Dimarzio 36th neck
Dimarzio Fortitude bridge. 
I’m using the 920D tele switching with series/parallel splits and I can’t tell you how badass this setup is!
Look into the Fortitude, it’s so versatile, but does it all well. 
With the parallels and splits, I can spank, sparkle and chime as well as drop it into full neck or bridge and just rip!

 

[ragamuffin]

Sounds like a cool build! I haven't played the PGs so no input there. For a hardtail bridge Hipshot makes a nice one.

 

[Ace Flibble]

Pearly Gates are fine as a general hot-PAF type, but personally I find the matched set a bit boring. When I've used the PG neck I have either used a Pearly Gates Plus (has to be harvested from older Fenders) for the bridge, or I replaced the regular PG bridge's magnet with an A4 or A5. More often I'll use the stock PG bridge and an Alnico II Pro or Phat Cat in the neck, especially in warm-toned guitars (any combination of mahogany, korina, basswood, rosewood, chambering or hollowing).
Nothing wrong with using the matched set, I just like my neck and bridge positions to sound a little further apart from each other and the PG is one of those sets where the neck and bridge are really close.

 

[Samhain]

Pearly Gates are fine as a general hot-PAF type, but personally I find the matched set a bit boring. When I've used the PG neck I have either used a Pearly Gates Plus (has to be harvested from older Fenders) for the bridge, or I replaced the regular PG bridge's magnet with an A4 or A5. More often I'll use the stock PG bridge and an Alnico II Pro or Phat Cat in the neck, especially in warm-toned guitars (any combination of mahogany, korina, basswood, rosewood, chambering or hollowing).
Nothing wrong with using the matched set, I just like my neck and bridge positions to sound a little further apart from each other and the PG is one of those sets where the neck and bridge are really close.

 


I don’t have any experience with the PGs neck, but I do with the bridge, I found it boring. 
I had it HSS with Texas specials.
Don’t get me wrong, it was cool, but just kind of bland.

 

[Ace Flibble]

See, that's why Fender had SD make the Pearly Gates Plus, to go with Texas Specials in the Lone Star Strat. (Following on from them being paired with a DM PAF Pro, which is pretty much the same spec and sound, in the Richie Sambora Strats.) Having the extra 'presence' of the Plus really helps blend with the hot singles, or just to differentiate in general from the other hundreds of overwound PAF copies.

 

[rubberduck]

Build update:

Hardtail Bridge:  I ended up ordering a JonhMannUSA FatBack Hardtail Bridge
https://www.johnmannsguitarvault.com/shop/c/p/MannMade-USA-FatBack-Hardtail-Bridge-2-18---Nickel-x42807327.htm

Pickups:
You guys have me thinking about the bridge pickup.  Wondering if i need to go with something hotter like an SD custom custom.  I am thinking about wood mounting the pickups and not using pickup rings.  i've got some brass inserts that i'm going to experiment with this weekend to see how that works.  I did order the body for traditional pickup mounting.  I'm also looking at the FU-Tone PMS way of mounting pickups.  Just not sure if i want to pay that much for two small chunks of brass.

Wiring:
As of now i'm going to split the coils and on the push/pull pot going to put some resistor values in series with the pick to adjust the single coil impedance value.  i'm sure i will change my mind several times before it gets here.