I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

[Mr 9finger]

I've got this 2011 Gibson Goldtop 60's Tribute guitar. It plays great. Is really loud and vibrant unplugged. If you were to go buy acoustics and playability off the shelf, it's something you'd key in on right off the bat. It's lightweight, super resonant, and as soon as I plug it in to any amp I want to slam it on the concrete.

Now I don't consider myself to be a pickup master or anything like that, but I've been around here long enough to know what I'm doing and generally which way I need to go when I want a pickup swap. This one has got me baffled. I've tried the stock pickups. A set that Frank Falbo wound for me. The antiquity P90's and the Custom Hot P90's. Don't recall the model #'s off hand I know it was a 2 and a 3. I've tried new pots, both 250k, 500k, and mixed and matched 250/250 on the neck 500/500 on the bridge. I've tried all the usual cap mods etc...

I know it's not a P90 thing. In general, I think P90's are great. I just can not get this thing to my liking tonally. Everything I've tried has been pretty much the same w/ slightly different variations.

The bridge is super bright. Has almost no bass. All mids and treble. Not even remotely warm. Not ear piercing bright, but really unbalanced. The only things I've found I like is the not separation and the clarity.

The neck is the exact opposite. All bass and low mids. Everything on the unwound strings sounds slightly muffled and gets worse as you move up the neck. Very mushy and boomy w/ no articulation. What really gets me is no matter how much I lower the pickup/try different pots, whichever one I've put in there, it overpowers the bridge pickup by a great deal even though spec wise on the output is almost half that of the bridge. The only thing I dig about the neck spot is the warmth.

Currently I've got Franks P90 in the bridge. Which is a 13k A5 wind in the bridge and the Antiquity neck in the neck. I've gotten the best results to date from this pairing but it's still not what I want. I've used about all the production P90's Duncan makes. I'm lost.

Oh, and I'm not tearing my pickups apart for magnet swaps. If that's your advice, then save it for someone else please.


It's your typical LP as far as specs. Mahogany neck and body. Maple top and Rosewood board. 24 3/4" scale length etc. blah blah blah. It's extremely light for an LP at about 7 and half pounds according to my bathroom scale.


Give it your best shot.

[ErikH]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

This may sound odd to some, but try raising the action a little. A buddy of mine had a Trad Pro with similar symptoms with the humbuckers, though it still sounded great, was not at it's full potential. I took a look at it and gave it another setup. As soon as I got the action up a little so the strings could ring out more, it came alive. Also adjusted the pole pieces a bit to match the radius.

[Luke Duke]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

What, no triple A8 magnet swaps with an unoriented A5 booster magnet between the neck and body for the magnetic coup de grace?



Personally Brent I believe that P90s should always be 500ks. Something about 250k pots always seems to make them choked and muffled to me. My 64 330 has 500k pots and that has always been the bar for me. Have you considered trying a 1M for the neck?

That said, have you tried 50s wiring? Some guys swear by that. When I got my R8 it already had it so I never heard it before.

You said you've tried the cap stuff. What are you running now?

I know it will be time consuming but can you type out which pot/pup combos you've done? It will help me, but it might help shed some light on something for you too if it's all written out.

Luke

[darthphineas]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

Oh, and I'm not tearing my pickups apart for magnet swaps. If that's your advice, then save it for someone else please.

Post-of-the-day award.




Sent from my armored space station using Tapatalk on iPad

[Luke Duke]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

Post-of-the-day award.

You/Brent got my first EVER like for that.

[Mr 9finger]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

Honestly guys, I don't remember all of the crap I've tried in this guitar. I've probably spent more time w/ a soldering iron in it than any other guitar I've ever had. I know I've done the 50's mod. I've tried raising/lowering pickups, action, pole pieces, even tried hex poles at one point. Which did help w/ some clarity on the neck, but not enough.

Here's what I can remember.

500/500 on the bridge and neck
Tried some 1 meg pots on the neck trying to brighten it up.

Tried lowering the pot values on the bridge to warm it up some. At one time I had some 300k in there on both vol and tone.
I've tried the typical cap values, .022 and .047. As well as I think .015 and .033. Brands vary. Mostly orange drops and Mallory brand. I did try some of the RS guitarworks "made for guitar" caps at $15 a pop. I've tried the treble bleed mods.

All the pots I've used have been CTS and the Bournes that are built like CTS all audio taper. The only exception would be on the 1 Meg pots. They were CTS but I used a linear taper pot on the tone.

That's about as much as I can remember at the moment. I know I've thrown everything my bag of tricks has in it and I keep coming up empty handed. I really think this guitar is begging for a bucker in the bridge. I'd love to keep a P90 in the neck if I can even out the sound. I refuse to put Dimarzios in it and most of the other brands are so expensive that I might as well just call MJ and have her wind something specifically for this guitar.

[MetalManiac]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

Ive got that exact thing going on with a guitar I just wired up with a Norton in the bridge and a Duncan Distrotion in the neck. I'm using 500K pots, so i think it may be just the pickup, the Norton that has a thin sound compared to the DD. I'm nort sure if the Norton is supposed to sound thin like this. The DD ( Seymourizer ) sounds great in the neck and Ive lowrered it to get a better balance, but the middle position sounds so good,totally sings- I'm leaving it. So I think it may just be the pickup, might want to get something fatter in there.

[Masta' C]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

I hate to say this, but I would suggest you look at the DiMarzio offerings: CLICK HERE

Tone Zone P90 or Super Distortion P90 in the bridge

Virtual P90 or DiMarzio Soapbar in the neck

Personally, I've been curious about the Tone Zone P90/Virtual P90 combo, but I don't have any P90 guitars at the moment.

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

maybe this particular guitar doesn't take p90s well. It happend to my start with humbuckers, settled on a phat cat after trying many humbuckers.

you could go for something different and leave the p90s behind in this one?

TV Jones has some good p90 sized filtertrons. Mini humbuckers are also interchangeable with p90s. Also dimarzio has a range already mentioned although I haven't tried any. Many different pickup options worth trying.

[Mr 9finger]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

I appreciate the feedback guys, but I refuse to support that company as far as buying new pickups and some of the P90's they have are relatively rough to come by used.

I have no problem paying custom shop prices for MJ to do her thing. I just wanted to see if maybe anyone had any ideas I hadn't come up w/ yet. I've only had this happen with 1 other guitar in about 10 years. Some guitars just don't like to play along. They gotta have/be their own thing. I'm thinking that this might be the case w/ this one.

[Masta' C]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

These will help with your "used" vs. "new" dilemma:

Used S.D. P90 in Creme for cheap

Used DXL Plus Neck in Creme for cheap

Like New S.D. P90 in Black

Like New Virtual P90 in Black

If you're ok with black covers, the "like new" S.D. P90/Virtual P90 combo above would be a downright killer setup in your guitar! The Virtual P90 is the best bet for a boomy neck position (I can almost guarantee it would be the solution to your neck issues), followed by the DLX Plus neck model.

[SFW]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

This may sound silly, but have you tried raising the bridge pickup? Drop the pole screws as low as the will go and then raise the pickup until you get the loudness that you want.

On the neck, raise the pole screws until the heads are almost all the way out and then sink the pickup low in the cavity.

This is how I ended up balancing the volume between the pickups in my 60s Tribute LP.

[superpete]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

I had a similar issue with a gibson les paul jr. Really bright but with no punch or sustain. Swapped in a Lollar overwound p90 and the difference was like night and day. More power, but smoother sounding too. you've obviously done a lot more p90 swaps than i went through but if you're into venturing outside the sd world i was really happy with it. Also i've used a rio grande bluesbar that i liked a lot too.

[GilmourD]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

If you're going to get MJ to wind something for you I'd probably have her wind something on the hot end of vintage with A2 mags for the bridge and something UNDERWOUND for the neck with A5s.

[rumblebox]

Re: I'm probably going to have to call MJ on this, but I'll give you guys a shot.

I fought this exact issue with my 71 goldtop for almost 2 years.

I tried 3 different bridge pickups with every magnet combination i could think of. Then i switched the bridge to 250k pots with LONG A2 magnets and left the neck pickup with short A2 magnets and 500k pots on the neck. Doing 500k/500k bridge and 250k/250k neck would only intensify the problem.

I also lowered the neck pickup with the screws raised a LOT.

So now i have a 12.5k bridge P90, long A2 magnets, raised fairly close to the strings. The neck pickup is 7.5k, has 500k pots, short A2 magnets, screws way up, pickup lowered a little.

After a year of hating the guitar, it sounds excellent now, and was well worth the effort.

However, since you're opposed to mag swaps, do everything else i did.