...and you end up in that sonically delightful 'Twighlight Zone' that sits between a meaty type of Andy Summers Telecaster bridge pickup sound - and the classic P.A.F sound.
Wow. Did they pay you anything to write this, cause you sure know how to sell pickups... :)
Our of sheer optimism I went to the local guitar shop to try out some P90 models, to figure out whether I actually like playing on P90's. I tried a PRS SE soapbar model (couldn't find a semi-hollow with P90's). Of course it didn't tell me much because it was a solidbody, plus it was strung with very light strings, they felt like rubber strings. I have .011-.052 strings myself, I guess yours are thicker. It felt like someone had set precense at 13 or something (on a scale from 0-10), and yet there was no precense knob on the (Laney) amp. I felt like a boxer trying to pick flowers with the boxing gloves still on me, cause I barely touched the strings and the tones just jumped out at me. I wanted to improve my attack and that guitar sure had lots of it... :) (compared to what I'm used to)
Do you have to play very lightly on the strings with the MQ to... how shall I put it... control your attack, and keep some dynamic headroom?
:lol: No mate, not being paid, "I have no affilitaion " e.t.c. - but that ( to my ears ) - is what you get. No offence to the predominantly high gain players here, but when you have spent years playing with no distortion - and practice at low volumes, you tend to quickly hear the character of the 'raw' pickup sound / intrinsic character - before any further colouration is added.
I play gentle, mostly because I like to play as physically relaxed as possible, and have a very low action - more for dexterity and efficiency of motion . Also I chill out - 'feel' and put more emotion / flow into the piece better when picking softly and sweetly.
In addition to that ; even with flatwound Thomastik 'Jazz Swing ' 12 - 50s, ( a brand known for it's lower tension tapewound Jazz strings strings ) -
constant chord melody playing is initially quite hard on the fretting hand, as you are basically holding ( and moving quickly between ) full barre chords and letting the 'free' fingers play some of the adjoining melody notes. Yes, I know I
could used more diads , traids and 'slash' chords than I do, but I love to play Joe Pass style - and feel control over the whole width of the neck, then just pick the strings / notes within the harmony I want according to taste at the time. This way, If I ever need to accompany a singer, or Bass player - I don't have to completely re-learn / re- arrange each song, merely avoid the bass , middle or top strings a bit more than I do for any given 'standard' when played as a solo piece.
I must add of course, that I
do like to like play with picking dynamics a lot ( my plectrum and right hand
are my volume and tone controls ) - as I like to get an arrangement just as I want it with any interest added in changing tempo and attack - completely unplugged at first.
Then, when I add the little Jazz Amp ( in my case a Phil Jones Cub 100 ) it's just a bigger guitar, not a louder one. I even tried the old Joe pass trick of going via a basic powered D.I. box ( no speaker emulation or gain, just clean impedance matching and line strength boost ) into my small P.A. - and that sounded fine too. That is not to say that the Cub 100 doesn't sound better ; but rather to demonstrate, that for me 90% + of the arranging / playing / tone manipulation is done on the guitar.
This is mentioned / leads onto - why I found ( very late in life ) - the whole P90 experience fun. They were fat and smooth until I physically dug in at the bridge or bridge / Neck combination -
then they did that Larry Carlton type of thing, where suddenly they get sassy, glassy and 'bite back' . That is not dissing my Stormy Mondays or Mules, - as they remain totally valid, but for perhaps more of a 70's Rock / Rock Blues dynamic. For them a rare excursion into gain / overdrive / hot amp channel may be used ; but for my complete Blues / Jazz tonal range, the P90s seeming to morph between Telecaster and Les Paul pickups sounds is the 'Swiss army knife' I prefer.
The only caveat / warning I would give though, is that as both bridge and neck M.Qs
contrast each other rather than a stark 'black and white ' effect - ( I assume due to the relatively centralised polepieces beneath the length of the strings -
and that fat winding on both ) the only thing seperating the bridge and neck characters is perhaps the more focused magnet on the bridge - and of course, the strings always being somewhat 'twangier' and tighter near the bridge.
To be honest, a fellow forumite let me play some 'standard ' ( I.e. Plastic type ) B.K.P P90s and I was not blown away, but the M.Qs I really liked. I thought I remembered a mention that Tim wound M.Qs hotter, more P91 neck /P92 bridge - although I could have been mistaken.
The Manhattans if being compared to the M.Qs ( as Wez concured ) just optimise the subtleties of the basic guitar woods, hardware , picks used e.t.c. so much more than any other pickup. So for Jazz, or ballady ( almost acoustic sounding ) interludes in a Rock context, they add a dollop of warmth, clarity , 3 dimensional soundstaging that is obvioulsy going to appeal to a player who's pickups
ARE the only 'sound effect' added to the basic character of the guitar. O.K. - I sometimes 'do' a splash of acoustic reverb ( Fishman AFX ) - if the room sounds too flat, but rarely so.
In summary, if you want to get to know your guitar's
intrinsic tonal character better, try a lovely 'open' scatterwound B.K.P variant of the P90. A M.Q set for 'sweet to sassy ' or a Manhattan set for for 'sweet but revealingly honest. :)
