Seymour Duncan bg1400 tele pickup

[Tele belly]

Has anyone tried the "pearly gates" stacked single coil in the telecaster. I'm a big Billy Gibbons fan and am wanting to change up my 52 ri. Just wondering if someone owns it or has tried it. Here in KY I can't just run out to a dealer with high end gear to try out because in my area there aren't any. Thanks in advance

 

[thrashmetl]

Try the TDPRI forum, do a search. Lots of results there.

 

[BarneyFife]

I have it in both of my Tele's and love it! It'll grind and rock but still has some treble in it.

 

[Secret Ingredient]

I saw a YouTube vid if it and thought it was way overwound. I may be wrong but I think it's way hotter than the regular humbucker version. This guy had it in an esquire. One cool thing, he had one setting where both coils would be active but out of phase or something. It sounded good. In straight bucker mode it was too hot. If I bought one I'd ask them to wind it to around 8k or so.

 

[Stormin]

If I bought one I'd ask them to wind it to around 8k or so.

IIRC, the BG-1400 is wound to 30k!

 

[Seahawk2982]

Tried a few single sized HBs in my tele and ended up with a Harmonic Design Super 90. Not hum cancelling as its a p90 in a tele pickup basically but it kills!

 

[Luke Duke]

Just to be clear there is the BG1400 and there's also the Lil Pearly Gates for tele, they are two entirely different pups.

Christian (wingwalker) had one in a tele I'll shoot him a PM.

 

[jamester]

Yeah, the BG1400 is not the Lil Pearly Gates...

I am interested in the BG1400, and on the SD Custom Shop website they list a matching neck pickup as well. There is no information (that I could find) on the neck pup; is it also super hot? Is it also humbucking?

http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/bg1400/

I look forward to info on any of these, cuz there's not much at all out there. Including TDPRI, which I am on...

 

[Stormin]

Yeah, the BG1400 is not the Lil Pearly Gates...

I am interested in the BG1400, and on the SD Custom Shop website they list a matching neck pickup as well. There is no information (that I could find) on the neck pup; is it also super hot? Is it also humbucking?

http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/bg1400/

I look forward to info on any of these, cuz there's not much at all out there. Including TDPRI, which I am on...

There was a pair that sold in the emporium last week. IIRC, the neck was 28k and the bridge was 29k. The guy wanted $200 for the pair which was a great price considering the bridge alone is $165 new.

 

[wingwalker]

The BG-1400 is a really interesting pickup. It is a stacked humbucker that uses rod magnets and a baseplate like a trad Tele lead coil but it is indeed near 30k but don't let that fool you.

It's a neat pickup that sounds like a Tele pickup with a tad of PAF tossed in as well as a touch of Filtertron! Really neat sounding.

Listen to Antenna era ZZ Top, that'd was Billy's main pickup during that era.

It's thick and meaty but not like a bucker...it's a pickup all on its own.

I should also note you will need a deeper than normal pickup cavity as the BG-1400 is taller than normal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[macphly]

Obviously this conversation ended a few years ago, but I have just gotten a BG-1400 and really like it. Maybe one of the first things to say is that it would not fit in either of my Am Std type bridges (a Gotoh and a Babicz)--I had to grind the opening slightly with a Dremel. Depth-wise, there was no problem (the body is a Mex Tele).

As someone said above, in humbucker mode, it sounds very much like an overwound pickup. My guess is that to get a resistance of +28k, they had to use 43 or 44 gauge wire, which gives it that thick mid-heavy tone, but not exactly single or PAF tone. This pickup suits me well in this guitar because I need it to be a sort of swiss army knife. Thus I used a 5-way superswitch to get some pretty diverse sounds out of it. It is paired with a Fralin Split Blade Blues Special in the neck, which balances nicely. Starting from the bridge position:

1. Bridge series humbucking - lots of gain, darker than a regular Tele
2. Bridge single, north (top) coil, not humbucking - great presence (stonger upper mids), but not as bright as a regular Tele
3. Bridge parallel humbucking - brighter and thinner than #2, more like a Strat bridge and middle, kinda "quacky"
4. Bridge (north) and neck, parallel humbucking - this has that "inbetween" sound, but with more mids--still, pretty good "quack"
5. Neck humbucking - sounds like a slightly hotter Tele neck pickup
NOTE: The tone control is only assigned to postitions 2 and 3.

I'm using 1, 2, and 5 mostly. I also tried a couple of other things:
- Bridge series, not humbucking is shown in the directions as "power boost" mode and it does sound about 2dB louder, but is also a little darker. With OD pedals, I didn't see a need for this.
- Bridge single, south (bottom) coil - I debated about leaving this, as it was a flatter, quieter single coil sound that I could imagine some uses for. However, it's not humbucking so I opted for the north + neck combination instead.

In the end, this is not a pickup you buy to get a classic Tele sound. To me, it's strength is flexibility. It is definitely a unique voice, and can operate in the range of Les Paul, Strat and Tele sounds pretty well. While I can and certainly will use this with my classic rock cover band, it is extremely useful with a contemporary country (can we just call it pop southern rock?) band that I am playing with more and more. In this instance, the darker bridge tone is great for slide playing.

 

[244300]

Obviously this conversation ended a few years ago, but I have just gotten a BG-1400 and really like it. Maybe one of the first things to say is that it would not fit in either of my Am Std type bridges (a Gotoh and a Babicz)--I had to grind the opening slightly with a Dremel. Depth-wise, there was no problem (the body is a Mex Tele).

As someone said above, in humbucker mode, it sounds very much like an overwound pickup. My guess is that to get a resistance of +28k, they had to use 43 or 44 gauge wire, which gives it that thick mid-heavy tone, but not exactly single or PAF tone. This pickup suits me well in this guitar because I need it to be a sort of swiss army knife. Thus I used a 5-way superswitch to get some pretty diverse sounds out of it. It is paired with a Fralin Split Blade Blues Special in the neck, which balances nicely. Starting from the bridge position:

1. Bridge series humbucking - lots of gain, darker than a regular Tele
2. Bridge single, north (top) coil, not humbucking - great presence (stonger upper mids), but not as bright as a regular Tele
3. Bridge parallel humbucking - brighter and thinner than #2, more like a Strat bridge and middle, kinda "quacky"
4. Bridge (north) and neck, parallel humbucking - this has that "inbetween" sound, but with more mids--still, pretty good "quack"
5. Neck humbucking - sounds like a slightly hotter Tele neck pickup
NOTE: The tone control is only assigned to postitions 2 and 3.

I'm using 1, 2, and 5 mostly. I also tried a couple of other things:
- Bridge series, not humbucking is shown in the directions as "power boost" mode and it does sound about 2dB louder, but is also a little darker. With OD pedals, I didn't see a need for this.
- Bridge single, south (bottom) coil - I debated about leaving this, as it was a flatter, quieter single coil sound that I could imagine some uses for. However, it's not humbucking so I opted for the north + neck combination instead.

In the end, this is not a pickup you buy to get a classic Tele sound. To me, it's strength is flexibility. It is definitely a unique voice, and can operate in the range of Les Paul, Strat and Tele sounds pretty well. While I can and certainly will use this with my classic rock cover band, it is extremely useful with a contemporary country (can we just call it pop southern rock?) band that I am playing with more and more. In this instance, the darker bridge tone is great for slide playing.

How’s that BG-1400 holding up for you?