Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

[St_Genesius]

I've been thinking and I can't for the life of me recall ever seeing P90s in a strat. I mean, Fender puts out half a dozen new oddball strats each year and the Strat has got to be the most often modded instrument on the planet and yet...other than a vague recollection of a G&L model (and even then, I'm not sure that I'm not remembering one of their Teles and just changing the shape a bit) I can't recall ever seeign anyone put P90s in a Strat.

You know...I've been looking for a project...and nothing's easier to find than a cheap Strat copy...

 

[dd12939]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0114700738

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

I did think of that one, but discounted it since the chambered honduran mahogany body seems to put it in a different class entirely. But since Strats have been made of so many woods and with so many manufacturing techniques over the years, I suppose perhaps ONLY the body shape should count in determining what is and is not a Strat...

But that's netiehr here nor there.

My question, if it wasn't clear, is this: Is there any particular reason that P90s are, at the very least, UNCOMMON in Strat-style instruments? Is there something that *they* know that I can't think of? I mean, if you were to build a Strat and Tele out of the same tree and give them both hard tails, they really aren't all that different...why do we see P90s in Teles (both production and project) all the time but not in Strats?

 

[big_black]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

I've head of it being done, but I think it comes down to the fact that P-90s are so difficult to mount in a guitar like that. The P-90s in my SG Classic are acually a combination of dogear and regular direct mount P90s.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

Ah, it's a moutning problem? I can't say I entirely understand, but at least that's a plausible reason.

 

[big_black]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

I'm not saying it's a "problem", just more of a pain in the a$$. It's one reason that would keep me fron doing it (but I'm lazy). If you are going to direct-mount that means drilling and adding inserts. If you want them to hang you have to find a set of baseplates like in the SG Classic. I haven't really seen them around...but I haven't really looked either.

 

[big_black]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

You may also need to route the cavity deeper as well as wider (for sure). I saw a tutorial site on how to turn an SG Faded into a Classic. In that case you need to route deeper. I don't know how deep a Strat cavity is. Just a thought.

 

[FireBros.]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

It is a pain. I had an Ibanez Talman that came stock with Kent Armstrong P90's mounted in the pickguard. When I went to upgrade one of the pickups, I had to fabricate a mounting plate from sheetmetal stock.

 

[big_black]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

It is a pain. I had an Ibanez Talman that came stock with Kent Armstrong P90's mounted in the pickguard. When I went to upgrade one of the pickups, I had to fabricate a mounting plate from sheetmetal stock.

How are the Kent Armstrong P-90s? I've got a "hot" P-90 I bought a while ago but have not used yet.

 

[TattooedCarrot]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

These look to get along great to me :bigthumb:

 

[hellrider77]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

These look to get along great to me :bigthumb:

nice

 

[FireBros.]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

How are the Kent Armstrong P-90s? I've got a "hot" P-90 I bought a while ago but have not used yet.

I liked them a lot, they were what turned me on to P90's. I used the stock ones in that Talman for many years. They were the imported Sky brand of Kent Armstrongs. I eventually put a real K.A. P90 stack in the bridge, but by that time I had my LP Special, and didn't play the Talman much. I'm sure a lot of it is the mahogany, and scale length of the Gibson, but the stock Gibson P90's seem to have a lot more low mids, which is a good thing to my ears.

 

[OvationSensation]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

i have an old SX strat that i just dremeled a hole in a pickguard and slapped a duncan custom soapbar in, its bi*chin

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

One of the best live guitar sounds I ever heard was from the guitarist for the Waitresses back in the mid-80s'. He had normal Fender Strat with three Firebird-style mini-humbuckers in it. He played it though a large rack-mount Roland Dimension D chorus and a silverface Twin. His clean, funky rhythm sound was simply fantastic. When he wanted dirt, he stepped on a pedal.

Cool guitar, never seen another like it.

 

[Guest]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

Can a P90 (made by Gibson, SD, whatever) actually "fit" under the strings of a Strat of Tele?
I mean don't they have different f-spaces? Wouldn't the P90 poles be a bit off from the strings?
I always wanted a tele with a p90 in the neck but I was never sure it would fit.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

I've seen and played plenty of Teles with P90s. No problems.

Oh...weird...I just noticed that I seem to have lost 100 or so posts in my post count. Wonder what's up with that.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

It is a big pain in the ass to put a P-90 in a Strat unless the body was made from the ground up to have p-90's in it...Steve Albini used to play a Strat with a P-90 in the bridge (Big Black knows what Im talking about!)

And as to the other question about spacing...no P-90's are not trem spaced but it still works good enough!

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

I've seen Tele's with P90's, but never a Strat. I think the PITA factor is the main reason, as others have mentioned.

I think it would be cool to have a rear-routed Strat with three P90's, kind of like the one pictured in Carrot's post.

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: Do P90s and Strats just not get along?

I've seen and played plenty of Teles with P90s. No problems.

Oh...weird...I just noticed that I seem to have lost 100 or so posts in my post count. Wonder what's up with that.

The Admins killed the post count in the off topic room.