Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

[some_dude]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

Some dude - those Lp's look amazing! I'd like to play one, since I've always wanted a LP but feel I'm not bonding with my Epi LP. It looks like those with the P90's have a thinner body which might work better for me.

Jolly - nice SG juniors! I took a listen to your clips with of the SG with P90's and now I want one twice as much as I did before. Rockin' clips man!

They're a solid slab mahogany guitar... no carve maple top, so much thinner. They were originally developed as student model guitars, so their price is much more reasonable than your average Les Paul.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

P-90s will help make almost any guitar sound good. They've got a great resonance peak, they're clean, there's nothing NOT to love about them.

+1. Hard to believe they've been so ignored by manufacturers.

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

I think people get turned off by P-90s because of their hum, but in doing so they miss out on that inimitable tone.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

I think people get turned off by P-90s because of their hum, but in doing so they miss out on that inimitable tone.

I think P-90 hum is an exaggerated problem, and really isn't an issue for guys playing at a local bar, where the mix, room acoustics, & sound is certainly less than studio quality. Who's going to notice a little hum with everything else going on? If you watch where you're standing in relation to your amp, hum is minimal. Fender single coils aren't exactly noise-free either, and they're incredibly popular (God only knows why).

P-90's are great, unique PU's that have a place in music today. Even though many thought they were obsolete decades ago, there's still a strong following, and little by little guitar manufacturers are adding P-90 models. Maybe one day they'll finally get the recognition they deserve.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

I think P-90 hum is an exaggerated problem, and really isn't an issue for guys playing at a local bar, where the mix, room acoustics, & sound is certainly less than studio quality. Who's going to notice a little hum with everything else going on? If you watch where you're standing in relation to your amp, hum is minimal. Fender single coils aren't exactly noise-free either, and they're incredibly popular (God only knows why).

P-90's are great, unique PU's that have a place in music today. Even though many thought they were obsolete decades ago, there's still a strong following, and little by little guitar manufacturers are adding P-90 models. Maybe one day they'll finally get the recognition they deserve.

Yeah man, I hope so. I hope we see more P90 guitars that are doublecut --- it seems like now, the only P90 axes are Gibson shapes.

I think a 3 P90 Stratocaster type guitar would be a comfortable and fun player.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

Yeah man, I hope so. I hope we see more P90 guitars that are doublecut --- it seems like now, the only P90 axes are Gibson shapes.

I think a 3 P90 Stratocaster type guitar would be a comfortable and fun player.

Considering that Gibson came up the most successful electric guitar designs, I don't see that as a limitation myself. I'd like to see someone making regular-production P-90 versions of all the major Gibson designs. That would be nice. But yeah, P-90's should be on other designs too. Give us freedom of choice!

I'd love to see a "Super SG" with a HB/P-90/P-90 & a 5-way switch. That's about 25 years overdue.

 

[ES350]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

One thing that has intrigued me for awhile with P90s are the early versions; there were smaller single magnet models, metal covered models, alnico slug models, and completely covered models with no polepieces. Then there are the Franz/Vega/Epi/etc imitations, each of which sound great, but different from the Gibsons. It would be interesting to see someone take one of these versions and work out the limitations; they are some interesting P90 tones in there. I just reworked an old Melody Maker pu (the fat version) with a baseplate and a full charge A5 and it sounds really good to me; not quite a P90, but hellafat single coil tone. I'd buy a set of those...

 

[Sanford]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

I think for a lot of people the turn-off of P-90's is visual. Most people are accustomed to seeing humbuckers and Strat singles and accept those shapes as "normal". But when they see soap bars they tend to associate the shape with "old style" which may translate to "not modern" in terms of sound. No one buys a Mosrite to play shred, no matter how good the tone would be. In my younger days I was a victim of this mode of thinking, but now I know it doesn't matter and love the sound/look of P-90 pickups.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

Jolly - nice SG juniors! I took a listen to your clips with of the SG with P90's and now I want one twice as much as I did before. Rockin' clips man!

Thank ya sir!! I appreciate it. Those are some great guitars. I love playing them.

 

[Thurisaz]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

My friend has a Hofner I believe it is [he has a Hohner too, which I always mix up], and it has some awesome P90's, or perhaps they are mini humbuckers. The guitar shape is double cutaway, and reminds me of a nicer version of a Brian May guitar [you know, the dude from Queen].

And wasn't American Idiot by Green Day recorded with P90's? I remember reading something from Billy saying that he loved the tone, and how different they'd be at 9 as opposed to 10, and whatnot.

 

[phil_104]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

^^ Amrstrong's signature gibson guitar has a soapbar in it. He is known for using them, iirc.

 

[Fender_Punk]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

^^ Amrstrong's signature gibson guitar has a soapbar in it. He is known for using them, iirc.

Yep, he has them in his Gibson Les Paul Jr. On the Colbert Report they played their latest anthem of mediocrity (actually, sub-par lyrically, even for them) and their 2nd guitarist was playing a Les Paul Special w/ 2 P-90s. It's too bad his tone got better just as they became stale. And whining about Wal-Mart not stocking your CD and labelling your band as pop/punk is a laugh and a half. Even if they would carry it uncensored, why would you (as "punks") want it in there? Talk about American idiot.:hijacked:

I think for a lot of people the turn-off of P-90's is visual. Most people are accustomed to seeing humbuckers and Strat singles and accept those shapes as "normal". But when they see soap bars they tend to associate the shape with "old style" which may translate to "not modern" in terms of sound. No one buys a Mosrite to play shred, no matter how good the tone would be. In my younger days I was a victim of this mode of thinking, but now I know it doesn't matter and love the sound/look of P-90 pickups.

I never thought this way, kudos to you for seeing the light. Hell, you can get P-90s in HB size now, and either way I don't find 'em unappealing visually. Even if they were, the tone would still be worth that sacrafice.

 

[metlking]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

Isn't the Billy Joe Armstrong pickup a stacked P-90 of some sort?

 

[MattPete]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

I ran out and bought a new Soapbar SE2 after playing Theodie's Soapbar SE a few years ago. It was the best $400 I ever spent. Great guitar, with far better build quality than my SG, which cost twice as much.

Having said that, it's not the prettiest guitar. But it could be worse: it could look like an SE One, which I find to be hideous.

 

[SlowGroove]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

Gibson SG Classic​

See? You're done shopping, and now you can play.

^^^ THIS ^^^





James

 

[SlowGroove]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

My Gibson ES-135 has p-90's and it's semi-hollow so it gets you in the vicinity of the jangle of the beatles stuff....not quite like the full hollow of the casino, but it'll work. I paid about a grand for my 135 used (since they discontinued them with p90's)

How much does a good USED one go for these days ?
Do you still get them used these days ?
I am having a hard time finding them in stores, used.



James

 

[SlowGroove]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

+1. I have a Casino & like it a lot; put in Duncan P-90's & it sounds great. Epiphone also has a Wildcat (or Alley Cat) with P-90's, and the ES295 (a 175 in gold). In recent limited editions they also have '56 LP Std in black (the regular '56 is a gold top), and a triple P-90 Riviera "P-93" (I got one of these from Music123: wine red, gold hardware, & a Bigsby). I also recently picked up a nice P-90 SG Special by Michael Dolsey.

There are P-90 guitars out there, but you have to do a little looking. Maybe manufacturers will realize that they've flooded the market with HB guitars, and could increase sales by doing something different. There's a number of new guitars evey year that are greeted with a collective yawn by the public, but put P-90's in them & a segment of players start to salivate. To my way of thinking, all the successful designs should be offered in both HB & P-90 versions by most manufacturers (LP, SG, 335, 175, V, etc). And a bridge HB/neck P-90 is a very good combination too. Why have hundreds and hundreds of models of these, all with HB's only? What differentiates them? And they wonder why sales are slow.

Is it only me who wants to see a reversed Gibbo LP BFG w a P90 in the bridge & 'bucker in the neck ?


Like so . . .

James

 

[sosomething]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

obligatory posting of my slabby P-90 mahoGibsons:

SG Classic w/ B5

R8 LP Jr. DC & '63 SG Jr

FWIW (and man do I say this a lot), A good slab of honduran mahog and a bit fat coil sitting on two magnets is a recipe for some of the best blues, rock, punk, and even metal tones you can ever hope to hear...

 

[SlowGroove]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

Eastwood Delta 6 - probably not what you are looking for but still a mean sounding P90 !!!

Malden guitars have a $550.00 street price new !



Godin 5th Ave Kingpin

James

 

[SlowGroove]

Re: Suggest some guitars with P90's for me

Yeah man, I hope so. I hope we see more P90 guitars that are doublecut --- it seems like now, the only P90 axes are Gibson shapes.

I think a 3 P90 Stratocaster type guitar would be a comfortable and fun player.

Well, Fender did give us the TC-90 Thinline.
Strat shaped semi w P90's.
And the Strat-O-Sonic DVII. (2006)
P90 equiped solid body.



What about an aggro looking pointy-point style metal guitar w vintage P90's ?

James