P90s in series?

[ThreeChordWonder]

I ordered the SD Vintage P90s fir my thinline project today.

Debating whether to use a 3-way blade or a 4-way, with P4 being both pickuos in series.

Are P90s in series worth it or should I stick to the regular 3-way? I reckon I can work the wiring to make it work, but is it worth it?

 

[freefrog]

With twice the inductance of "hot" humbuckers, I'd expect two P90's in series to sound extremely dark. Even darker than a P-Rails whose coils woud be in the neck and bridge positons...

For the record, I've several guitars with low inductance single coils allowing series operation : the sound in such a case is already thick and bassy. I don't dare to imagine what it would become with a pair of P90's.

Now, why not? There's no rule against experimentation and a good surprise is always possible (based on the harmonic comb filtering due to pickups position, for example).

Another solution would be to wire them in series OOP... or half OOP and to tweak the sound with the capacitor involved in such situations. But I'd expect the circuit to be noisy, there.

Anyway: good luck in your guitar project and enjoy!

 

[Clint 55]

I've put 2 P90z in series and I liked the sound. It's not that dark, but it does increase the low mids a lot. It was for a jazz set up where I put the 2 next to each other in neck position.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

PRS' original "Sorcerer's Apprentice" guitars had a huge bridge humbucker with two P90-type coils under a single cover.

 

[freefrog]

Clint 55 and eclecticsynergy, thx for sharing (even if I'm not the author of this thread, I find it interesting).

Maybe I should have precised that I've already mounted two P90's in series... but the second one was a dummy coil to kill the hum. In this case, the sound was overly thick and I had to add in inductor in parallel of the whole circuit, in order to rise the resonant frequency.
A second pickup "hearing" the strings is obviously another story since it might benefit from a comb filtering effect due to pickups location.

 

[Mincer]

A P-90 in series with even a smaller coil is really dark, and 'feels' weird, like running in mud with boots on. Think of a P-Rails with a Triple Shot system...the series option is by far the least used (for me).

 

[GuitarDoc]

^ Agree.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

Sounds like a bad idea then. Thanks.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Sounds like a bad idea then. Thanks.

Yeah, I think it does.