Dual A8's in SP90-2 Hot P90

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Shooweri

New member
I ordered a set of SP90-2's for my Tokai Les Paul Special copy. With this guitar I'm playing mostly hair metal and use it in studio for leads/solos. I tend not to like the sound of ceramic magnets and will most likely replace stock ones with Alnicos. Have anyone tried dual A8's for the Hot P90 bridge? If you've, do dual A8's make it sound too thin? I really like A8 mags in bridge position since it makes pretty much any pickup full on midrange monster.

For the neck I'll try two RCA5's first, since I like warm neck tones. RCA5/RCA4 might be fun to try as well.

Thanks for the help as always!
 
Re: Dual A8's in SP90-2 Hot P90

Two A8s will NOT make it sound thin. Quite the contrary. It will give it lots of body.

If you like warm neck tones, why would you consider A4? Two UOA5 would be a step in the right direction, but I would probably start with one UOA5 and one A2, or just two A2s. Very warm, soft highs, lower output.
 
Re: Dual A8's in SP90-2 Hot P90

GuitarDoc said:
Two A8s will NOT make it sound thin. Quite the contrary. It will give it lots of body.

If you like warm neck tones, why would you consider A4? Two UOA5 would be a step in the right direction, but I would probably start with one UOA5 and one A2, or just two A2s. Very warm, soft highs, lower output.
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Thank you for the response! I will try dual A8's first. With some humbuckers I've tried (especially my Pegasus 7) A8 has less low end and low mids than A5 magnets.

UOA5 in the neck might work very well. I like complex midrange harmonics it gives. I'll get the pickups tomorrow and start experimenting. I'll post my findings shortly.
 
Re: Dual A8's in SP90-2 Hot P90

Got the pickups monday and have played two rehearsals and experimenting with different magnets. These pickups sound simply amazing! They are hot but not over the top and have some vintage like tonal qualities. With original magnets the bridge is real flamethrower, being hotter than my A8 Perpetual Burn and A8 Pegasus. Dual A8's (or other two same magnets) didn't give pickups the tonal depth I was going for so I've went through many different magnet combinations. I've settled with A8/A4 in bridge and RCA5/RCUOA5 neck. This combination have tamed the output a bit and filled the midrange, giving these full and warm hard rock tone. I'm overall very pleased and cannot wait to gig with them!
 
Re: Dual A8's in SP90-2 Hot P90

Did you mix ceramic and alnico? What was the outcome?
I am not inexperienced in swapping mag, but i started only recently to get some ceramic pickups like a Distortion and a Custom in shorter scale Gibson guitars.
Since two of my Les Paul have P90 i am curious. Already tried an A5/A8 and an A5/A4 P90, but never ceramic combos.
 
Re: Dual A8's in SP90-2 Hot P90

No, he's got all alnico mags in them. A8/A4 in bridge and RCA5/RCUOA5 in neck.
 
Re: Dual A8's in SP90-2 Hot P90

Shooweri said:
I've settled with A8/A4 in bridge and RCA5/RCUOA5 neck. This combination have tamed the output a bit and filled the midrange, giving these full and warm hard rock tone. I'm overall very pleased and cannot wait to gig with them!
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That's a very weird combination for the bridge. A high output, full tonal range mag (A8) coupled with a low output flat tone mag (A4). Don't get me wrong...I like each of those mags for what they can contribute to the tone and performance of a pup. I especially love how an A8 can bring to life a blah real sleeper of a pup, and how an A4 can tend to tame down a hot pup with a focused tonal spike (like a JB) or even even-out the boomy bass and bright highs of a '59, but it's almost counterproductive to use the two mags together. I imagine you'd get better results with two UOA5 mags, or even a polished A5 with an A2.
 
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Re: Dual A8's in SP90-2 Hot P90

hamerfan said:
Did you mix ceramic and alnico? What was the outcome?
I am not inexperienced in swapping mag, but i started only recently to get some ceramic pickups like a Distortion and a Custom in shorter scale Gibson guitars.
Since two of my Les Paul have P90 i am curious. Already tried an A5/A8 and an A5/A4 P90, but never ceramic combos.
Click to expand...

I haven't tried yet how Alnico and Ceramic magnets work together. Ceramic/A8 might have similar tone to A8/A5 combo with more highs and output since to me Ceramic and A5 has tonal similarities. Tell us how it sounds and feels if you're gonna try it!
 
Re: Dual A8's in SP90-2 Hot P90

GuitarDoc said:
That's a very weird combination for the bridge. A high output, full tonal range mag (A8) coupled with a low output flat tone mag (A4). Don't get me wrong...I like each of those mags for what they can contribute to the tone and performance of a pup. I especially love how an A8 can bring to life a blah real sleeper of a pup, and how an A4 can tend to tame down a hot pup with a focused tonal spike (like a JB) or even even-out the boomy bass and bright highs of a '59, but it's almost counterproductive to use the two mags together. I imagine you'd get better results with two UOA5 mags, or even a polished A5 with an A2.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I was very skeptical about this combination before I tried it but from the first notes I knew it is right one for this instrument. The guitar itself has pretty dark tone with very full singing midrange and I like how A8/A4 mags work with its natural tone, not against it. I think A8/A4 work since both magnets have healthy dose of mids going on and balance their output as one is hotter than the other. A8/A5 has different thing going on as it shifts mids to upper midrange and reminds me of JB's mid spike. It also has bit more output if A8/A4 doesn't give you enough.
 
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