When and Why P-90 Pickups?

Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

Mike M. said:
I bought a PRS SE Soapbar II this past summer. Took the stock P90's out, installed Lollars P90's and for overdriven/distorted sounds this is fast becoming my favorite guitar. Much more so than my humbucking equipt guitars. Great snarl and growl with an amazing clarity, and I love the punch I get from the high end. In my very humble opinion I'm finding P90's to be the most versatile pickups out there.
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Mike, I have a SoapBar SE II as well. How do you like the Lollar pups compared to the stock ones? I was thinking of putting SD P90's in mine.
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

MattPete said:
my god man! Not only was that great playing, but it was a great demonstration of the P-90 sound. It's thick, yet thin.
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Thanks, MP and Toad. :)
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

Until recently I did not know much about p90's. Still I cannot say I know a lot, but am assembling a hollow tele with lollar's p90's. So I think I would have more to offer in the near future.

Anyway, my first step into the p90 land was a phatcat bridge. For years I have liked a5 PAFs because of their thick and defined tone.

With a Phatcat bridge getting a thick tone with more definition is so easy. The tone is quite similar to an a5 PAF clone BUT on the wound strings I can get almost a tele kinda clarity. The high strings sure sound a little more wild, but still it is ok. It can be managed.

It can do a very wide variety of tones. This weekend we were playing some tunes from John Fogerty's Blue Moon Swamp. Then we went into Thin Lizzy and Johnny Winter territory. GREAT RESULTS! I love it!

Still am not sure if I wanna go for a phatcat neck. I am using quite a nice pickup in the neck which sounds very woody and has very nice definition for an a2 PAF clone. I have adjusted the screw pieces quite high in order to increase its clarity. I could use a little more clarity but also do not want to lose that thick a2 PAF neck tone which this HB does perfectly. So I think I am going to keep on sticking to that neck HB.

B
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

jonnymangia said:
Mike, I have a SoapBar SE II as well. How do you like the Lollar pups compared to the stock ones? I was thinking of putting SD P90's in mine.
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Hey, John. In my opinion, I found the stock bridge pickup lacked drive and the stock neck pickup was very muddy. The Lollars have an amazing fidelity about them without lacking anything. I generally have always had a problem with every stock neck pickup I've ever tried. Jason Lollar suggested to me that I try the neck pickup with a 5% underwind and I'm very glad I did. I now have a neck pickup that to me, sounds like a neck pickup should. It's very clear, no mud what so ever and has just the right amount of depth. The bridge pickup has a smooth bass and is boosted in the mids. But it's not those "honking, harsh, barking" mids. But those mids can really slap you in the face when playing higher notes, which I like. I love the clean tone I get from them as well. I don't use the bridge pickup by itself for clean things to much, but I love the bridge and neck combined and just the neck pickup by itself for clean tones. But my favorite is the bridge pickup by itself thru my Marshall DSL 50. Balls to the walls but with a great clarity. Again, I am definatley prefering this guitar over my humbucking equipt guitars for my rock tones.
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

Falstaff said:
Well, it varies with each user, but I find that the P90 gives a bigger, fatter sound than traditional single coils (sounds great with distortion) and has more rawness than humbuckers. I think P90 are the ideal pickups...sort of a best of both worlds kind of thing. A good Les Paul Junior can go from country to UFO. YMMV, of course. IMHO, P90s sometimes get labeled as one trick ponies because people always answer "Mississippi Queen" when folks ask what P90s sound like.
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Or better yet, reference any of the early 50 Les Paul / Mary Ford recordings, all made with a P-90.

The Humbucker came out just after those recordings were made.

PS: Les Paul is 90 and still playing guitar. He also can kick as$ of any guitar player who make the mistake of thinking that they can play better than him... :beerchug:
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

p-90s to me are sort of a more focused humbucker. but as it's been said, the bottom line is they simply kick serious amounts of tail. as far as the noise goes, i found if i simply turn my back to my computer monitor the noise level goes down far enough to be manageable.
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

The P-90 is surprisingly smooth. I figured the sound would be more closely associated with edgy sound of an SC, rather than the smooth sound of a HB. The HIGHS cut through well, yet still retain a smooth texture that mixes well. I tend to stay away from single coils, which, IMHO, are too bright. I use distortion sparingly, Tech 21 DD, but have been able to find that sweet spot, just a hair past the breakup point. It is important that I retain a very smooth, liquidy sound, as our band uses one acoustic, 96' Custom Brazillian Rosewood Taylor, and one electric, with light to moderate distortion. For the most part, distortion is used for rhythm sections. I currently have a 59/CC Hybrid. Would I benefit more from a P-90 pickup mixing in with an acoustic. The Taylor is INCREDIBLY SMOOTH, so I wouldn't want anything that would take away from it's beauty, or draw attention from it. OPINIONS?
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

I've got to say that I've never been a huge fan of P-90's. They're not as loud and ballsy as a humbucker and they're not as clear and "Stratty" as a nice Strat single coil. Plus they hum. But some guys looking for a ballsier single coil tone than can be had from a Strat or Tele like them. Freddie King used them for some of his early recordings and Leslie West got a great tone from a LP JR with a bridge P90. I always get tired of P90's though. Lew
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

I have an Gibson SG with an LP Jr P90 at the bridge. I have not used it for ages and I've almost forgot how it good sounds. The reason that I don't use it that often is because I usulaay play with a clean sound and I stick to my Strat with the Vintage Noiseless pickups. I better go down to the basement and get that SG back up and start some serious playing. IMO, it is one heck of a pickup. It can do almost anything you want to except a clean bell like sound. A must in anyone's arsenal.
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

I've had my phat cats in my ibanez artist for a few months now. all I can say is you play a good electric guitar unplugged and listen to the acoustic tone and imagine the the best possible plugged-in sound and you get it with phat cats/p90s.
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

Howdy,

For sheer lusty TONE, there's nothing like P-90's! Think "Fire Down Below", "Get Off My Cloud" , "Bad to the Bone" "Don't Fear the Reaper", "Roadhouse Blues" and of course "Johnny B. Goode"!!
My LP Special has SD Vintage P-90's and sounds raunchier than J-Lo in black fishnet stockings! Let's not forget "Revolution" as well. P-90's have at least for me, the perfect blend of meat AND clarity. HBers just make me sound like somebody else. I like Teles and SC p/u's, too.
For me it's either my Tele or LP Sp (w/ P-90's) or maybe my Rickenbacker 360/6, whose p/u's are sort of like P-90 lite; and that's a good thing. Also, my P-90 equpped LP Sp. is a blast for ripping and riffing with "Keef" tunings through my BF '65 Princeton with the vol set to 10!

Eggman
PS: Get yer Ya-Ya's out! Try P-90's
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

To me, p-90s sound like rock n roll should. As a neck pup, they make a beautiful, fat clean sound. They don't seem to do as well for a prestine strat clean, but thats what strats are for. For a slightly hairy sound they're great. Yeah, they are noisy, but who cares! I turn the volume down between songs, or large chunks of silence. I'm not scared of a little noise. They don't replace hums or single, but they really are such a great flavor, that I would rather not play with anything else (though I do occasionally). To me , they sound like AC/DC or ZZ Top, even though I know that those guys used mostly humbuckers, I feel that P-90s nail that sort of sound. And you can get a great heavier tone as well.
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

Overall I agree your p90 descriptions are right on-exactly the sound I used to have wiht an SG special and builiding a p90 SG replacement right now-

Mike, tell me about the lollar pups- are they bright, dark, or ballanced? How many winds did you go with?

Guitar Toad, you were in the right direction with Tom Scholtz, but it was the p90s underrated cousin that carried Boston- Of course much of his sound came from incredible effects and voice leading, but the underlying sound is the stock mini-bucker on his LP deluxe.

The minibucker was designed as the direct replacement for p90s and even considering the rebirth of the p90, I still see the minibucker as the most underrated pup design of all times-

The reason, they arent as agressive as a p90, but they aren't as thick as a regular humbucker and they are much more detailed- Sholtz said many times that he would never have obtained that destinct but crunched sound without them-
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

Lewguitar said:
I've got to say that I've never been a huge fan of P-90's. They're not as loud and ballsy as a humbucker and they're not as clear and "Stratty" as a nice Strat single coil. Plus they hum. But some guys looking for a ballsier single coil tone than can be had from a Strat or Tele like them. Freddie King used them for some of his early recordings and Leslie West got a great tone from a LP JR with a bridge P90. I always get tired of P90's though. Lew
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Interesting that you say that P-90s aren't as "ballsy" as a humbucker, because I find P-90s to be more ballsy than humbuckers, especially PAF style humbuckers. With a PAF, you get phase cancelling from the coils which results in the unique humbucker tone, but also kills some midrange and high end frequencies, which I think are important to getting a really ballsy rock tone. Yes, P-90s may not have the output of humbuckers, but I think the tone is more rockin'. That's totally a matter of preference, but I just thought it was interesting.
 
Re: When and Why P-90 Pickups?

They are less honky then humbuckers and i find them nice in les paul but saying that i have never played a P90 loaded axa i have just heard them on records
 
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