Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Vinfil2003 on November 08, 2006, 09:47:30 AM
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Hi there,
I own a solid mahogany guitar (mahogany neck) with 2 P-90s. My guitar is very close to a Les Paul Special DC.
I'm considering changing the puckups to BKP, but I stil have some questions about that. I'd really appreciate any input from you pickup gurus !
So, there I go :
- I play 2 types of music with this guitar : blues-rock on one side, and jazz on another... So I'd like my neck pickup to be able to obtain smooth clean tones. Should I consider Alnico 2 magnets ? I read that Alnico 2 tends to mush the sound on a solid mahogany axe, so I'm wondering... And I want to retain some of the neck pickup quality for overdriven sounds... Or do you think Alnico 5 would be fine for jazz ?
- I thought RWRP would be a good option, but I heard that it may affect the tone... What's your opinion about that ?
Tnahks to all for your help !
Vega
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I think an AIV neck and AV bridge combo will work well.
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i have an P90 SG with a RWRP neck.
of course if you play the bridge and neck pickups seperately they sound just as normal.
playing neck and bridge together you do get a different tone becase of the RWRP neck - its noise cancelling obviously.
i'd personally consider this a benefit, particularly for jazz. the mixed position still sounds great, and because its noise cancelling it might get you out of some tricky situations live.
ok, maybe the mixed tone is then not an exact noiseless copy of what a normal neck pickup p90 guitar would have... but as long as it sounds good, does that really matter? in anycase i never A-Bed those two combinations.
when i play jazz, i personally prefer the sound of a mixed neck/bridge combination anyway.
if your playing with a overdriven amp, and you switch to the mixed position, and suddenly the hum is cut out, well maybe that would be off-putting to some listeners. but would you use the inbetween position with a dirty amp anyway?
finally just to say: i really prefer p90s with a RWRP neck, and when i have to use a P90 guitar without one, i do miss it.
i suppose some people might think differently about that ;)
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Wow ! Thank you for the quick and accurate answers !
Concerning the Alnico grade, I heard some of them are not compatible, are Alnico 4 (neck) et 5 (bridge) compatible ? I also heard some Alnico grades tend to demagnetize fairly rapidly, is that the case with Alnico 4 ?
About the RWRP, I have to agree on the obvious advantage of having a hum cancelling position on my guitar... I anyone finds that the loss in tone quality overpowers the advantage, let me know !
Thanks again, and any other advice is still welcome !
8)
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loss in tone quality
these aren't SDs, there is no such thing as loss of tone quality here :twisted:
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A4 neck and A5 bridge go well together and they have enough to overcome the effect of mahogany.
I don't think Alnico pickups demagnitize quickly at all - 50s pickups were A2 or A3 as a rule and they are still going in old guitars.
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Ok, so my projects are getting clearer. Here's what I'd like to do :
-> Neck : overwound P-90 w/ alnico 4 magnet and coil tap, RWRP
-> Bridge : overwound P-90 w/ alnico 5 magnet and coil tap
The idea would be this one :
-> With neck or both PU coil tapped, jazzy clean sounds to bluesy light crunh
-> With each position without coil tap, bluesy to rocky distorted tones...
-> Option : installation of a 3rd push-pull knob for swithcing the middle position from series to parrallel wiring
Is it worth overwounding a PU w/ Alnico 4 magnet or do they only sound good with standard wintage winding ?
And what do you think about my plans ?
Thnaks again to all of you for your precious help !
Vega
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im sure they would probably sound good overwound... but i dont think youd really NEED them overwound if you see what im saying...
a bkp-90 would have more than enough output for jazz and blues...
unless you specifically want them overwound for a particular reason, in which case go for it!
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Alnico IV and V sit really well together, the in between tone is excellent.They certainly won't demagnetise!
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:P
Good news !
So, Tim, would you provide such a set of pickups (calibrated) :
- 1 bridge A5 P-90 w/ coil tap (BKP-91)
- 1 neck RWRP A4 P-90 w/ coil tap ("special" BKP-91)
What I'd like the coil tap to do is, when engaged, to convert the PUs from a BKP-91 wound to a BKP-90 wound...
As far as finish is concerned, I'll take them with chrome covers (neat !) !
Thanks again to everybody for the advice !
8)