PRS SE soapbar or humbucker vs. suppressor pedal

[Todd]

I'm thinking of buying a PRS SE and like the tone of the P90s but I'm skeptical of too much hum. So I wonder, if I were to use a noise surpressor pedal as opposed to humbuckers that I might still get the P90 sound that is still a cut above the humbuckers. Also I might consider a P90 stack STK-p1 as another approach to resolving the hum issue rather than to buy the PRS humbucker model. I need an evaluation of how much tone is lost by going to a humbucker vs. a pedal surpressor or STK-p1. If the STK-p1 isn't too much worse, then I'd buy the PRS soapbar guitar rather than the humbucker model and install the STK-p1s.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: PRS SE soapbar or humbucker vs. suppressor pedal

A noise reduction pedal can be a good solution, especially seeing as how a 'bucker, a P90, and a P90 stack all sound completely different from each other.

 

[alex1fly]

Re: PRS SE soapbar or humbucker vs. suppressor pedal

fwiw, i've tried two low-quality noise gates (garageband and spider III) with my SE soapbar, and neither did much to fight the hum in a practical sense. i've given up and now i've attached a HB to the p 90 baseplate. a better noise gate could do the trick though.

 

[Todd]

Re: PRS SE soapbar or humbucker vs. suppressor pedal

A noise reduction pedal can be a good solution, especially seeing as how a 'bucker, a P90, and a P90 stack all sound completely different from each other.

I just heard the PRS SE p90s on my Traynor at a local shop, and didn't care for it too much. Before, it sounded great on a hot-rod deluxe. Maybe it was more the guitar than the pup that I objected to when i plugged into my amp. I also played a Godin LG HB P90 (SD pups) that sounded great through my amp. Even though it sounded great it did lose much of that raw P90 tone. I think it was more HB than P90 though, but still good. The Godin has a much different sustain, unplugged, and might carry the SP90 tone better as an optional replacement for the HBP90 pup if decided to go that route... and look for a good noise suppressor too. This Godin is very interesting the more I think about it.