Yummy P90 pickups !!

[hamfist]

To all you chaps out there who have not yet "discovered" P90 pickups. Let me enlighten you.
P90's have some of the best qualities of single coil PUPs, like the attack, without the harshness, and also a greater output, giving you greater "oomph" than a single coil. You can get some seriously crunchy tones witha good P90.
If you are a diehard humbucker fan then I wish you well, I love humbuckers too, its just that, for me, P90's offer me such a variety of tone from one guitar, that I find that I can get most tones I am seeking from one guitar, which I like.
Anyway, I just replaced my stock P90 pickups from my PRS Soapbar SE II last week. I just knew that there was more to come from the guitar than the stock PUPs were offering. Boy, was I right !!! I replaced them with Bareknucklespickups BKP91's. These are made in the UK, where I live, and are as cheap as any boutique USA import brands (lollars etc). What a totally quality piece of kit ! The improvement over the stock pickups was enormous. The bass frequencies were 200% less muddy and wooly. I got back all the mids that were lacking with the stock PUPs. Also the whole sound is more tonally balanced, less harsh.
Utterly, utterly recommended as a PRS soapbar replacement pickup, and probably a replacement for any stock P90 pickup.
HF

[Ravindave_3600]

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check them out sometime. A friend has a Casino hanging in his shop, so maybe I'm due for a trip downtown. :-)

BTW, I don't think we've met, so welcome.

[Brad]

Oh jes......I'm a P-90 lover from way back. My first, good electric was a 1957 Les Paul Special I found in my grammas basement around 1968-69. Check out refins "P-90 Blues" for some tasty playing and killer P-90 tone.

[Crunchyriff]

My first, good electric was a 1957 Les Paul Special I found in my grammas basement around 1968-69.

Oh man...now THAT is a good find!!

[jono007]

interesting note on the P90s.

I've got a music man Axis with P90s in them. Wondering if the bare knuckles will make a huge difference or not. Unfortunately, there's no way of trying them out eh?

Anyone out there tried replacing EMBBs P90s with anything?

[Brad]

interesting note on the P90s.

I've got a music man Axis with P90s in them. Wondering if the bare knuckles will make a huge difference or not. Unfortunately, there's no way of trying them out eh?

Anyone out there tried replacing EMBBs P90s with anything?

I'm not sure what make of P-90's ( or if they wind em themselves ) MM uses on their gutiars, but I was pretty impressed with their tone. A local store is a MM dealer, so I play a few of the toneful little gems when I stop by.

While I have not tried BK pups, I have heard nothing but great things about them. A set of those or a set of Lollars ( my all time fav P-90's ) would be a nice upgrade I'm sure......although again, the stock ones are not bad at all.

[jono007]

i realise that i actually don't want anything too hot as the clean sound of the MM is great.

Using a TS808, I get a nice od sound, and when I add my hotcake to the mix, its enuf crunch for my purposes. I've left the heavy metal days behind me... lent out my Rat2...

[SAguitar]

Somehow, I'm just not riding this P90 wave! It does seem like the Great P90 Revival is taking place right now, though. Last year, I was sold on these pups big time by a very good friend, so I have now have, or had, 3 P90 guitars. One of them is a my old 1981 Gibson "The Paul" Deluxe that I put a set of P90s in. I played it for awhile, but never really got into it somehow. Then, I put a set of Phat Cats in my 1975 Les Paul Deluxe, and those still didn't do it for me, and they got pulled out of there after a few months for a set of Semour Jazz pickups. I also have a Gibson Blueshawk which comes stock with Blues 90s, and I like those a little more.

This is probably just me. I go through phases. My longest one was about 20 years with my Les Paul. Then I got a hankering for singlecoils and started getting into Strats and Teles, which eventually led me to Chris Kinman's pickups, and those are still my favorite for Strats and Teles. I played Kinmanized Strats and my No. 1 Tele for several years, and thought that was "my tone."

But in the last six months or so, I have been craving, and drifting back toward humbuckers. I've been playing my Paul a lot more, which is now loaded with Seymour 59's. I've also been playing my Epiphone Sheraton (with Gibson '57s) a lot, plus my Gibson Lucille (stock pickups).

For what it's worth, this whole P90 craze is just bypassing me right now, I'll probably get on the bandwagon in a year or two! :lol:

[jono007]

different strokes for different folks...

I also realise that there are some sounds that I liked 3, 5, 10 years back that I don't like anymore, so I guess my individual sound is changing... and I guess it will continue to change. So P90s are for me right now...

Actually, I stumbled upon them by accident. I actually thought I had bought the humbucker version of the EBMM, but it turned out to be the P90 version. But I plugged it in and I loved the sound. Warm yet clean... a little noisy with the gain turned up on the bridge pup, but nothing worse than another single coil.

Anyway, each to their own...

[SAguitar]

Hey, I'm glad you're lovin' 'em! Whatever tone makes ya smile when ya play for the Lord is a good tone!

"Different strokes for different folks, and so on, and so on, and scooby-dooby-doo!" :grin:

[Crunchyriff]

A good PAF (or clone) sounds an awful lot like a P90 in many regards.
AFAIKT, the 50's PAF's usually get there the closest, and the reason is that the original intent of the PAF humbucker in the designer's mind (Seth Lover, for one) was to capture all the sonic goodness of the P90...WITHOUT the noise of a P90.

That being said, bobbin winds for these were all over the map in the 50's- no real consistency whatsoever; and therefore, so are all the clone variants today. Everybody & their uncle Fred has their "essential PAF" idea...many times based on the wide variety of 50s PAF's.

But I digress. I really REALLY like a good set of P90's- and I know that more than one of my favorite Guitarists use them in the studio as one of their "secret weapons".

Aside from my 335, the guitar I usally reach for is my P90 Gibby.

I'd love to try a set of BK pups.