Sounds great, nice review! I'm about 90% decided on an MQ neck pickup for one of my Tokai SGs now.
How do they compare in terms of (perceived) output with the Riff Raffs, Andy? I know that may be difficult to answer. I'm wondering if I can get away with a low(ish) output bridge humbucker with the MQ neck.
You're dead right on the "difficult to answer"! I'm new to P90s (and obviously loving them!), but I had been assuming that the Riff Raffs were higher output - right up until reading this and then going and comparing the SG and the Explorer.
My "perception" now, for what it is, is that the Riff Raffs and MQs are comparable, with the MQs possibly slighlty more powerful.
I have a "no amp" "Guitar Test" patch on my POD XT that I use for setting up pickup heights etc. I tried this out, and the MQ'd SG registers slightly higher on my mixing desk through the patch than the Riff Raff'd Explorer does. But the MQ's definitely have a "fatter" sound, so that might be what I'm seeing on the light meters...
Both guitars seem to push my current favourite patch roughly the same amount. They perform roughly the same sort of job through the same amp setttings, but with a different kind of "soul" - if that makes sense...
Distance from the strings is roughly the same, and both guitars are mahogany body/neck with rosewood boards, but the Explorer is a lot "darker" sounding accoustically.
Trying to reach a conclusion of some sort(!), I played (through my fav amp patch) first the Explorer bridge (full vol/tone on the guitar) and then "switched pickup" to neck on the SG (again full vol/tone) - and if someone offered me a guitar with those two sounds, I wouldn't be complaining that they were unbalanced. Remember these two guitars sound a lot different though (I much prefer the Riff Raffs in their new home - they seem more rounded in the Explorer), and I do supect that the Riff Raff bridge might sound a bit thin against an MQ neck in the same guitar...
What about an MQ Bridge as well? When I was waiting for them to arrive, I was a little worried about the bridge, because everyone was talking about getting a neck MQ, but no-one mentions a bridge MQ... Well, the neck is everything folks have said, and for me, the MQ bridge is it's perfect mate... (I have no idea whether Tony Iommi had switched to humbuckers by the time he recorded Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, but the MQ bridge pickup in my SG does it like no guitar I've owned - and many a Slade classic has been heard here in Tooting as well today!)
Hope that helps!