Soapbar sized P90 humbuckers?

[Duffy1949]

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of the GFS P90 sized humbuckers?

I'm talking about the new Soapbar 180 humbuckers or the soapbar minitron humbuckers.

I have a nice P90 LP style guitar that has zero noise cancelling and noisy P90's; plus the stock P90's don't sound nearly as good as my other P90 guitar with duncan designed middle noise cancelling P90's. So this beautiful mahogany set neck guitar is ready for some nice quiet, good sounding pickups, and I want to move "away" from the single coil sound with it.

These GFS P90 sized humbuckers look possibly interesting and may have gained the attentions of some of you guys. Feedback is appreciated.

I will definitely consider other brands of P90 sized humbuckers as well.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Soapbar sized P90 humbuckers?

Just to clarify. Are we talking about noise-cancelling (vertically stacked coils) P90 clones or conventional (side by side coils) humbuckers squeezed inside a soapbar sized cover?

I'm not keen on the first type. (I have a heap of four "surplus" pickups to prove it.)

The only side by side soapbar-sized humbucker that I have tested is the Seymour Duncan JB90. This looks fugly but it rocks.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/custom-shop/specialized-1/p90_soapbar_hum/

 

[Duffy1949]

Re: Soapbar sized P90 humbuckers?

I appreciate your feedback Funky. I didn't know they made stacked single coil P90's and assumed that they were all side by side humbucking types.

I'm most interested in the side by side true humbucking types.

Interestingly, I recently put a new set of Fender Vintage Noiseless telecaster pickups in one of my tele's. These I think are stacked single coils and I have found that, although they are decent pickups and produce tones that I can use, they are not truly noiseless in the sense that a true side by side humbucker is. I like the sound but may consider getting a set of the twin rail tele humbuckers, but I'm not sure if even they are side by side humbuckers or just give that suggestion based upon having the two parallel rails.

So, at this point I'm trying to get some info on the soapbar sized, side by side, real humbucking pickups to retro fit a P90 equipped LP style set neck mahagony guitar I have that is otherwise a very nice guitar, except for the inescapable noise.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Soapbar sized P90 humbuckers?

As many regular SDUG forumites already know, I am rather keen on "proper" single coil P90s in Mahogany guitars and I don't give two hoots about the noise.

 

[Duffy1949]

Re: Soapbar sized P90 humbuckers?

Very nice guitars. Is the brown one one of the new ones that Gibson is selling for less than 1000?

I have a new MIM tele that has hot ceramic single coils that are noisy and there is no noise cancelling in the middle switch position. The sound of these pickups is fantastic, but being hot I guess that makes them that much noisier at idle. I have played the tele thru my new Peavey 6505+ high gain combo and it is especially noisy on the highest gain channel.

How do you deal with this type of thing? Do you ignore it, use a volume pedal, or avoid high gain settings and high gain amps?

After giving this seemingly paradoxical situation a lot of thought over the last few months, it seems to me that there has to be a reason Fender put the "new improved hot ceramic" pickups in the updated tele. One of my ideas is that they put them in, without noise cancelling in the middle position, for tone reasons and this suggests that the better tone would be appreciated by serious and dedicated traditional telecaster owners that must ignore the noise, accepting it as something that comes with the territory.

I know that it is a fact that some players actually "like" the noise.

So, is the noise something you have to appreciate or ignore because it seems to necessarily come along with that really good traditional telecaster or P90 sound?

I have decided not to change the pickups in my MIM tele because I like the clear beautiful tone and I'm willing to live with the noise. Is this a good way to look at the noise present with some pickups that you otherwise like a lot, or should I be thinking of a noise reduction pedal or some other noise reduction technique like a volume pedal?

My experience has been that noise reduction pedals sweep away the beautiful sound of a great set of telecaster single coils. I found this from directly testing a nice tele with and without a pedal.

Not being an expert on this, I'm still more than a little confused as to why players tolerate single coil noise or how they manage it or just ignore it?

This seems like a simple question with a simple answer, but it is not easy to understand how serious, experienced players approach this without actually hearing it from them.

So I guess I should ask you, how do you manage the noise aspect of the P90's and do you play them or other single coils thru a high gain amp or at high gain settings.

I don't play any heavy metal, but I sometimes do enjoy cranking up the gain and I own a high gain Peavey 6505+ combo. I also own other lower gain amps including a Fender Super Champ XD with a good clean channel and a Hot Rod Deluxe with a decent clean channel. Most of the time I only use a reverb pedal and get my overdrive directly from my amps.

Your feedback on noise management is appreciated.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Soapbar sized P90 humbuckers?

Very nice guitars. Is the brown one one of the new ones that Gibson is selling for less than 1000?

Thank you. The natural/brown one is a Junior Special from almost ten years ago. Its original P100 pickups were bodily ripped out and Duncan Antiquity N and SP90-3n installed. (Idea stolen from PRS McCarty Soapbar model!) This pickup combination makes the instrument noticably ruder than the totally stock Goldtop.

How do you deal with this type of thing? Do you ignore it, use a volume pedal, or avoid high gain settings and high gain amps?

My solution is a combination of noise-reduction devices (when recording) and ignoring it. (I'm pretty big on ignorance. )

there has to be a reason Fender put the "new improved hot ceramic" pickups in the updated tele. One of my ideas is that they put them in, without noise cancelling in the middle position, for tone reasons and this suggests that the better tone would be appreciated by serious and dedicated traditional telecaster owners that must ignore the noise, accepting it as something that comes with the territory.

It has been said many times that using a pair of RP/RW single coils to cancel hum in the parallel combinations also cancels out some of the natural tone of the instrument. My experience with Fender 57/62, Fat Fifties and American Standard single coil pickups plus Seymour Duncan Twangbanger, APS-1 and Five-Two units seems to bear this out.

The pickup sets that most closely resemble what I believe a Stratocaster ought to sound like are the non-cancelling types. With the Twangbanger, magnetic polarity relative to most Stratocaster pickups mean that I have to accept the "losses" of going RP/RW. IMO, the sound of the Twangbanger justifies this compromise.

Not being an expert on this, I'm still more than a little confused as to why players tolerate single coil noise or how they manage it or just ignore it?

To me, the RF interference and hum induced by single coil pickups is an unavoidable price that I am willing to pay in order to get the tone I desire.

So I guess I should ask you, how do you manage the noise aspect of the P90s and do you play them or other single coils thru a high gain amp or at high gain settings.

In my opinion, P90 and vintage-style Fender single coils tend to give of their best in what most people would call medium high overdrive through a valve (tube) amplifier. In this situation, the dynamic response of the overall rig is very touch sensitive. The degree of dirtiness or cleanness is entirely in the player's fingers.

Let's drop some names here. Roy Buchanan, Michael Bloomfield, Stevie Ray Vaughan, yadda, yadda.

I don't play any heavy metal but I sometimes do enjoy cranking up the gain and I own a high gain Peavey 6505+ combo.

The short answer is that I would not turn to a regular Telecaster or a P90-equiped guitar for high gain or Metal applications.

 

[Duffy1949]

Re: Soapbar sized P90 humbuckers?

I appreciate that feedback.

It seems simple to the experienced I suppose, but the decision to replace noisy single coils that are called "hot ceramic upgrade pickups" is something I want to give some thought to before I put a set of Seymour Hot Rails for telecaster in there. I think these pickups would be cool for another telecaster, but I'm leaving my new MIM stock. I bought it in Nashville last summer as a souvenir and I would like to keep it stock with a fairly traditional telecaster sound to it.

I put some Fender Vintage Noiseless tele pickups in a nice walnut with black pickguard and rosewood fretboard Squire Standard tele that I have. I really like the VN pickups in that guitar, which, by the way, has always been a great guitar from the day I bought it. Squier makes some better guitars these days, and this isn't even a Classic Vibe. Anyway, the VN tele pickups DO NOT sound like traditional telecaster pickups at all. They are a lot of fun to play and the quietness of them is unique. I like the tone in this highly playable guitar that had the stock Squier tele pickups in it that go for probably 15 dollars a set - so the VN pickups definitely sound way better than the stock pickups.

I have another Squier Standard Telecaster that I happened to purchase when I returned a total junk guitar I had bought. I figured it was a decent platform to build up. It is still stock and sounds decent but not fantastic. It is blonde with an aged white pearl pickguard that I mounted the neck pickup directly to since it had the pickup mounting screw holes. Even though it's a Squier std I still can see putting a nice set of Seymour Duncan pickups in it. I think I will go with the noisy single coil types. Evidently you have some appreciation for the Antiquities. I wonder how a set of Antiquity tele pickups would sound in it or if it would be wasting money putting such nice pickups in a Squier. It is a really nice guitar and would take well to some good pickups and some nice locking tuners.

I have been getting into locking tuners lately and just put a set of Grover mini locking tuners on my new PRS SE Singlecut Tremolo guitar, in tobacco sunburst. This is a very nice guitar and did well with these new tuners. I have a Squier Lake Placid Blue Classic Vibe 50's strat that I put a white pearl pickguard on and put Custom Shop Texas Specials in it. I added Fender locking tuners to it - the brushed nickel type. This is an awesome guitar by any standards.

Mentioning Fat Fifties, I put a set of them in a half naturally beat up/half sandpaper relic'd Squier Std Strat I have. It is a heavy guitar and was cherry burst. You might know the one. It has a rosewood board and I really like the Fat Fifties pickups and don't know why you don't read about more guys using them. They are nothing like the Texas Specials, which are also great pickups for that nice "ice pick" tone. Makes me think of Albert Collins playing.

I just played my LP copy with the P90's thru the so called clean channel on my 6505+ combo. Ignoring the minor amount of noise, no more so than any other single coil guitar, I thought it sounded good. I'm going to put some new strings on it and test it out some more. Depending on what I think, I might just leave the stock pickups in or upgrade them to some Seymour Duncans. I'm sure they would make a big difference. This might be a better idea than buying some guitarfetish.com noiseless immitation P90's. This guitar is a beautiful set neck and is a beautiful antique sunburst with great mahogany grain highly visible and an ebony fretboard, with two volume and two tone controls.

So, are the Antiquities strictly a cosmetic treatment to a regular SD pickup or are they unique sounding?

Did you see the new approx. 1000 dollars each Seymour Duncan Zyphyr silver wire pickups? The strat ones are a little cheaper than the full size humbuckers. I wonder if those will turn out to be more than just a status symbol for some profilers?

Anyway, I appreciate your informative answers to some of my questions. Believe me, I haven't gotten that straight of an answer to the noise question before.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Soapbar sized P90 humbuckers?

So, are the Antiquities strictly a cosmetic treatment to a regular SD pickup?

No.

or are they unique sounding?

In my opinion, yes. (I appear to have squandered quite a lot of money on five of the blighters! )

EDIT: Should just add that I am in the UK. GFS pickups are not readily available here. I have never tried one. Hence, I have made no comments upon them.

 

[dr. ad]

Re: Soapbar sized P90 humbuckers?

i'd give the GFS ones a try.

the dimarzio super D, tone zone and virtual P90 are all pretty good; i'd avoid the DLX+ range