P90s....

[Butch Snyder]

P90s.....

Hi all, been awhile since I have been on this forum; let alone posted a question. I just bought as guitar that has P90s. I have never owned a guitar with P90s. All I know is that they are big single coil pickups that are louder and fatter than Strat/Tele type single coils, but brighter than full-size humbuckers.

What I'm getting out of these pickups sounds pretty good. For all the players well-versed in P90s, what do you look for in tone? Is there one brand/model that stands above the rest?

FWIW, my guitar is a T-style semi-hollow thinline; mahogany back/sides and quilt maple top, maple neck/rosewood fretboard.

 

[BRHGM]

Re: P90s....

P-90s can vary from warm to bright and chimey. Classic Gibson P-90s can have a nice raspy crunch when overdriven. Single coil hum is very pronounced in P-90s, especially with even a little gain. Seymour Duncan makes vintage to super hot P-90s and a quiet P-90 stack. The vintage P-90 sounds best to me with bright bridge and warm neck. That said, you can get Jazzy tones to Pete Townsend and Neil Young crunch with the Vintage set. Tommy Iommi had P-90s in the early Sabbath days and Dick Wagner had P-90s in his SG and so did Steve Hunter on the Lou Reed Rock n Roll animal album. Just get a noise gate and you will be cool ar any setting with P-90s. Good Luck.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: P90s....

Interesting, thanks for that. I really like Larry Carlton's tone with P90s. Like this one....

 

[Mincer]

Re: P90s....

Yeah, I've heard sounds all over the map, from super fuzzy and distorted (Black Sabbath) to really bright and, well, harsh. Just like all other pickups, really. I'd be hard pressed to hear a recorded song and say without a doubt what I was hearing was P-90s. To me, they certainly 'feel' different when you use them. But I've heard them sound just like regular singles as well as humbuckers.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: P90s....

I stand by the Larry Carlton video I posted, as the tone that I really like from a P90. Here's another great video.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jeremy]

Re: P90s....

both those larry vids sound great but so much of that tone is his rig. both guitars probably have vintage style p90's. i love the antiquity p90's. one of the joys of p90s is that magnet rolling can really bring out different things since there are two bar magnets in each pup.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: P90s....

both those larry vids sound great but so much of that tone is his rig. both guitars probably have vintage style p90's. i love the antiquity p90's. one of the joys of p90s is that magnet rolling can really bring out different things since there are two bar magnets in each pup.

Larry Carlton is so good that he sounds Like "Larry Carlton" no matter what rig or guitar he plays.

 

[AlexR]

Re: P90s....

P90's back in the day were the blueprint tone from which PAF's were created. They seem to be 90% humbucker tone with 10% 'rudeness' thrown in. I don't see them as being anything like a strat/tele singlecoil to my ears.

 

[stratguy23]

Re: P90s....

The main thing I seek in P90s isn't tone per se, but a specific feel - I call it "juice". It's probably a little sag in response after the initial pick attack. My favorite P90s are just gushing in juice. Some nice fat Alnico II humbuckers can have some of that juice, but in my experience, P90s can yield the most juice.

It is really a feel thing, probably not audible, since, as others pointed out here, one can use P90s for everything from kerrang to fuzz.

Tone-wise, in a neck P90 I look for throatiness, and in a bridge P90 I seek grinding aggression. It is easy for bridge P90s to get too harsh, though, so I prefer bridge P90s to be hotter/more overwound to reduce the chance of harshness.

If you like the sound, you like the sound. If you have everyone from Larry Carlton to The Who to Goatsnake using P90s, they are not "one thing". There are many different winders of P90s out there, which can be a really fun world to explore. But, yeah, Gibson generally has very good stock P90s in their guitars. PRS, too, has pretty good stock P90s. Even cheapo Epiphone P90s can sound good. In my experience, stock P90s don't automatically call for replacement like a lot of stock humbucker/Strat pickups do.

 

[jeremy]

Re: P90s....

Larry Carlton is so good that he sounds Like "Larry Carlton" no matter what rig or guitar he plays.

He is an amazing player but there's a noticeable difference in the tone of those two clips. He has chops for days and a great touch but rig matters to some extent for everyone

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: P90s....

The main thing I seek in P90s isn't tone per se, but a specific feel - I call it "juice". It's probably a little sag in response after the initial pick attack. My favorite P90s are just gushing in juice. Some nice fat Alnico II humbuckers can have some of that juice, but in my experience, P90s can yield the most juice.

It is really a feel thing, probably not audible, since, as others pointed out here, one can use P90s for everything from kerrang to fuzz.

Tone-wise, in a neck P90 I look for throatiness, and in a bridge P90 I seek grinding aggression. It is easy for bridge P90s to get too harsh, though, so I prefer bridge P90s to be hotter/more overwound to reduce the chance of harshness.

If you like the sound, you like the sound. If you have everyone from Larry Carlton to The Who to Goatsnake using P90s, they are not "one thing". There are many different winders of P90s out there, which can be a really fun world to explore. But, yeah, Gibson generally has very good stock P90s in their guitars. PRS, too, has pretty good stock P90s. Even cheapo Epiphone P90s can sound good. In my experience, stock P90s don't automatically call for replacement like a lot of stock humbucker/Strat pickups do.

I like what you said about "feel". For me, that's the pickup quality that so many seem unaware of or seem insensitive to.

Especially the guys who say things like "No one in the audience will hear the difference" and that sort of thing.

How a pickup tone feels and makes me feel is super important.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: P90s....

My own favorite P90 tones are the Brick In The Wall solo by David Gilmour and Leslie West's tone on Mississippi Queen.

If a P90 can't get those tones I'd look for another P90.

 

[AlexR]

Re: P90s....

The 'good' thing for p90 aficionados is that 50's pickups are still not super high priced.

 

[Jeffblue]

Re: P90s....

I typically install P90s in the neck of my strat builds and a P90 in either the neck or middle position on my tele builds. I love the sound P90s add to whatever guitar they are in. I always use Seymour Duncan Antiquities or Vintage P90s.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: P90s....

He is an amazing player but there's a noticeable difference in the tone of those two clips. He has chops for days and a great touch but rig matters to some extent for everyone

In the first clip, he's using his standard Dumble "Carlton" rig. That's why it sounds so sweet. In the second clip, he's got noticeably more gain. That was done after the "Renegade Gentlemen" album. He said, in an interview, that he was really getting into more Southern Rock and liked the extra gain. Also, the guitar in the first clip is a 1957 Les Paul Special. Those P90s are stock. His Valley Arts signature guitar has Gibson P100s. Much different pickups.

 

[freefrog]

Re: P90s....

You might find the .pdf below interesting. It's in German but copying the text then pasting it in the Google translator should make it understandable...

http://s446f51a0db5f514e.jimcontent...996651/name/Testbericht Gitarre&Bass_P-90.pdf

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: P90s....

I've also heard the stock Gibson P90s are quite good.

In my Warmoth guitar I have it loaded with 2 vintage and 1 hot. The hot gives a nice snarling sound for the bridge. It works for me because I have other guitars for polite sounds.