(The Curse Of) The Pearly Gates Plus
Introduction
This page is a work in progress, as I will be adding more comparison sound clips, even though my conclusion at the end likely will not change. Also, once the pickup is out of my Showmaster, I will take photos of it by itself, front and back, for this page.
I've had multiple experiences with the Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Plus. I first encountered the PG+ in a Fender Showmaster FAT HH around 2005 (which I should have never sold). For years it was like a splinter in the back of my mind. When I once again bought a Showmaster QMT HH in roughly 2014, I didn't even bother attempting to use the PG+. I swapped in a Full Shred and was completely happy with my decision.
Until I then bought another Showmaster QMT HH for the purpose of swapping Filtertrons into it. I felt like it was time to run an A/B test against various other pickups, before I sold off the PG+ and '59 it came with. When I first got the second Showmaster, I would play the two, Full Shred versus PG+, for hours back and forth.
You see, Fender contracted Seymour Duncan to
make these for their Big Apple Stratocaster, their Showmaster
line, and a few other guitars. As Seymour Duncan described
it, it was basically an over-wound Pearly Gates but with an
Alnico V magnet. The total resistance of the pickup is
around 8.4K, i.e. less than 9K.
This is the result, with some hastily recorded clips using my Boss BR-80.
By writing this, I acknowledge that my ears
prefer a lot of clarity, and that the Full Shred is one of the
few bridge pickups that has what I want.
Shallow, Porcupine Tree
- Just ME-90: comparison PG+ versus Full Shred. The PG+ is first. No editing, just raw audio. Shallow
- I then recorded the same riff with the PG+ on a Fender
SuperSonic amp, all knobs at half except volumes at 3 and all
drive channels 7.5. Shallow
Metallica, Fade to Black
- Just ME-90 (diamond amp sim): comparison PG+ versus Full Shred. The PG+ is first. Just raw audio. Fade To Black
- I then recorded the PG+ on the SuperSonic with the above settings. Fade To Black
Metallica, Unforgiven
- Here's a clip of me noodling in the style of Unforgiven by Metallica, PG+ clean into the clean channel of the SuperSonic. Unforgiven
Metallica, Enter Sandman
- A clip of me noodling in the style of Enter Sandman by Metallica, PG+ into burn channel of SuperSonic (with above settings) Enter Sandman
Switchfoot, Stars
- A clip of me noodling in the style of Switchfoot's song
Stars into the burn channel of the SuperSonic. Stars
The Deftones, My Own Summer (Shove It)
- A clip of me noodling in the style of My Own Summer (Shove It) by The Deftones into the SuperSonic burn channel: My Own Summer (Shove It)
Old Seymour Duncan Pickup Demo Riff
- This is the PG+ into the Fender SuperSonic clean channel,
noodling in the style of the old Seymour Duncan pickup demo
riff. Old
Seymour Duncan Demo
My Conclusion
All things are subjective in music. My ears, equipment, and playing style are different than everyone else's. I have been a lifelong musician, and often paid, but not a famous musician, so here goes.
To me, if I wanted to get an over-wound '59
bridge with a bit more attitude, the PG+ pickup would be the
right thing. I will note that it also seems to go well
with single coils, to my ears. The mismatched coils (in
the style of the Pearly Gates) go well with single coil pickups
and 250k potentiometers. It is a pickup that "fits" very
well with a typical Fender guitar, whether HH or SSH in
configuration.
However, at the same time, this is the pickup Fender chose that really was what prevented the Showmaster from becoming a much more prominent guitar. It's like Fender was like "here, look at this! A Super Strat! Ready for Super Strat styles of music!" but then when you picked it up you realized that is definitely not the case. The Showmaster screams metal and art metal and soloist, not "your grandfather's over-wound Les Paul." But then the PG+ didn't deliver. It was a soloist and metal type guitar that was given the wrong pickups, i.e. the PG+. It simply does not have the clarity needed for soloist work, and does not have enough output for harder styles such as metal. It's simply a disappointment for me, someone who wants to have clarity and the ability to play metal.
The PG+ simply lacks the "push" of a higher
output pickup. It muddies too much under high gain.
If you play nothing but jazz and blues and possibly rock, the
PG+ is a good pickup, and plenty of people (like me) are selling
them for relatively cheap as used pickups.
My wife is also a musician and I asked her
for her opinion. She said the PG+ (in a "blind" test)
definitely didn't have the clarify that the Full Shred
has. She also identified that the Full Shred's higher
output is noticeable.
The PG+ shines as a Les Paul sound in a Stratocaster. It delivers. It's decidedly vintage in sound and output. It will work well with single coils and not sound like an abrupt volume change.
But the upper mid range is slightly muddy. And my ears don't like upper-mid spikes, which is also why I stopped playing the Seymour Duncan JB around 2014. The Seymour Duncan JB is "the" sound of rock, and yet it's also so stereotyped and old, to my ears. The JB would be better for metal than this pickup but not as good for clarity clean, that's for sure.
If Fender had instead put out the Showmaster with the Full Shred set, likely their guitar would have dominated the Super Stratocaster range and given Ibanez some fierce competition.
Back in 2014 I tried increasing the clarify of my '59 neck in my Showmaster FAT HH by installing hex head screws like the Full Shred has. It didn't change enough for me to continue with them, so I reinstalled the fillister head screws.
So the PG+. If you like it, that's cool. I'll be selling mine. But for me it's just not good enough. It fits well with the '59 neck it is paired with. The '59 neck that the Showmaster came with has the same minor clarity problem. A Jazz neck or Full Shred neck pickup would be superior to the '59 because they offer more brightness and clarity, and the Showmaster line was either the basswood type (where scooped pickups like the Jazz shine) or more often the mahogany QMT type. The mahogany versions of the Showmaster can definitely use a bit more brightness, so the Jazz or Full Shred, again, would be superior to the '59. The PG+ pairs well with the '59 because they're almost identical, but that's where it ends.