Micah
New member
Hey everyone- Im hoping this is the right space for this-please let me know if there is a better place for it. I wanted to do a review after having a couple weeks of good honest comparison time with my stock Gibson Les Paul Special Double Cut (P90's) and my SG Special that I converted to Soap Bar pickup routes and filled with Zhanguliqun's Hot P90's.
Heres' the specs: Honk + Bridge P90 (10.3K with A5 mags) as well as a Matching neck P90 (7.2K with varying sized A2 mags). Fat, Hot Single Coil Tone, but the set is reverse wound, reverse polarity for hum-canceling in the middle position.
I bought a Les Paul Special Double Cut with dual stock Gibson P90’s and I loved it so much that I decided to convert the SG to P90s but to kick it up a few notches in output and mid-range punch. The Stock Gibson bridge measures 8.05K (in my basement @ least) so you have an idea of my point of reference for this pickup. The neck Gibson measures 7.9K, both with A5 mags. I also want to reference that I installed these pickups about 2 weeks ago and have spent a decent amount of time comparing them to the stock Gibson 90’s through my Vox AC30 with Blue Alnico speakers.
I play pretty much hard-edged riffy southern rock type stuff with an old school rock and roll flare. I play mostly straight into the VOX but I do have a Line 6 Delay Modeler (which is nice sometimes), an MXR DynaComp (It’s a compressor but I really don’t use it much), and a Baber Direct Drive (great overdrive pedal-I think the only reason I have it is in case I ever have to play through another amp unexpectedly).
The bridge Honk + P90 is probably one of the hottest pickups I have ever played hands down. It rates up there with the Duncan Distortion and DiMarzio Super 3 in output (I’m Perceiving). The great thing about this pickup is that although the output is high, it has a vintage-like warm character and mid-rangy edge that is reminiscent of a high output 70’s type pickup. It’s not a modern scooped midrange type sound. It’s got a raw, rock and roll edge to it that was exactly what I was looking for in this guitar. Compared to the stock Gibson P90, the Honk + has less top end, a stiffer mid-range that doesn’t mush out under gain, but still plenty of harmonic zing, ringing and swirling when you play an overdriven chord. It’s a brilliant pickup.
In the neck, the 7.2K with A2 is a very bluesy warm tone that doesn’t overpower the bridge pickup one bit. It’s got beautiful clean tones when the pickup is rolled down and when you let it out, singing lead tones with definite P90 woody character and chirpy single notes that ooze with warmth @ the same time. When combining the 2 pickups in the middle position, the hum canceling provides great clean tones with the honk of the bridge for control and the warmth of the neck to provide a nice spanky rhythm tone or a great boosted lead tone with less noise if you’re using a boost pedal.
I’ve been playing for 9 or 10 years I guess. I’ve been through allot of amps and a few guitars and tons of pickups trying to figure out how to speak the language that is in my head. It’s been a long process for us all, but hey, that’s why we are still playing right? I want to take the opportunity to say a few things about Zhangliqun. I got connected with this guy on the forum after I had posted a few threads trying to get a certain tone out of the telecaster I had then. Someone referred me to him for his Paul Bunyan Tele pickup that I hear some incredible things about. I spent probably a month and a half emailing this guy back and forth with my tonal goals and trying to figure out what I really wanted out of a pickup. He was an extremely helpful source. At a certain point it became evident to him that what I really wanted was a P90. The bottom line was no matter how we tried to squeeze a P90 into a tele sized package, it was still going to sound like a tele. Based on that, I traded the tele for the Les Paul Special with P90’s and I couldn’t have been happier. The thing that impressed me about Zhang was that he always tried to help me get my tone and kept the sales pitch @ a distance where as to help me find exactly what I was looking for and keep me from being once again disappointed in my pickup choice. Because I loved the P90's so much, I wanted to swap my SG over as well. Naturally I wanted Zhang’s Hot P90’s in my guitar and I couldn’t be happier. That SG has never sounded better than it does right now in all of the 9 years I’ve owned it. I highly suggest you consider Zhang @ zhangbucker@yahoo.com for your pickup needs. He has allot of knowledge and his prices are definatly reasonable.
Heres' the specs: Honk + Bridge P90 (10.3K with A5 mags) as well as a Matching neck P90 (7.2K with varying sized A2 mags). Fat, Hot Single Coil Tone, but the set is reverse wound, reverse polarity for hum-canceling in the middle position.
I bought a Les Paul Special Double Cut with dual stock Gibson P90’s and I loved it so much that I decided to convert the SG to P90s but to kick it up a few notches in output and mid-range punch. The Stock Gibson bridge measures 8.05K (in my basement @ least) so you have an idea of my point of reference for this pickup. The neck Gibson measures 7.9K, both with A5 mags. I also want to reference that I installed these pickups about 2 weeks ago and have spent a decent amount of time comparing them to the stock Gibson 90’s through my Vox AC30 with Blue Alnico speakers.
I play pretty much hard-edged riffy southern rock type stuff with an old school rock and roll flare. I play mostly straight into the VOX but I do have a Line 6 Delay Modeler (which is nice sometimes), an MXR DynaComp (It’s a compressor but I really don’t use it much), and a Baber Direct Drive (great overdrive pedal-I think the only reason I have it is in case I ever have to play through another amp unexpectedly).
The bridge Honk + P90 is probably one of the hottest pickups I have ever played hands down. It rates up there with the Duncan Distortion and DiMarzio Super 3 in output (I’m Perceiving). The great thing about this pickup is that although the output is high, it has a vintage-like warm character and mid-rangy edge that is reminiscent of a high output 70’s type pickup. It’s not a modern scooped midrange type sound. It’s got a raw, rock and roll edge to it that was exactly what I was looking for in this guitar. Compared to the stock Gibson P90, the Honk + has less top end, a stiffer mid-range that doesn’t mush out under gain, but still plenty of harmonic zing, ringing and swirling when you play an overdriven chord. It’s a brilliant pickup.
In the neck, the 7.2K with A2 is a very bluesy warm tone that doesn’t overpower the bridge pickup one bit. It’s got beautiful clean tones when the pickup is rolled down and when you let it out, singing lead tones with definite P90 woody character and chirpy single notes that ooze with warmth @ the same time. When combining the 2 pickups in the middle position, the hum canceling provides great clean tones with the honk of the bridge for control and the warmth of the neck to provide a nice spanky rhythm tone or a great boosted lead tone with less noise if you’re using a boost pedal.
I’ve been playing for 9 or 10 years I guess. I’ve been through allot of amps and a few guitars and tons of pickups trying to figure out how to speak the language that is in my head. It’s been a long process for us all, but hey, that’s why we are still playing right? I want to take the opportunity to say a few things about Zhangliqun. I got connected with this guy on the forum after I had posted a few threads trying to get a certain tone out of the telecaster I had then. Someone referred me to him for his Paul Bunyan Tele pickup that I hear some incredible things about. I spent probably a month and a half emailing this guy back and forth with my tonal goals and trying to figure out what I really wanted out of a pickup. He was an extremely helpful source. At a certain point it became evident to him that what I really wanted was a P90. The bottom line was no matter how we tried to squeeze a P90 into a tele sized package, it was still going to sound like a tele. Based on that, I traded the tele for the Les Paul Special with P90’s and I couldn’t have been happier. The thing that impressed me about Zhang was that he always tried to help me get my tone and kept the sales pitch @ a distance where as to help me find exactly what I was looking for and keep me from being once again disappointed in my pickup choice. Because I loved the P90's so much, I wanted to swap my SG over as well. Naturally I wanted Zhang’s Hot P90’s in my guitar and I couldn’t be happier. That SG has never sounded better than it does right now in all of the 9 years I’ve owned it. I highly suggest you consider Zhang @ zhangbucker@yahoo.com for your pickup needs. He has allot of knowledge and his prices are definatly reasonable.
