Bludave
New member
About a month ago I bought a Schecter Tempest. It is a Gold top type of design and was routed for P90 sized pickups. I bought this guitar primarily to use it to play slide seeing that it was pretty reasonable because it had no pickups. A good friend loaned me a set of 1952 P90s for it to give it a test run and boy did those pickups sound awesome. Unfortunately they were a tad microphonic and I had some difficulties using them with any real volume and gain. I was also a little uncomfortable having $2500 pickups in a $200 guitar. During the test run I ordered a set of Antiquity P90's for it and installed them today. I had some difficulty getting them in as one was out of phase with the other. That aside once I got them in and plugged it in it was Pretty intense.
I played first thru a 1968 SF Super Reverb. These PUPS in a clean setting would rival just about any HB I have used. The Neck PUP was very warm yet had extreme note definition. Very balanced and really sweet sounding. The middle position gave a brighter tone yet is was not unpleasant in any way. It reminded me a little of Richard Betts clean sound. Very Articulate and it cut real well. The bridge position gave me some considerable increase in volume. I adjusted the PUP height and poll pieces to give it a little more balance, but everything I was after is right there. After playing like this for about 15 minutes I kicked in a Tubescreamer and all I can say is WOW!!. All positions took on a whole new character. Very much Rock and Roll in your face. If I backed off on the volume a little it cleaned up really nicely yet maintained all the detail and Harmonics one would normally want. Very exciting:fingersx:
Next I plugged into a Marshall 900 50W 2 12" combo. Using the drive channel only (which is how I use this amp). The Neck postion was real Creamy in tone. Rolling the tone back in the neck position was very similar to Claptons Woman tone. Just beautiful details in harmonics as well as tone. With all the guitars volume and tone dimed it was amazingly smooth yet it responded to my attack instantly. Soft playing warmed it up hard playing it was ready to chew your head off. The Bridge PUP was screaming to play hard and loud! So I gave it what it wanted and it responded like a Humbucker. Plenty of growl here and yet it was not harsh in any way. This was all without the slide tuned to normal tuning. I will probably not put a slide on this for a while. It sounds so damed good the way I played it tonight I may have to rethink my choice of a slide guitar.
Bottom line if you are looking at some great and I mean great P90's This are the ones. This Tempest will eat most others now! :smokin: :smokin:
I played first thru a 1968 SF Super Reverb. These PUPS in a clean setting would rival just about any HB I have used. The Neck PUP was very warm yet had extreme note definition. Very balanced and really sweet sounding. The middle position gave a brighter tone yet is was not unpleasant in any way. It reminded me a little of Richard Betts clean sound. Very Articulate and it cut real well. The bridge position gave me some considerable increase in volume. I adjusted the PUP height and poll pieces to give it a little more balance, but everything I was after is right there. After playing like this for about 15 minutes I kicked in a Tubescreamer and all I can say is WOW!!. All positions took on a whole new character. Very much Rock and Roll in your face. If I backed off on the volume a little it cleaned up really nicely yet maintained all the detail and Harmonics one would normally want. Very exciting:fingersx:
Next I plugged into a Marshall 900 50W 2 12" combo. Using the drive channel only (which is how I use this amp). The Neck postion was real Creamy in tone. Rolling the tone back in the neck position was very similar to Claptons Woman tone. Just beautiful details in harmonics as well as tone. With all the guitars volume and tone dimed it was amazingly smooth yet it responded to my attack instantly. Soft playing warmed it up hard playing it was ready to chew your head off. The Bridge PUP was screaming to play hard and loud! So I gave it what it wanted and it responded like a Humbucker. Plenty of growl here and yet it was not harsh in any way. This was all without the slide tuned to normal tuning. I will probably not put a slide on this for a while. It sounds so damed good the way I played it tonight I may have to rethink my choice of a slide guitar.
Bottom line if you are looking at some great and I mean great P90's This are the ones. This Tempest will eat most others now! :smokin: :smokin:
