Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: carlaz on November 07, 2025, 12:14:31 AM

Title: P90s for a Yamaha Revstar? (MQ? Nantucket?)
Post by: carlaz on November 07, 2025, 12:14:31 AM
I last bought a set of Bare Knuckle pickups almost 20 years ago  :shocked: as a set of Crawler humbuckers for my Les Paul -- which I still love.  :grin:

I recently picked up a slightly used Yamaha Revstar with its stock P90s, since I'd never had a guitar with P90s and wanted to try one out. (I thought about getting something LP-ish with P90s, but I figured I already had an LP, so the Revstar would be interesting and different without necessarily being too different.) I like the guitar and, to be honest, the pickups seem decent enough, though I can't help thinking that BKPs would be better.  :cool:

I'm looking for a relatively classic "'70s-ish" vibe, I think. I like the P90s particularly for how they work in a relatively bright edge-of-break-up/crunch tone that can clean up well but also be smashed with fuzz or Muff. Of course, it's also fun to whack them through a treble booster into a cranked amp and play Sabbath riffs, too.  :cool:

The stock Revstar P90s (the specs of which I'm not sure of) don't seem overly hot or bright to me -- they might even be a little more bassy than "classic-type" P90s? Still, my gut feeling is that I could probably not go wrong with a Mississippi Queen set, which might (?) have similar output and would perhaps (?) be a touch brighter, which would probably be OK for me. But perhaps I should also consider a similar but perhaps very slightly more raucous (?) Nantucket set? The Revstar as stock seems relatively smooth, so perhaps the Nantuckets would add some snarl and grit for a more "classic" P90 vibe, in this guitar, at least? Since I've not heard the guitar with other pickups, nor played P90s in another guitar before, it's difficult for me to judge!

But perhaps some here have experience with Revstars and suggestions regarding the BKP P90s? Interested to hear any experiences and ideas.  :smiley: