Firebird P/ups in P-90 cavitys

[paspallum]

Howdy
I have a nice Les Paul Goldtop (Tokai)
It has Seymour Duncan Antiquity P-90's and a Bigsby.

It sounds great.

I am wanting to try a Firebird pickup in the bridge postion to try and geta bit of Neil Young's 'OLD BLACK' vibe. (plus I love how sweet firebird pickups sound in Firebirds as well)

GFS have a really cool line of mini-humbuckers out now
http://store.guitarfetish.com/minihumbuckers.html

They are all Firebird size.

I want to try one in my Goldtop... but I don't want to drill holes into the top of my guitar... GFS supply firebird mounts only which require drilling ( I don't think there would even be enough wood to drill into as the plate would barely cover the P-90 cavity) and the P-90 will end up back in there someday.

I personally think that the 1970's Les Paul Deluxe P/up mount should do the job, as the 68-70's deluxe had P/up cavity routings for P-90's and they used a plastic mounting ring to fit the 'deluxe mini-humbucker' in.

I know that a deluxe mini humbucker and a firebird P/up are not identical.
But does anyone out there know if I can make this fit?

Jay at GFS just says "no you can't make it fit" But I'm sure it must work even with some minor modification.

I've attached a chart of a pic of the 'deluxe' pickup mounts as well as firebird mount... the specs say that the inside space is the same size for both mounts?

Anyone tried to do this mod before?

paspallum

 

[Captain Tightpants]

Re: Firebird P/ups in P-90 cavitys

You are correct, just use the Deluxe plastic rings, the only thing you'll have to do is daub a little solder onto the screw shaft to keep the ring in place and the whole shebang should screw into the bottom of the P-990 cavity. Gibson uses an adapter plate or inserts to screw into, I don't know about Tokai's. Hope that helps.

 

[gripweed]

Re: Firebird P/ups in P-90 cavitys

If your LP is so nice, why aren't you spending the extra $$ for Duncan quality? I have no qualms with GFS, just wondering why...

 

[paspallum]

$$$

$$$

Sure
I don't mind answering that.
I have 7 electric guitars.

I have Seymour Duncans in 5 of them, and Kinmans in one of my strats.

Of course as I already mentioned, my Goldtop has Seymour Duncan Antiquity P-90's So I DID splash out some $$$ on that. And the Antiquitys don't really blow me away, they don't sound as good as the P-90 I had on a 1976 Ibanez LP Junior copy... not even close

I also have an Ibanez Artcore and it's stock P/ups sound tooo damm good to replace... and my Squier Pro-tone tele sounds better with it's stock P/up back in than it did with a S/D Vintage '54 P/up.

So to sum it up... Duncans are good and sound solid but I have heard great things about GFS... they cosy 1/8 the price of a Duncan Antiquity... I'm gonna give GFS a go.. especially as I'm not 100% sure how the pickup is going to mount anyways.

Paspallum