Wiring for Mean 90/C8

J

jambs

New member
Longtime lurker, getting ready to throw a GFS Mean 90 and Custom 8 into an Epiphone G-400 for my first pickup swap.

The Mean 90 just arrived and glancing at this diagram, there's a white wire that's hot and two wires (one bare, one red) that need to be grounded. The wiring guide also includes a diagram of the GFS humbucker, which use the green wire as the hot and the black wire as the ground (opposite of SD).

Since I'm wiring these together in-phase (hopefully), will I need to use the red wire on the Mean 90 as the hot and the white one as the ground? Thanks!
 
Re: Wiring for Mean 90/C8

Use the white wire as hot for the GFS as indicated. Use black wire of the C8 as hot.
 
Re: Wiring for Mean 90/C8

Excellent PU pair! C8's shine in mahogany, especially SG's, and Mean 90's are really popular here too. You should like it a lot.
 
Re: Wiring for Mean 90/C8

blueman335 said:
Excellent PU pair! C8's shine in mahogany, especially SG's, and Mean 90's are really popular here too. You should like it a lot.
Click to expand...

No kidding! Finally got my Alnico 8 magnet over the weekend and installed this set last night. Speechless. This is hands down the set I would recommend to an SG owner. I can’t wait to get home and plug it in.

I can’t compare the Mean 90 to actual P-90 side-by-side, but it really truly takes the best of single coils and humbuckers, giving my neck a certain clarity and sparkle missing from the 59 set in my other SG. I was worried about the potential of that 60-cycle hum, but I really struggled to hear it. Blues players take note, if you’re looking for an alternative to 59 in the neck, this is it.

As for the Custom 8, not much else I can say that hasn’t already been said on this forum. What a 59b lacked in “umph” for me, the Custom 8 makes up for while still cleaning up nicely with the volume knob. I was little concerned about the difference in output, but with a little fine-tuning, the middle position is pure bliss. It was certainly worth the trouble of learning how to swap magnets. Honestly, the hardest part had to be snipping through the blobs of solder! Highly recommend practicing on a old pickup first like I did.

I want to be sure to thank blueman, whose posts served as an excellent resource for this swap. Couldn’t be happier with the results.
 
Re: Wiring for Mean 90/C8

Thanks for the kind words. Many of us here just don't understand why the C8 isn't a production model. I think it's one of Duncan's best overwound bridge PU's, along with the UO C5. The stock C5 is a bit thin and bright, the CC is too rounded in the high end in mahogany, and some of us just don't like ceramic mags. The C8 fixes these issues and works well in more genres of music that the others. Lots of satisfied users; I don't know if I've read a post by anyone who didn't like it.

There's something about a P-90 in the neck that you can't get from an HB; a and sharpness and clarity.

Don't you think that manufacturers should be using HB/P-90 sets in a lot more guitars?
 
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