I have a problem with building guitars.
That image you see in front of you is the now infamous (among those that know me) is the Princesscaster Peach, or Peachcaster for short. She's... rather unusual a concept. A Thinline body but with a regular Telecaster pickguard, a legit 50s Nocaster neck, golden hardware, and for good measure it's painted coral pink.
The pickup configuration is rather unusual, too. One Vintage Tele Stack for the bridge (a noiseless replica of the original 1950 Telecaster pickup) and… a Pearly Gates full sized humbucker on the neck.
It’s a staggeringly odd construct, but it’s one that came to be for several reasons.
First, I love Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead to an unhealthy extent. That’s why I built a Telecaster in the first place! Jonny Greenwood’s beatup Tele is about as iconic as any of the time he has shred on it like a man possessed by the spirit of Terpsichore herself, if Terpsichore were having an epileptic seizure.
Second, The Peachcaster's origins are just as weird. A bottom of the barrel Tele clone with a full size humbucker neck pickup and a single coil bridge pickup. I picked this up solely because Jonny Greenwood uses a Fender Starcaster whenever he has to use a neck pickup, and I figured I’m not getting a third electric guitar.
Third, the Pearly Gates pickup is a really weird oddity. A replica of the 1959 Gibson Les Paul P.A.F. humbucker pickup, best known for being used by ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons. It was that or a JB pickup, and given the Peachcaster’s vintage sensibilities, I wasn’t going to put the more modern JB pickup on her. So, the Pearly Gates it is. Still, putting that on a fucking Telecaster? Madness.
I’ve never understood the Telecaster neck pickup. Even people who love the Tele never use it. It’s just so different than the bridge pickup. It’s weird and dark and really, really incomprehensible overall, a far cry of the singing twang of the bridge pickup.
In the four months since I built her, I too never understood the Pearly Gates on the Peachcaster’s neck. The bridge pickup can pick up fuzz and scream, but the neck never sounded right with whatever distortion I added. Maybe I screwed up? Maybe I should replace it for something else?
It was until last week, when in my impaired state I decided face the Peachcaster, make her sing with her neck pickup and just figure it out. Neither of us was leaving that chair until I figured out what made the Pearly Gates tick.
I eventually did figure it out.
My mistake was treating the Pearly Gates like a modern humbucker, akin to Oreo’s triple humbucker set. The Pearly Gates is a P.A.F. humbucker, and it needs a little special loving to make it sing.
So, I figured it out. Little to not fuzz. A bit of overdrive, you can slather it on. Unlike modern humbuckers, boost the mids, really boost the treble, and have just enough bass to round it out.
And then I got a Tube Screamer, and then I really fully understood what the Pearly Gates is about.
It was then that I spent hours playing the blues, finally having understood a fundamental truth about the universe. That just because something needs a bit of lovin’ a different way doesn’t mean you can make it work. With patience, you too can rock a 90s alt rock tune and then a 60s blues tune right after using the same guitar.