Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

[Blille]

I don’t have a lot of guitars but 3 of them have P90s in the neck. I know the stereotypical gnarly P90 sound is attained by getting the pickup closer to the strings. And it’s great. But I just love how it sounds lowered in the neck position. It’s sweet, articulate and dynamic, not thin at all. I have it currently flush with the pickguard on my Tele with the poles raised a bit. In the bridge I just can’t stand how thin it sounds low. I use a shim in my ES-330.

By the way, the Antiquity sounds outstanding in both setups.

Anybody else does this? I play through a Princeton and 5e3.

[Aceman]

Re: Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

I put it where I think it sounds good. I rarely put any pup as close as possible. It's a tone suck/sustain killer....

[AlexR]

Re: Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

+1

I would never ever consider adjusting pickups based on some misplaced ideal of distance. Not only are guitars individual, but people rarely have exactly the same pickup in every guitar.

Once I have owned a guitar for a while, then I know how I want to use it. Some do better for heavy, some better for rock or blues. This all depends on how the guitar and pickups react.

[GuitarStv]

Re: Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

I've noticed that personal preference seems to guide me towards a lower neck pickup most of the time - regardless of pickup type. Anything you lose in volume you gain in clarity and dynamic range. Bridge pickups always have less distance to the strings.

[67Mopar]

Re: Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

I run my neck P90 low as well. Same goes with my CS Pearly Gates neck pickup. Not that I want to... it's a balancing act.

[Blille]

Re: Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

Thanks all. Good to hear I’m not crazy.

[Condemned soul]

Re: Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

"I don’t have a lot of guitars but 3 of them have P90s in the neck.''

This would make a should be the opening line of a short story.

[AlexR]

Re: Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

Thanks all. Good to hear I’m not crazy.

Well, just because you do the same thing as a lot of others doesn't rule that out;-)
But everybody is different.....merely feeling good because you do something everyone else does should be no comfort if it's not something you want to do according to your likes. I always thought that is something people grew out of once they got beyond being a teenager.

Interestingly, in every extensive survey done of people's attributes or likes where an average is reached at the end, there is not 1 single person who conforms to this average.
Conclusion.......there is no normal. Do what you want, comforted by the fact that if it's right for you, it's utterly irrelevant how many others do the same.

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

I love P90 neck tone; have a bunch of 'em, plus one LP with the staple neck pickup and a Hagstrom with noiseless stack P90s.
Most are set pretty low but it varies from one guitar to another.

[Blille]

Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

Well, just because you do the same thing as a lot of others doesn't rule that out;-)
But everybody is different.....merely feeling good because you do something everyone else does should be no comfort if it's not something you want to do according to your likes. I always thought that is something people grew out of once they got beyond being a teenager.

Interestingly, in every extensive survey done of people's attributes or likes where an average is reached at the end, there is not 1 single person who conforms to this average.
Conclusion.......there is no normal. Do what you want, comforted by the fact that if it's right for you, it's utterly irrelevant how many others do the same.

Lol Oh yes, I don’t care about conformity, it’s more about using the wrong tool for the job, as in I have a P90 set so low that maybe I should buy a different kind of pickup.

The way it went is that I set up the guitar a given way (not caring about the “norm”) and I really like it. Then of course months later I stumble online upon P90 threads (on TDPRI) and read that EVERYBODY suggests the opposite. Then I wonder if maybe what I like is lower output P90s. Or maybe not even P90s altogether. Or maybe if I buy every single kind of pickup and try it I will find the key to true happiness !!! You know? The usual. At least I don’t do it with kinds of fretboards.

What you mention about the average is interesting. It depends on the distribution of what is being measured, if the distribution is normal then the average means something but in many situations (eg bimodal or skewed) it’s irrelevant. With many human behaviors I can see how normal is not meaningful.

[Blille]

Re: Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

I love P90 neck tone; have a bunch of 'em, plus one LP with the staple neck pickup and a Hagstrom with noiseless stack P90s.
Most are set pretty low but it varies from one guitar to another.

Is your Hagstrom vintage or recent? I’m considering a semi.


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[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Anybody else lowers P90s in the neck?

Is your Hagstrom vintage or recent? I’m considering a semi.


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Recent, Chinese-made. It's an '014 F-220P. Kind of an oddball, almost like the offspring of an SG with a Strat. Very thin fast neck with resin fretboard. Not an expensive model but the build quality is quite decent. The noiseless P90s were added by the previous owner, they're from Kent Armstrong. Slightly more polite than a real P90 but their noise rejection is excellent.

I'd love to score an older Viking, maybe one from the 70s.