P-90 Pickups Classic/Hard Rock Gibson LP Special P-100

[Charvel1975]

Wondering because all my other guitars are humbucker equpped if I should just get a good pair of P-90 pickups that won't break the bank for my 1998 Gibson Les Paul Special - Factory P100 Neck & Dimarzio P90 Super Distortion Bridge pickups with .010 - .046 nickel wounds strings in standard E tuning?

What do you think?

 

[Mincer]

What is breaking the bank? You can get something with more options and use P-Rails, too.

 

[jeremy]

but the prails is a humbucker so wont fit.

if you have a p100 neck and sd90 bridge now, what do like and not like about them? i think thats probably a cool set. if you want something different, id go for a vintage p90 neck and a hot p90 bridge

 

[Mincer]

There is the new p90 Silencer, too.

 

[Charvel1975]

but the prails is a humbucker so wont fit.

if you have a p100 neck and sd90 bridge now, what do like and not like about them? i think thats probably a cool set. if you want something different, id go for a vintage p90 neck and a hot p90 bridge

Got back a little while ago from our rehearsal spot as I took my Gibson Les Paul Special there to plug it into my EVH 5150III 50 watt 6L6 head through the Marshall 1960A 4x12 and running a DigiTech RP360XP through the FX loop for effects only just to play on the guitar and try to observe further what I don't like about the sound.

I started on the Clean channel with the neck Gibson P-100 and it is definitely louder than the Dimarzio P90 Super Distortion in the bridge and the P-100 sounded like it had a blanket over it sound and was lacking high end clarity and kind of tubby sounding. The Dimarzio P-90 did not sound that great on the Clean channel and ok with both pickups on.

Blue and Red channels: P-100 tubby sounding and P-90 was lacking gain & chunk on palm mutes.

I also noticed when I rolled back on either bridge or neck volume controls the sound got muffled which makes me think there is no treble bleed.

 

[larryguitar]

I've yet to find a P-90 replacement (humbucker or stacked design) that sounds good. Conversely, I've yet to find a P-90, however cheap (Chinese, ceramic, whatever) that sounded bad.

Larry

 

[Mincer]

There is also a Hot version of the new P90 Silencer if a regular P90 isn't hot enough.

 

[NegativeEase]

P90s are more brilliant and less fat and always a winner to have in your arsenal -especially for recording.

 

[Wattage]

Haven't tried the new Silencer models but they sound interesting!

My go to for a long time was the SP90-3 Custom in the bridge and the 90-1n in the neck

 

[Charvel1975]

What is breaking the bank? You can get something with more options and use P-Rails, too.

I would have to save up money to get new pickups for my Gibson les paul special as I'm on a budget. l've seen some P-90 pickup sets that are around the $300 and higher amount and I'm trying to stay under that.

I've also read online about the older Gibson Les Paul Special's like mine that some people have gone with different value pots, wiring, capacitors, etc and I guess at this point I should just try and keep the guitar simple. All my other electric guitars are humbucker equipped or combination of humbucker and single coils.

It's just been a really long journey with my Gibson Les Paul as it's my first Gibson I've ever had and unique because it came with factory Gibson P-100 pickups.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

To say that I dislike the P100 intensely would be an understatement.
As for the P90 SuperD, it's okay in its own way but it doesn't sound much like a real Super D or a real P90.
I have KentArmstrong noiseless Stealth90s in a Hagstrom; they're quite good sounding and have good hum rejection.
They are neither dark nor muffled, yet they still are a tad more polite than the real ones.

I think the real question is how important is the hum rejection to you? Nothing humbucking sounds exactly like a P90.
And IMO the traditional P90 design seems inherently more forgiving and less variable than the traditional humbucker design.
I agree with larryguitar above: even really cheap import P90s can sound very, very good.

So unless you're gigging at large (where power is almost always iffy) or have dirty power at home, I'd get real ones for tone's sake.
Buy what you can afford. High quality P90s are a bit better, but IMO the differences aren't as pronounced as with humbuckers.
Even the cheapest Chinese P90s will sound far better than what you've got.
They'll give you that bark and bite that a Les Paul Special needs.

 

[ErikH]

I'd yank both of those out of the guitar and slap in some real P-90's, noise and all. I really like Gibson's P-90's and I have Lollars in two of my guitars. No experience with SD's offerings so can't comment there.

 

[Explorer84]

My vote would be for the tried and true Gibson P90's. If you're unable to get them new, I'd look for a used set. They're worth it.

 

[Charvel1975]

My vote would be for the tried and true Gibson P90's. If you're unable to get them new, I'd look for a used set. They're worth it.

Is there anything special regarding the wiring, capacitors, pots I would need to have done?

 

[Mincer]

Is there anything special regarding the wiring, capacitors, pots I would need to have done?

Nah, not unless you hear an issue when they are installed.

 

[Aceman]

I don't care what you do, Gibson P90, keep the SuperD, Duncan P90 of some sort...

But for the love of tone lose the P100.

 

[Explorer84]

Is there anything special regarding the wiring, capacitors, pots I would need to have done?

Nothing special needs to be done.

 

[jeremy]

My vote would be for the tried and true Gibson P90's. If you're unable to get them new, I'd look for a used set. They're worth it.

i like the pups, but never liked the eq balance between the neck and bridge. i pulled a few hundred turns off the neck pup and that made if better, but i wouldnt expect most people to want to do that

 

[Explorer84]

i like the pups, but never liked the eq balance between the neck and bridge. i pulled a few hundred turns off the neck pup and that made if better, but i wouldnt expect most people to want to do that

Very interesting. Do you have any before and after sound clips? I'd be really interested in hearing them.

 

[GuitarDoc]

I have to agree with larryguitar and eclecticsynergy about cheap Chinese P-90 pups...mostly.
I've only tried one cheap P-90 that I didn't like. It had ceramic mags in it. All of the ones with Alnico mags sounded terrific.
All of the stacked P-90s I tried sounded just blahhh (even ones with ceramic magnets).

Look, if finances are an issue, forget about the big name $300 P-90s! That's just insane when there are so many cheap great sounding P-90s available. You can get a "cheap Chinese" set with alnico magnets on Amazon for less than $50...yes, for the set! And they will probably sound much better than what you've got...especially the P-100! If you end up in the future feeling that you need to try the $300 pups, you haven't lost much.

I am a P-90 aficionado. I have well over 50 P-90s in my guitars. My number one guitar has P-Rails in it but the Tipple Shot rings are switched to the P-90 coils at least 98-99% of the time. All of my next favorite guitars have P-90s in them.