Gibson SG Standard with P90's

[BenPerkins]

Just bought this:

Gibson SG Standard P90



I'd like to be able to go anywhere from Steve Cropper to Sabbath/Zep/Who. So I was thinking SP90-1 Vintage in the neck and SP90-2 Hot in the bridge. Or should I go with something else in the bridge?

Thank you.

 

[DeanSweden]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

what's wrong with the originals?

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

The stock pickups will work great, though if it has 300K pots, you may want to go to 500K ones instead. Gibson P90's are easily their best pickups IMHO...and I say that as someone who thinks their humbuckers are actually pretty decent, unlike most people here. The only things I would desire on that guitar over the stock configuration would be a Maestro Vibrola, an ABR-1 bridge, and decent quality, stamped, double-ring vintage-style tuners. Single ring tuners on SGs just don't do it for me.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

I have to say that stock Gibson P-90 are pretty great!

However Gibson does sort of ruin them, IMHO with those stupid 300k pots...

I'd say swap the wiring harness first and at least try the stock pickups with 500k pots (or 500k volumes and 250k tones like 50's Jr's and Specials), if you still want to change them then you'll already have the right pots in there.

That said you seem pretty happy with the tone so I sort of want to ask...why change anything?

 

[blueman335]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

The stock pickups will work great, though if it has 300K pots, you may want to go to 500K ones instead.

+1. No need to buy more PU's, you may not like the new ones any better. Then what? One of the things we learn here is how to change the sound of our existing PU's, rather than buying PU after PU hoping one will sound the way you want it to.

You can easily change a P-90's EQ by changing a magnet or two (each P-90 has two, laying side-by-side). Gibson P-90's come with A5's. If you want to beef up the bridge and add a little warmth and mids, put in an A8 (A8/A5 pair). Make it an A8/A4 pair if you want it a little warmer and fuller. In the neck, an A5/A4 will be fuller, and an A5/A3 will be a little thinner and less bassy. If you want an SP90-2 sound, put in two ceramic mags. Gibson P-90's are high quality, and a great foundation for mag swaps. No need to throw money at this, when a few dollars worth of magnets will give you what you want.

To change a magnet: loosen the strings, and take out the two long middle screws that hold the P-90 to the body. Flip the PU over, and there's two small screws that hold the baseplate to the coils. Loosen those and gently slide out a magnet. When the old mag is out halfway, hold the new mag next to it for orientation; so the ends repel and sides attract. Reverse the steps to reassemble. Takes 10 minutes and most of that is loosening strings and retuning. We get our mags at Addiction FX online.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

I have to be honest, the Gibson P90s will probably be better for a SG. They have a rounder tone than the Duncans, and the Antiquities in particular are borderline thin. Don't get me wrong they sound great in a Les Paul but you have a lot less mass there.

Of course if you'd like to go more heavyweight ceramics nobody's keeping you and Gibson doesn't make them.

 

[Frankly]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

Frank Lee suggests a honeymoon period of a couple of months before you consider pickups nouveau.

Thank you.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

For my LP Junior Special, I stole an idea from PRS. SP-90-3n in the bridge position.

 

[BenPerkins]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

Thanks for the input everyone. My concern is mainly with the neck pickup. With the neck volume turned up, it's like an icepick. I have a Tele I can do the same thing with and it sounds great. The pots are 300k Linear Volume, 500k Non-linear Tone. So maybe 500k volume pots would be better then?

I like the tones the SP90-2 can get. Dirty it sounds like Faces "Stay With Me", clean it has a little bit of dirt - but I'm sure you can roll it back to clean it up even more.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

It sounds harsher when you turn down the neck volume pot? [ETA: misread]

Is that with the pickup selector switch on "neck only"?

 

[BenPerkins]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

Neck pickup only, turned up all the way. Gotta roll it back to sound okay, and even then is kinda underwhelming.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

These are not P-100s, right?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

The guitar illustrated in the photograph has height adjustment screws at either end of the pickups. To me, this says that the pickups are suspended from the plastic scratchplate rather than fastened directly into the wood via threaded inserts.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

My concern is mainly with the neck pickup. With the neck volume turned up, it's like an icepick. The pots are 300k Linear Volume, 500k Non-linear Tone. So maybe 500k volume pots would be better then?

500K pots make a PU brighter, so putting another one on your neck P-90 will add treble; doesn't sound like that's the direction you want to go. A5's are the brightest magnet, and the most mid-scooped. There's your problem. Change magnets. An A5/A4 pair or two A4's will shave off some treble and add mids. It's what Fralin uses in their P-90's. Or get some ceramics and put them in both bridge and neck. The solution is very inexpensive.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

The guitar illustrated in the photograph has height adjustment screws at either end of the pickups. To me, this says that the pickups are suspended from the plastic scratchplate rather than fastened directly into the wood via threaded inserts.

Indeed. That's how the full-guard Specials were set up back in the '60's, so it isn't odd. It's a great feature for P90 soap bars IMO.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

Your neck P-90 sounds like an icepick and you've got 300k vol pots...Don't put in 500k!! It will be even more icepicky.

Gibson P-90s are great pups, don't give up on them so soon. I agree with Blueman that a change of mags will get you what you want. I agree that with the two stock A5 mags, they can sound a bit thin and icepicky.

You may want to change one of those A5 mags in the neck pup with an A4 or even an A2 and see what you think. If it's still not warm enough for you, then change the other stock A5 with an A4.

For the bridge pup, my favorite mag combo in a P-90 is one A5 and one A8...warm and full sound with some bite and works well with an OD to create some great blues or hard rock crunch.

Once you make a change to the pups, play your guitar for at least a few weeks to "get the feel of it" before making any other changes.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

I forgot to mention...

Great guitar! I love SGs, especially with P-90s. Soooo much fun to play and really great tones available.

Good choice. Get those pups adjusted to your liking and have lots of fun!!

 

[uOpt]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

The guitar illustrated in the photograph has height adjustment screws at either end of the pickups. To me, this says that the pickups are suspended from the plastic scratchplate rather than fastened directly into the wood via threaded inserts.

Yes these are dogear, not soapbar p90s.

That complicates things quite a bit.

 

[BenPerkins]

Re: Gibson SG Standard with P90's

Thank you for the input. I swapped the magnets out with ceramics, sounds much better. I have a Naga Viper and OD pedal coming in the mail, can't wait to try with those.