P90s Lollar or Fralin?

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doveman

New member
OK the Washburn is complete except for the P-90s. I want to pull out the MIK stacks and replace with one of these pup sets. Now I like the way these sound at 7.2k each although they are not balanced causing me to drop the neck pickup and raise the bridge.

My boss dropped a $200 bonus on me today for doing something cool at work ... it's a sign. ;)

So I'm down to two choices - both available right off the rack:
-Lollar 8k/9k set @ $180
-Fralin 7.2k/8.4k (-10%/5% set) @ $160

This is a throw together clip of the bridge pickup. Consider that I want to keep the dirt in the sound that appears in this clip ... but be able to roll it off and get some jazzy stuff. Which one would you get and why? I'm close to pulling the trigger. The truth is ... I bet I'd like either. BKs just seem to expensive @$300.

My Current P-90s

:)
 
Re: P90s Lollar or Fralin?

I'm sure Duncan makes something that will float your boat, and if not, Jon at www.tonefordays.com will wind 'em to your exact specs for a pretty reasonable price, and he uses top quality materials to boot. Although, the Duncan custom shop can make you some p-90 stacks to your exact specs too, and a big plus is that they'll be noiseless. But if you're dead set on one of those two sets, I'd go with the fralin set, 7.2k/8.4k would clean up a lot better than 8k/9k. Although there are more experienced people here who can give you their opinions too.
 
Re: P90s Lollar or Fralin?

I'm not really interested in the stacks ... just the straight single coils. The original pickups were stacks and I disabled the lower humbucker coils. Anyone have experience using those tonefordays P-90s? I had not heard of them before.
 
Re: P90s Lollar or Fralin?

Bludave said:
I have a set of Duncan Antiquity P90's in a Shecter Tempest Special and I would put them up against anything. They are awesome P90's. Another P90 that I have had some experience with is the stock Gibson P90's. They are also a really good sounding P90 ... cover depth.

These:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/antiquitydescr.shtml#p90
Click to expand...

Am I reading it right that that pickup cover is only 5/16" deep? That brings up a question ... how deep are the Gibsons, Fralins & Lollars ... because I.m not sure that's deep enough for my guitar on the bridge pickup. I'll have to check when I get home from work. Looks like the SP-90-1 vintage are .745 which is 3/4" while the stacks are .951 or 15/16".

Those are A2s, as well. I've not had P90s ... but in every other pickup style I've preferred A5s over A2s. How does the A2 affect the p-90s sound?

On the Gibsons, how do you deal with the fact that both the bridge and neck are the same strength ... that's a problem for me on my current set ... they need to be calibrated it seems.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
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Re: P90s Lollar or Fralin?

I did a search when I got home about the Antiquity depth problem and found this ... so I'm not the first to ask this question. https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=50324&highlight=antiquity+p-90+depth

Got this response very quickly from Jason Lollar ... ya' gotta love that ... "depth of the pickup is 11/16" and the screws stick out an additional 3/32 below the bottom of the pickup. length and width are app. 1-2/8" X 3-3/8". any other questions just shoot and I will try to accomodate what you want to know. jason lollar"

My bridge pickup is right at 5/16" above the body of the washburn ... so the SD Antiquity would be right at the limits. But the Lollar would work fine. I haven't found dimensions on the Fralins yet and I did not see an email on their website but I can call them.

:scratchch I think I'm still OK with the Fralins, Lollars or even SD Vintage ... Antiquity info does surprise me though.
 
Re: P90s Lollar or Fralin?

Funny ... some suggestions and good info ... but nobody picked either the Lollar or the Fralin P-90?

:scratchch Where's that flippin' coin?
 
Re: P90s Lollar or Fralin?

When I installed the Antiquities in my Schector I had to build up the pocket with a piece of Mahogony. It wa not a big deal. I wound up having to split the shim and tuck the wires into the groove between the body and the shim. It was pretty simple, but you have to fairly close with the shim height. The P90's don't adjust up and down the way most pickups do, so you have to make sure the shims are pretty close. The Shector was originally fitted with some form of EMG. P90. When I got the guitar it had no pickups, but I felt from the first time I held it, it would be a god guitar. Its basically a Les Paul Special, just shaped a little different and the seam on the top is a little off center. Its painted Gold, just like a Goldtop too. My original idea was to use this for slide, but once I got the guitar together I felt it was too good of a guitar to reduce it to just slide. I would go with the Antiquities. They are really nice pickups. If it soundslike too much work for you (it was for me, so my friend who is a luthier helped me quite a bit) take it to a tech. It will be worth it.
 
Re: P90s Lollar or Fralin?

I promise will record some clips of these soon post here but ...

Quick update:

The Lollar P-90s came Monday. I put them in ... fit without modification ... although I did have to use the slighly longer Washburn screws. Put a bit of foam under the pickups and used about 3/4 of the springs that came with the Lollars on the screws ... cut it with wire cutters. Worked great.

The sound ... holy crap batman! These are sweet ... the off-the-shelf set. I keep trying to sit down and make clips but I end up jamming to backing tracks until it's late. They growl like crazy but at the same time when you back them off they are somehow different and more refined than the original pickups. Lots of different sounds in them depending on the settings and pickups selections. I will eventually post ... I hope I can capture the way these play/feel.

I'm running these with 500k (vol) and 250k (tone) pots and settled on .015uf(neck) and .047uf(bridge) caps ... again the caps really made a nice difference. The 250k pots were what I had that fit the hole, so I used them ... they are warm and I can live right in the middle of the tone pot. I would have used 500k pots if they would have fit the holes ... I'm glad for that lucky accident.

Again I will post some clips soon ... :naughty:
 
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