P90 questions: Epi vs Gibson, soap bar vs dog ear?

[GuitarDoc]

Re: P90 questions: Epi vs Gibson, soap bar vs dog ear?

https://youtu.be/9TBGRpOQQDw

The new Epiphone guitars look awesome. Here's an Anderton's comparison video between Epi's LP Junior and Special and the Gibson equivalent.

Oh man! I love that P-90 sound. Makes a humbucker sound like a muffled wet blanket by comparison. And makes A Strat single sound like a little wimp. Only thing that comes close is a good mini.

[ErikH]

Re: P90 questions: Epi vs Gibson, soap bar vs dog ear?

The SG Classic P-90's are dogears under the soap covers but the differences seem so small I can't believe the footprint would have a big impact on the overall sound

I remember their mounting plate being a dogear mounted on the full face pickguard but looked at them more as soapbars. Probably because at a glance they look that way. Always thought it was interesting how they got that to work since typical P-90 dogear plates don't have the screw threads. And I agree with the difference between the two mounting formats being minimal at best.

[ItsaBass]

Re: P90 questions: Epi vs Gibson, soap bar vs dog ear?

IMO:

Gibson P90s sound perfect, and always have. Epi ones are just OK.

All things equal, soap bar and dogear variants sound the same. But all things aren’t ever equal, because soap bars lend themselves to pickup height adjustments, which can idealize their tone to your tastes. Dogears don’t often get finely adjusted for pickup height, because it requires cutting custom shims.

That said, none of my dogear P90 equipped guitars (two LP Juniors and a 330) need pickup height adjustments. They sound absolutely fantastic.