jimijames
New member
So I just spent the last 2 1/2 hours playing my project jazzmaster (with a strat bridge), and the 2 1/2 hours before that I spent installing a pair of P-Rails in Cream.
It's still the honeymoon phase, I know, but...
Lord Have Mercy!
To start off, my project jazzmaster has a jazzmaster body (alder) with a USACG maple neck (with rosewood fretboard), and I'm playing through a 50w plexi clone. I wired it for a master volume and a master tone, 50's style wiring, and two push-pulls to get every available sound out of these bad boys. So here's the review:
Series - In series, these have incredible detail and warmth, and are very open and dynamic - they don't behave anything like what they're DC resistance would suggest. They also have a very sweet singing sound when both are on, and the bridge can rock with the best of 'em. This is by far the smoothest setting, and I'm glad I went with 500k all around here b/c while it's not quite as dark as my les paul, it's close.
Parallel - The best way I can describe this would be like a high-fi PAF sound. It's warm like a PAF, but with better definition and a wide-range frequency response. There's some great stringy-ness here, and it has more chime and is less smooth than series. Switching between series and parallel is like switching between a vintage-hot A2 pickup and a vintage output A5 pickup with a more balanced frequency response than I'm used to in low-output A5 pickups
P-90 - Here is where these pickups really shine. While the series and parallel modes are great, this mode is the bee's knees, so to speak. Lows are taught and piano-like, high notes are sweet and thick but have great definition. Chords are almost 3-dimensional and the attack is what you want it to be. Dig in, and it sounds pissed off and snarly. Ease off, and it sounds like a piano in a concert hall. I would buy the p-rails again just for this mode.
Rails - In my opinion, the least authentic/weakest of the 4 sounds, but great nonetheless. The middle position and the bridge are the best here, the neck doesn't have that magical harmonic activity, and I think it's mostly because it isn't underneath the 2nd octave harmonic node. It sounds like the middle position on a strat, a sound that some may like but that I personally find uninspiring. The middle position has some good quack to it, but it's much more subtle than on an actual stratocaster. The bridge is my favorite of the rails settings, it's meaty and stringy and really puts a microscope on your playing. It sounds the closest to a strat of all the rails positions.
It's hard to describe the character these pickups have - it's like someone took the soul of a p-90 and added some characteristics of all of my favorite SD humbuckers: It has some of the 'chew' I hear in the 78, has some of the singing qualities of the Custom Custom with strong bass similar to a 59/custom and harmonic activity I have only heard in single coils.
Playing these made me giddy with anticipation for what's going in my strat: 2 forum singles and a p-rails bridge. Delicious. I can see now why people rave about p-90's - they sound like the player, only better. It's like someone flipped on an attitude switch and ran swagger.exe in my head.
edit/addendum: If you haven't tried these yet, do yourself a favor and test drive a pair. Seymour Duncan has hit a home run with these IMHO.
It's still the honeymoon phase, I know, but...
Lord Have Mercy!
To start off, my project jazzmaster has a jazzmaster body (alder) with a USACG maple neck (with rosewood fretboard), and I'm playing through a 50w plexi clone. I wired it for a master volume and a master tone, 50's style wiring, and two push-pulls to get every available sound out of these bad boys. So here's the review:
Series - In series, these have incredible detail and warmth, and are very open and dynamic - they don't behave anything like what they're DC resistance would suggest. They also have a very sweet singing sound when both are on, and the bridge can rock with the best of 'em. This is by far the smoothest setting, and I'm glad I went with 500k all around here b/c while it's not quite as dark as my les paul, it's close.
Parallel - The best way I can describe this would be like a high-fi PAF sound. It's warm like a PAF, but with better definition and a wide-range frequency response. There's some great stringy-ness here, and it has more chime and is less smooth than series. Switching between series and parallel is like switching between a vintage-hot A2 pickup and a vintage output A5 pickup with a more balanced frequency response than I'm used to in low-output A5 pickups
P-90 - Here is where these pickups really shine. While the series and parallel modes are great, this mode is the bee's knees, so to speak. Lows are taught and piano-like, high notes are sweet and thick but have great definition. Chords are almost 3-dimensional and the attack is what you want it to be. Dig in, and it sounds pissed off and snarly. Ease off, and it sounds like a piano in a concert hall. I would buy the p-rails again just for this mode.
Rails - In my opinion, the least authentic/weakest of the 4 sounds, but great nonetheless. The middle position and the bridge are the best here, the neck doesn't have that magical harmonic activity, and I think it's mostly because it isn't underneath the 2nd octave harmonic node. It sounds like the middle position on a strat, a sound that some may like but that I personally find uninspiring. The middle position has some good quack to it, but it's much more subtle than on an actual stratocaster. The bridge is my favorite of the rails settings, it's meaty and stringy and really puts a microscope on your playing. It sounds the closest to a strat of all the rails positions.
It's hard to describe the character these pickups have - it's like someone took the soul of a p-90 and added some characteristics of all of my favorite SD humbuckers: It has some of the 'chew' I hear in the 78, has some of the singing qualities of the Custom Custom with strong bass similar to a 59/custom and harmonic activity I have only heard in single coils.
Playing these made me giddy with anticipation for what's going in my strat: 2 forum singles and a p-rails bridge. Delicious. I can see now why people rave about p-90's - they sound like the player, only better. It's like someone flipped on an attitude switch and ran swagger.exe in my head.
edit/addendum: If you haven't tried these yet, do yourself a favor and test drive a pair. Seymour Duncan has hit a home run with these IMHO.
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I'm just despairing at the state of the Australian economy - the moment I start lusting for Duncans again I realise they cost over double what they did at the start of the year 
