New P90s in my LP Special

[Nihon Jim]

Just removed the factory P100s from my 1993 LP Special and replaced them with SD P90s. The guitar sounds great. Was in a hurry so I didn't make any other changes. Same pots, same tone caps. All OEM.

I believe the pots are all 500s? :scratchch

The tone caps are marked with the number "203." I presume that is .0203 microfarad? :scratchch

The SD wiring diagram recommends .047 for the tone caps.

I believe the tone cap is the filter for which portion of the frequency spectrum is passed to output and which portion goes to ground. Is that correct? :scratchch

Will a change in cap from .02 to .047 cause higher frequencies to bleed to ground darkening the overall output tone of the guitar or will higher frequencies pass to output and brighten the overall tone of the guitar? :scratchch

:thanks:

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

.02uF sounds about right for a modern tone control capacitor value. .047 is the traditional vintage Gibson value. Either will work.

The tone control pot/capacitor network of your Gibson guitar is a very simple, passive low-pass filter.

The capacitor value determines the frequency above which the guitar signal is directed to ground. A .047 cap removes treble to a lower frequency than a .02. Hence, fitting .047uF caps would have the effect of making it possible to filter away more of the high frequencies. When the pot is used, the resultant tone would be "darker".

 

[uOpt]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

The pots might be 300 Kohm.

Changing the tone pot capacitor (203 == 22 nF) will not do much with a 500 Kohm pot full open and no other changes at the same time. It will change how it behaves sliding down, though. With 47 nF you will have more treble killed.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

I'm really loving .010 uf caps. They remove just the high edge when you need to mellow things out a bit, but they still leave a nice rich tone. To me, the .047s throw a blanket over the tone, very dull, lifeless, muddy.

.022uf caps are ok for VERY bright pickups that you want to tone down alot.

In the designation "203", the "3" represents the position of the decimal. Thus 203 = .020uf (not .0203uf).

 

[Aceman]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

What SD's? Vintage?

If it sounds good leave it alone. I suspect that the pots are 300k, and the .02 cap doesn't roll off as much of the highs, which the P-90's have enough of. The special is probably a fairly bright guitar anyway. .047 is cool if yo want to go jazz or serious woman/slash tone.

SD P-90 goodnes! Mmmmm Mmmm!

 

[Nihon Jim]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

Thanks all for the info. Will most likely leave setup as is for the time being.

Neck - Vintage Soapbar SP90-1n
Bridge - Hot Soapbar SP90-2b (w/cream color cover for the zebra look)

Much improved tone over the P100s.

Thanks again. :1:

 

[blueman335]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

Thanks all for the info. Will most likely leave setup as is for the time being.

Neck - Vintage Soapbar SP90-1n
Bridge - Hot Soapbar SP90-2b (w/cream color cover for the zebra look)

Much improved tone over the P100s.

Thanks again. :1:

Haven't tried them myself, but there's been very few positive comments about P-100's around here.

 

[Aceman]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

Haven't tried them myself, but there's been very few positive comments about P-100's around here.

If you consider "They don't make any noise" yes there have been positive comments. Otherwise....I can't think of anything good about them.

Someone did mention some surgery that could do something cool, but i sounded like something that would take you and Zhang 15 hours to perform and that it was risky for the patient with a low survival rate.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

If you consider "They don't make any noise" yes there have been positive comments. Otherwise....I can't think of anything good about them.

Someone did mention some surgery that could do something cool, but i sounded like something that would take you and Zhang 15 hours to perform and that it was risky for the patient with a low survival rate.

Ouch! Stick with P-90s.

 

[uOpt]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

You can't really make P90 stacks the same way that you can make Strat stacks.

Strat pickups have rod magnets and you can cut them in half and they might become lame-ass rod magnets but at least they are still rod magnets.

The whole point about a P90 sounding different from a Fender pickup is that it has magnet(s) on the bottom and passive polepieces. You can't really cut that in half, how's that gonna work? Bottom half of the polepieces missing? Nope, that won't do. Top half missing? Nope, not that either, that's like having your pickup 10 times farther away from the strings that it should be.

Noiseless P90 involves either side-by-side like the Lace Sensor soapbar (didn't try) or blind coils.

 

[ES350]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

If you look at the polepieces from a P100, they are quite a bit longer than a standard P90 polepiece...on a P100, the magnets are between the coils, not on the bottom (which has no baseplate). Rewire the coils in series, add a baseplate, use standard polepieces, and it's a very hot P90...I've salvaged a few and use them in lap steels, etc.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: New P90s in my LP Special

You can cut one of the coils out of the circuit (preferably the bottom one) and it sounds a lot better. Because it's then pretty much a P90 again.