P90's - vintage or pig90 for Les Paul Jr.

[nkay]

I have a new Les Paul Junior Special w/ 2 P90's. The stock Gibson pickups are just "ok" to me, the bridge has some punch, but lacks the raunch I was really looking for. The neck is just bassy and muddy and pretty much unusable for me except for maybe some cleans. I believe these are Alinco V, about 7.9k I think.

I'm a little torn between going for a better vintage set, or go balls out with something like Pig90.
I like a lot of raunch and punch, which is why I got a P90 guitar in the first place.
I'm considering the BKP Nantucket (Alnico V, 7.9) as a vintage replacement. However it seems so close to the Gibson I'm worried there might be not much difference, although from BKP's I already have I know clarity is always a big improvement.

I was also considering Wolfetone P90's which are Alnico II, 9k in the bridge, which seems to be what I want in terms of having that midrange raunch and I've heard Alnico II is better for that.

BUT... the Pig90's seems so unique and cool monsters that I would love to try them out. My amps have a ton of gain ( I avoid overdrive pedals when I can), so that's not really an issue, but being able to handle gain is another thing, and vintage P90's will fall apart and squeal quickly.

I'm mostly playing hard rock with this guitar, so I'm concerned the Pig90 will be too over the top and more like a humbucker sound and I'll miss that more open P90 raunch. Plus I'm worried the neck will be bassy and unusable for me too. Thanks for any guidance.

[Andrew W]

I have a Hamer Special with A Nantucket in the bridge and a Bluenote in the neck which works really well for me. The Nantucket has a lot of raunch but also a lot of clarity, almost Tele like clarity, but takes overdrive really well. I suspect the Bluenote would be too restrained for what you want but there's plenty of fire in the Nantucket.

[Telerocker]

BKP's are really a step up on the toneladder. They're famous for clarity, dynamics and noteseparation.
I would suggest a calibrated Nantucket-set.

[Philly Q]

I have a Hamer Special with A Nantucket in the bridge and a Bluenote in the neck which works really well for me.

That's a combination which appeals to me a lot.  Do you find there's quite a big contrast in tones between the bridge and neck pickups?

[Andrew W]

I have a Hamer Special with A Nantucket in the bridge and a Bluenote in the neck which works really well for me.

That's a combination which appeals to me a lot.  Do you find there's quite a big contrast in tones between the bridge and neck pickups?

There is but they do go together really well (I think). I've never been a fan of very muddy neck pick up sounds and the Bluenote still has plenty of clarity but without the punch-you-in-the-face edge of the Nantucket. The Nantucket bridge has more power and raunch than a good Tele bridge pickup but it certainly has the bite of one.

I keep meaning to record something with them and when I do I'll post it up. The Hamer also has a volume control per pickup which means you can really dial in some interesting tones in the in-between position. I'm super happy with the pairing.

[Philly Q]

Sounds great, thanks for the info!  :D

I do like muddy neck pickup sounds, but I'm sure with the AII magnets and the tone control rolled down I could get tones I'd like from the Blue Note - and even I don't want mud all the time!  :lol:   In any case, it must be somewhat softer/warmer sounding than the Nantucket neck model would be.


(Sorry for the thread hijack, nkay, but Andrew's comments really caught my attention!  :oops: )

[nkay]

That's ok! The reason I'm posting because I want more descriptions of how the Nantucket and Pig90 sound, there's not a lot of sound clips out there other than the official ones.

I'm curious as to the sonic difference between Nantucket and say a modern Gibson P90 in terms of punch, raunch, clarity etc... I'm also interested in the Pig90, but I think maybe it will sound too close to a humbucker, but I haven't heard any samples of it that are mid-gain.

[Philly Q]

Yes, more info on Bare Knuckle P-90s in general would be good.

I have lots of P-90 guitars but, apart from one BKP-91, they all have the stock Gibson pickups (or, in the Japanese guitars, whatever the hell pickups they use in them!)  The Gibson pickups don't sound perfect, but I haven't felt a strong urge to replace them so I don't know much about alternatives. 

I would say that I like the Gibsons better than Seymour Duncan P-90s I've had in a couple of other guitars - the Duncans (don't know which specific models they were) seemed quite harsh.

[Andrew W]

I would say that I like the Gibsons better than Seymour Duncan P-90s I've had in a couple of other guitars - the Duncans (don't know which specific models they were) seemed quite harsh.

It was Duncans that got replaced in my Hamer: didn't like them much. they sounded OK when fully overdriven but clean they were very spiky and harsh. I had a Gibson Les Paul Special in the '90s that had P100s and they were/are legendarily awful (and isn't a single coil anyway). I've never actually played a Gibson P90 it turns out.  :?

[Philly Q]

^
It was a Hamer Special with Duncans for me too.  I think the PRS Starla X also came with Duncans.

I also had a '90s LP Special (singlecut) with P-100s, they sounded horrible, especially clean - with distortion they were more humbuckerish, which was OK.  They weren't even very good at cancelling hum!  The guitar was rubbish, too.... my Japanese Epiphone version of the same guitar is loads better.

We seem to have owned a lot of the same guitars!  :lol:

[Telerocker]

I had a Gibson Blueshawk and the P90's in that one were ok. Two Yamaha's with P90's: SA502 and Troy van Leeuwen-signature. The latter one had really nice pickups (all three of them).