P90 screws

MikeM

MikeM

New member
Hey guys

Finally got myself a P90 LP Special style guitar. Not totally happy with the tone at the moment, think the thing has Epi pups in at the moment, seems like that's what the marking was on the otherside of the base.

I'm struggling to get a decent tone out of the neck, quite dark, a bit muddy. Doesn't have the open, hollow, shimmery tone I'm looking for. Put an A3 in there, assuming that they're A2s, and it didn't open things up a bit. Also did a half air mod (1.5mm cardboard) on the A2 side. It balances better with the bridge, but I am still not happy. I'm guessing I need a slightly lower wound A5 pup in there?

Anycase getting back on topic..

Has anyone spent much time buggering around with the screws on P90s? Are they the same thread as HB ones? I assume they'd respond similarly to how humbuckers would? Might end up trying this with these cheapies while I'm at it.
 
Re: P90 screws

I always assumed that the magnets in those Epi pickups were A5 unless otherwise stated. IMO, jerking about with magnet swaps in those pickups is just polishing a turd.

I agree that having an output differential between the bridge and neck position pickups helps. With pickups of equal output, the traditional solution is to set the bridge pickup as high as you can and set the neck pickup low until the volume is roughly equal. Unfortunately, this tends to take the neck pickup out of its sweet spot.

Raising and/or lowering the polepiece screws in a P90 does seem to have some effect. The raised poles bring an increase in volume but a thinner tone. I try to set the heights to reflect the fingerboard radius.

I am afraid that the real solution to your problem is to spend some money. :(
 
Re: P90 screws

It's not an "Epiphone" pup, but I think it's pretty much the same parts.

I'm planning to buy either some Gibson P90s, or save up for the Throbak P90s on the way out..


I've gone hugely off topic on my own thread!

Can anyone give me a recommendation on an open, hollow, shimmery neck P90, and a spitting, snarling nasty bridge?


Thanks folks
Mike
 
Re: P90 screws

MikeM said:
It's not an "Epiphone" pup, but I think it's pretty much the same parts.

I'm planning to buy either some Gibson P90s, or save up for the Throbak P90s on the way out..

Can anyone give me a recommendation on an open, hollow, shimmery neck P90, and a spitting, snarling nasty bridge?
Click to expand...

To me, A2's don't work well in P-90's, unless the neck is really underwound, and even then, they don't have enough muscle in the bridge. In my experience, stock Asian-made P-90's are better then their HB's: one coil, minimum of wax, less to mess up. They're won't have quite as much clarity and depth as a high quality P-90, but they're certainly decent. Mag swaps on them is a viable option, at least temporarily. That being said I've eventually upgraded all my stock Asian P-90's.

I have a set each of Duncan SP90-2's and SP90-3's, which are wound hot and have some horsepower to them. I replaced the ceramic magnets they came with, with alnicos to get bluesier tones (A8/A4 in the bridge, A5/A5 in the neck). These will give you the aggresive bridge sounds you want, and a nice clear, open neck. A cheaper option is GFS Mean 90's, which get rave reviews here. They come with A5's, so you might want to put an A8 in the bridge to give it more beef.
 
Re: P90 screws

I knew that blueman was going to say that. ;)

I have various guitars with P90 pickups in them. I "borrowed" an idea from PRS by using a Duncan SP90-3n as the bridge/Treble position pickup on my LP Junior Special.

I have a fondness for Duncan Antiquity P90s. If push came to shove, my current favourites are Lindy Fralin +5% overwound single coils.

I have tried various noise-cancelling replacements for P90s but never found their tone to be quite right. One experiment that I may have to try on these is to partially tap the lower coil via a trim pot. The idea is to leave enough of the lower coil in circuit to minimise hum without it also cancelling out some of the tonal quality.
 
Re: P90 screws

Thanks guys.

I'm lending a set from a friend soon, 7.2k neck and 8.2k bridge.

I'd love to get my hands on a set of antiquities. Actually while googling some info on them, I found a thread from 3 years or so back that I had started about them. Hoping to pick up a set second hand in the trading post.

It might actually be worth metering these pups and pulling some winds off..

I don't care for noise cancelling in most cases. It's something I can deal with!
 
Re: P90 screws

Funkfingers said:
I knew that blueman was going to say that. ;)
Click to expand...

How did you know? :14: If you think about it, an HB has 1/2 mag per coil. A P-90 has 2 mags per coil, four times the magnetic influence. That's a lot of tone-shaping you can do. P-90's are great platforms for tweaking. If the wind is anywhere in the ball park, you should be able to get the tones you want.
 
Re: P90 screws

blueman335 said:
How did you know? :14:
Click to expand...

It is a stock answer to a stock question. Maybe, this forum ought to have a vault for topics such as this? Shucks, it already does! And a Search facility. Holy utility belts, Batman.
 
Re: P90 screws

are they soapbars or dogears. I've had a similar problem with P90s. Except I'm putting them in a strat, so to mounth them, they have to be soapbars. I had to order some soapbar screws from Allparts, they were pretty cheap. Good luck to you.
 
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