Seymor Duncan Pearly Gates Bridge Pickup..

Never tried a Pearly Gates but the split humbuckers I've heard or tried never seem to quite get that tele spank........I guess you need to keep that tele handy on the stand..

I have one as a neck pickup in an LP, and I hate it. It just sounds really dull, and it’s not setup for coil tapping.

I always thought a Tele pickup had more twang than any pickup.

Aren’t they made or wound differently than a standard fender Strat single coil?

I think you may be asking too much of any split humbucker at any price point.

Fret should be along shortly to ‘splain it.

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Maybe Fret will tell me, that he can build exactly what I want.

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My thought too. Or at least tell you honestly, “nah. That can’t really be done. “

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My thought too. Or at least tell you honestly, “nah. That can’t really be done. “

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Well, The truth is, I've got my eye on one of those limited edition Telecaster customs with the set neck, all mahogany. It already has the Pearly Gates PU, but it's a mail order deal, and I'm not fond of buying things that I haven't actually tried out in my hands. I will take a chance though now and then, if I see a way that I can get what I want, even if it takes a little work.
It has worked out with this Epiphone Frontier. I will never need to buy another acoustic guitar, this one does it all.

Outside of the fact that a HUGE HUGE component of a Telecaster's inherent twangy tone is that oversized metal ashtray bridge to which a traditional Tele bridge pickup is mounted ...

I have yet to find a splittable humbucker that truly delivers an authentic Strat or Tele tone. Factors that inevitably derail the R&D effort include magnetized screws and slugs versus actual rod magnets as poles; a humbucker's brass or nickel silver baseplate versus its absence in Fender-style pickups; and the physical height of humbucker coils compared to the common dimensions of Strat and Tele coils (they are taller).

You can absolutely match that split coil's wind counts, coil awg, coil insulator material, DCR and henries output of the splittable coil, etc. You can get close to satisfactory but nothing close to authentic. Many of you already know this.

My observations from a design standpoint ... you can design a great humbucker that happens to split decently. Or you can design a great splittable humbucker that happens to operate decently in full humbucker mode. The best example of the latter in my mind are most PRS offerings. Gorgeous when split, lackluster in bucker mode compared to other offerings.

The closest you will get to a split tone in the Fender realm, will be a humbucker with a DCR resistance measurement of about 12-14K, so it will split at 6-7K DCR. You also want a humbucker built around an Alnico 5 magnet. Most Fender single coils use A5 rods, which have a scooped midrange by nature compared to the Alnico 2s found in classic PAFs (and in Duncan Pearly Gates).

Be ready to also employ a compressor/limiter on your pedalboard too, to compensate (boost) the approximate 50 percent loss in output when you split most any traditional blueprint humbucker.

I am not a fan of stock Tele bridge pickups paired with any neck humbuckers. The neck pickup is inevitably too loud compared to the bridge pickup, even a vintage/underwound PAF or 'Tron clone; and/or the bridge pickup is inevitably too thin compared to the neck pickup. I have dozens of examples cross my bench annually and I've yet to find a HS Tele that actually worked well for my tastes.

If you want a phatter neck tone, I think a low to mid 7s DCR Alnico 5 P-90 that's RWRP compared to the Tele bridge pickup is a MUCH better match.

I put one in the bridge of my Stratocaster. It is awesome. I love it. When I split the coil, though, it's serviceable, but not like the 2 position on my SSS strat. Get one. You'll not be sorry.