Pearly gates for a Telecaster.

[JohnnyHardtail]

I was inspired by Aarons’s demo of the Dimarzio Area Hot T DP421.

The tone is ‘Not quite Telecaster’. To me it still has an appealing single-coil character in the upper mids. It started me thinking which neck humbucker would be a good match for level and tone. It needs to be a vintage output humbucker to pair with the DP421.

I have almost settled on the Duncan Pearly Gates neck humbucker. Hopefully it has enough grind in the upper mids (aka sizzle) and usable split coil tones. When I search online it seems very rare to put a Pearly Gates SH-PG1n in a Telecaster.. surprisingly.

What are your experiences with the Pearly gates? I’m also thinking about trying one in the neck slot of a strat with a PAF PRO bridge, but there are many other PAF style alternatives for that guitar.

 

[Hodgo]

Why surprised? Neck humbuckers aren’t exactly par for the course on Teles.

I don’t have any experience with the PG, but there’s some funkiness going on there… they say it has higher output than a typical PAF, but the DCR is actually lower than their A2/42AWG offerings like Seth Lover and 59, which are supposed to be true 59 PAFs. Same mags same construction lower DCR usually means higher resonant peak, but this is indicating the opposite.

All that to say, my guess is the PG has another trick up its sleeve like unbalanced coils. That might mess with your coil splitting ambitions, but as always I strongly encourage you to play with partial splits and parallel wiring to get a brighter, airier tone that isn’t nasal and grating.

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

Neck humbuckers are not "par for course". However there was a noticible imbalance in the demo from Aaron with the Dimarzio Area Hot T between neck and bridge. Once you put a hotter bridge pickup, a single coil Tele neck pickup can be lacking output as was the case there.

HS telecaster's aren't that unusual. They have been used by some notable professional artists. AFAIK, a Duncan 59 is a popular choice.
Some examples. (The first one has a coil split push/push switch on the tone knob)

 

[Strat Avenger]

'Only way I would put a neck position humbucker in a Tele is if it were wired in parallel.

 

[Hodgo]

I’m no stranger. This is a Duncan Broadcaster in the bridge and a Gibson 57 Classic in the neck with Bill Lawrence 5-Way HOoP wiring.


Here’s what it sounds like:

https://soundcloud.com/hodgo-525906495%2Fpaf-tele

 

[rockandroller]

Nice!! What were the pup settings for each of those runs?

 

[Hodgo]

Nice!! What were the pup settings for each of those runs?

Sorry yeah!

1. Neck
2. Neck and bridge
3. Bridge
4. Neck and bridge (half out of phase)
5. Neck through fixed cap (high pass filter)

 

[Rick]

My go to tele neck pick-up is not a tele neck pick up, it's the DiMarzio dp240 mini humbucker. It's great!

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

My go to tele neck pick-up is not a tele neck pick up, it's the DiMarzio dp240 mini humbucker. It's great!

I'd like to ask about your 'Go to' bridge pickup. Do you like a vintage Tele pickup in the bridge?

 

[Rick]

The best tele bridge pup, with the quintessential tele sound, I've ever heard was one by Bill Lawrence, the real Bill Lawrence. Second place would be a twang king. I also like the Area T, but it's more "girthy" in the low end, still good and the git it's in won't be sold, but it's more like tele-like rather than tele, if that makes any sense. As the Aaron said, if it's the same pup, it's lacking that indefinable tele top end sparkle (sorry Mr DiMarzio, I hope you still love me). But it does bring a pleasant girthiness, but it ain't a tele. Which is fine, so when I go into tele mode, I rely on the neck pup which is a dp240. Now the dp 240, it's value for money.

 

[Hodgo]

Sorry but a quintessential Tele pickup is one made just as they were from 1951-1964. 42AWG plain enamel wire, hand guided by an operator over roughly 9000 turns with fairly high tension, and checked with a voltmeter to be within a spec of 7-8k DCR. A5, sometimes A3 magnets, and a copper plated cold rolled steel baseplate. Thats the formula that you hear on everything from Buck Owens to Jimmy Page (although Pagey had a trick up his sleeve…)

There’s a bajillion people making these and IMHO Rob DiStefano of Cavalier makes em as good as anyone and for reasonable prices. Never forget that these things are made of a few dollars worth of plastic and metal.

While I have an immense respect for Bill Lawrence, and how much he evolved the passive pickup, I just don’t think it’s accurate to say they’re the sound we associate with classic Teles.

 

[Hodgo]

Although candidly with respect to what I just wrote, I think the Nocaster pickup is more interesting - slightly different formula, 43AWG wire, 9k+ DCR, A3 magnets. I have a Don Mare pickup that reads over 10k with these specs and it sounds like a P-90 with an anger management issue.

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

I almost like P90 tones, but I find they can be a bit lacking in clarity. The distortion tones can be muddy and fizzy at the same time. I feel like I will need to try out a AWG43 wound Broadcaster style pickup.

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

Second place would be a twang king. I also like the Area T, but it's more "girthy" in the low end, still good and the git it's in won't be sold, but it's more like tele-like rather than tele, if that makes any sense.<snip>

Tele-like is what I’m really looking for. A hot bridge sound that still sounds like a single coil.

 

[Spud]

Hot Tele Pickup | Seymour Duncan

The Hot for Telecaster pickups deliver a bigger, fatter true single coil tone with greater low-end power.

www.seymourduncan.com

 

[Hodgo]

I almost like P90 tones, but I find they can be a bit lacking in clarity. The distortion tones can be muddy and fizzy at the same time. I feel like I will need to try out a AWG43 wound Broadcaster style pickup.

No affiliation other than a satisfied customer - https://www.frettech.com/

Pick between the Broadcaster Lion or the Nocaster Holy Grail Lion. You’ll be a happy camper.

 

[Tretgeraet]

Tele-like is what I’m really looking for. A hot bridge sound that still sounds like a single coil.

I don't know how much shipping is from Germany to Australia, but I really love Rockinger, I have their pickups in 3 guitars and I'm always satisfied.

They have four different tastes of "real" telecaster bridge pickups, from which I have the "slightly overwound" telly twister bridge pickup. It's a little hotter and has more midrange punch than I would expect from a typical bridge singlecoil, which is exactly what I want!

But they have an even hotter "Tellygator" Pickup, which they recommend combining with neck humbuckers, so...

And they're not expensive, although handmade in germany. Also no affiliation, I just love those guys.

Just wanted to throw them in here...

 

[Bruce Campbell]

Sorry yeah!

1. Neck
2. Neck and bridge
3. Bridge
4. Neck and bridge (half out of phase)
5. Neck through fixed cap (high pass filter)

Thanks, the clips are great.