Humbucker Sized P90s

['59]

My friend has a Les Paul Black Beauty with a set of BB2 neck/BB2 middle/Brobucker bridge. It has a Freeway switch and he finds the middle and the bridge/middle position kind of lacking a certain functionality. The bridge/middle position doesn't have any sort of uniqueness to it, and the middle position doesn't "do it" for him.

My question is, what humbucker sized P90 works in the middle the best with the Brobucker? He's looking at Lollar P-92s, the Lindy Fralin Unbucker, and the Dimarzio Brobucker. Obviously these are in very different price points, but what are your thoughts one these pickups?

Also, before I forget, he wants them to be at least mostly noiseless.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Humbucker Sized P90s

On the high end would suggest fralin p90 in humbucking or on low end would suggest GFS mean 90, but both are single coil. I can't recommend a noiseless p90 because none that I have tried sound anything like p90s although the Kent armstrong custom stealth p90 seems to get excellent reviews.

But I would take a step back and ask what kind of sound you're looking for?

If it's quack, P90s can quack. I once had a three p90 strat that quacked a lot like a strat but long scale was part of that tone and I think p90s and humuckers aren't similar enough to quack.

I've never had any luck with a center pup by itself, but might be worth a try.

However, I've played a few black beauties that quacked pretty well with 3 humbuckers... My guess is that you need a lower output middle pup to quack against the bridge and neck. To test it out, I would lower the mid pup as far as you can to see if that is closer to the sound you are looking for.

If that is closer to the sound you are looking for, you would have a lot of humbuckers that you could consider.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Humbucker Sized P90s

The GFS Mean 90, and the Dream 90 are excellent and very reasonably priced. It's interesting to note that since I started using and advocating for the Mean 90 and it has gain popularity, its price has almost doubled.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Humbucker Sized P90s

I find the P90 coil of the P Rails neck model to be the best sounding P90 tone in humbucker format...plus you get all the potential of a P Rails pickup along with it, as a bonus (though you don't have to use it; you can just use the P90 coil and call it done).

Second best to me is the DiMarzio Bluesbucker...and it's a complete "sleeper," as in it looks just like any other generic humbucker. Might have to special order it through a retailer in order to get it with gold hardware, though.

 

['59]

Re: Humbucker Sized P90s

Update: Turns out that he has a Norton in the bridge, not a Brobucker. How would the Bluesbucker pair with this? We looked at some sound clips and he rather liked both the neck and bridge clips of it. Plus it's for the most part noiseless too.

Bonus points will be awarded for naming a new neck pickup for him too. He is looking for a new one later on down the road, but lacks the funds now.