Author Topic: P-90 pickups (Read 2428 times)

everton_fc · « **on:** February 02, 2008, 11:54:22 AM »

Hi - what are peoples opinions on P-90 pickups. Are they generally brighter than normal single coils? Or darker?

Just curious to know of peoples experiences of them in both neck and bridge positions, likes, dislikes.

Am currently loving "Live at Leeds" and I think Townsends SG is loaded with P-90's on that album but cant be 100% sure.

Anyway, thoughts appriciated,

Cheers

Machek · « **Reply #1 on:** February 02, 2008, 12:03:58 PM »

I've seen 'live at leeds' videos, and townshend is indeed playing his P90 loaded SG..... just to confirm

Twinfan · « **Reply #2 on:** February 02, 2008, 12:05:16 PM »

They're inbetween a humbucker and a single coil. The width and power of humbucker, but with more sparkle like a single coil.

Philly Q · « **Reply #3 on:** February 02, 2008, 12:06:14 PM »

They're a bit darker, and most definitely fatter, than regular Strat/Tele single-coils. As Twinfan says, sort of halfway to humbucker land.

I think they sound absolutely fantastic for distorted lead guitar, but I don't think they're as good as humbuckers for crunch rhythm, they get a bit "blurry" sounding.

everton_fc · « **Reply #4 on:** February 02, 2008, 12:07:54 PM »

The Power of a humbucker? So a P90 in the bridge or neck will drive a tube amp as well as say a standard Humbucker?

Also, can you put a P-90 in a Strat?

Ted · « **Reply #5 on:** February 02, 2008, 12:35:38 PM »

To me P-90 is raw, vintage, all round classic rock n roll tone.

One my fave pickups.

There was an AMAZING set of clips a guy posted with some BKP's in a custom guitar. I wet my pants listening to those. So damn good. I cannot find them now.... :x

Ted · « **Reply #6 on:** February 02, 2008, 12:37:31 PM »

Quote from: everton_fc

The Power of a humbucker? So a P90 in the bridge or neck will drive a tube amp as well as say a standard Humbucker?

Also, can you put a P-90 in a Strat?

Not quite.

HB's will drive it more, but P-90's will drive it in your townshend type of way. You can get hot p-90's that drive the amp more, say 8.5k DC.

You can put it in a strat but you need to have a pickguard and a body routed to accept the p-90 shape.

Philly Q · « **Reply #7 on:** February 02, 2008, 12:39:56 PM »

Quote from: everton_fc

Also, can you put a P-90 in a Strat?

You can, but you'd need to rout the body a little and get a modified scratchplate (edit: as Ted has just said! :oops: )

Vintage make a Strat-style guitar with three stacked P-90s and a very clever wiring system:

http://www.jhs.co.uk/vintageadvance.html

PhilKing · « **Reply #8 on:** February 02, 2008, 02:28:47 PM »

I am a big P-90 fan, I have a lot of guitars with them. Toni Iommi was using them on the original Black Sabbath stuff, so listen to that for an idea of the driven sound. For an idea of their range listen to Mountain, Leslie West would only use P-90's!

They are fatter than a Strat but still clear, and they keep the clarity eeven when you drive them. I have a PRS EG4 which has a HSS set with a Crawler bridge and 2 BKP-91's, and it has an awsome sound.

Jazz Rock · « **Reply #9 on:** February 02, 2008, 03:10:54 PM »

I have a limited experience so far - only been 2 weeks since I installed the MQn in my LP - but to me it seems like the P-90 behaves more like a SC in clean tone and get fatter and fatter like an HB when you crank the gain / volume, while still staying a peculiar beast no matter what. Definitely a brilliant pup for classic rock.