Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Talk about your Burstbuckers and Seymour Duncans....

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IMOCD
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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by IMOCD »

.... and the other talks to the Devil.[/quote]

Great story and a great way to describe what a good good p90 is capable of in the right hands. Jared James Nichols knows how to summon the devil himself with a single p90.

https://youtu.be/Py8LWpKU4MA

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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by Jay »

That's a nice bit of playing in that opening session. The black Epi looks cool too.
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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by Slowy »

codedog wrote:
Slowy wrote:Absolutely agree with Terexgeek and IMOCD.
I'm no P90 expert but I have 2 current impressions, the Reverend 3x p90 posted elsewhere and this thing:
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P90's vary...a lot. Define your sound and look for pups tuned that way. I have 2 P90 guitars in reach. One channels Knopfler and the other talks to the Devil.
Interesting. Would it be too much to ask for the neck pickup to channel Knopfler, and the bridge to channel the Devil? Come to think of it, it will end up sounding like 2 guitars.
Could be.... If you did that, I speculate P4 would be the wildcard. Cannot imagine what the blend of low and high output pups would be.
But you'd definitely have a guitar of two halves. And that sounds like someone's perfect rig to me.
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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by Cdog »

Image

Sorry another gushy love my p90s post. These two are made for eachother. Stock p90s back in for now, and they sound good. I had a pair Dimarzio noise cancelling p90s in there but will flick em and try something new.

Have you checked out the Lollar 50s winds? I have GAS
Last edited by Cdog on Mon May 25, 2020 3:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by sizzlingbadger »

You can still buy original P90's from Gibson rather than looking for copies.
Tube amp and guitar tones straight from 1958… amazing how believable the sounds were back then, even without the modellers...

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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by handsoffmatt »

Pickups DO vary wildly, and P90's are no exception.

IME, many, many P90's go too much for "fat" and end up "bloated". In my opinion, the Epiphone P90's in the past were godawful. I have no idea what the current ones are like.

My fave P90's are just vanilla ol' Gibson P90's...I like them more than Duncans or Lollars. They are a wonderful mix of FAT and BRIGHT. I love them!
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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by sizzlingbadger »

^^^^^ This
Tube amp and guitar tones straight from 1958… amazing how believable the sounds were back then, even without the modellers...

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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by codedog »

Around 20:30 mark there's a comparison between Gibson and the current Epi LP Special.


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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by codedog »

handsoffmatt wrote:Pickups DO vary wildly, and P90's are no exception.

IME, many, many P90's go too much for "fat" and end up "bloated". In my opinion, the Epiphone P90's in the past were godawful. I have no idea what the current ones are like.

My fave P90's are just vanilla ol' Gibson P90's...I like them more than Duncans or Lollars. They are a wonderful mix of FAT and BRIGHT. I love them!
Not that I'm going to change my pickups yet but I did check out the Gibson ones. I could only find them from Gibson website. The shipping alone is over 100 USD! Yikes!

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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by GrantB »

Agree re Gibson P90’s still very relevant. They are different from the 50’s ones though, which are usually more aggressive and honky. Modern ones, to my ears, are A more even Tone.
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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by codedog »

GrantB wrote:Agree re Gibson P90’s still very relevant. They are different from the 50’s ones though, which are usually more aggressive and honky. Modern ones, to my ears, are A more even Tone.
Just from that comparison video above I quite liked the sound of the Gibson ones. I assume those are modern? Still, they seem expensive to bring in just on the shipping alone.

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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by GrantB »

Yep...they used to be easy to purchase aftermarket. Not so much these days. Maybe ring MusicPlanet to see if they have any old stock? Or Rock Shop? At various times they have carried them.
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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by IMOCD »

codedog wrote:
GrantB wrote:Agree re Gibson P90’s still very relevant. They are different from the 50’s ones though, which are usually more aggressive and honky. Modern ones, to my ears, are A more even Tone.
Just from that comparison video above I quite liked the sound of the Gibson ones. I assume those are modern? Still, they seem expensive to bring in just on the shipping alone.
I too think Gibson got it right with the p90's and have no desire to swap brands (and that's coming from a habitual pickup changer)
Dunno....maybe a mag swap in the epi pups might be worth a punt. I'm guessing they would be ceramic and could/would benefit from some Alnico goodness..might get you in the ballpark. This could also address the imbalance between bridge and neck with differering strength mags. e.g A2/3 in the neck and A5 in the bridge.

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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by HackSaw »

Good a thread as any to ask my question. I have the 2019 SG special, P90’s. Has the pcb wiring thing, which I’ve no doubt I wouldn’t even know if I didn’t open it up. However now I know, and I don’t like it! Give me old school (esp 50s wiring). I’ll go for a kit though given my skills with a soldering iron. How does this look?

https://jacksonelectronicluthier.com/sg ... 22uf-caps/

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Re: Learn me on P-90 Pickups

Post by IMOCD »

HackSaw wrote:Good a thread as any to ask my question. I have the 2019 SG special, P90’s. Has the pcb wiring thing, which I’ve no doubt I wouldn’t even know if I didn’t open it up. However now I know, and I don’t like it! Give me old school (esp 50s wiring). I’ll go for a kit though given my skills with a soldering iron. How does this look?

https://jacksonelectronicluthier.com/sg ... 22uf-caps/
This would be my choice personally. Love how you can swap pups in and out without soldering. Great company to deal with too.

https://tonelounge.co.nz/traditional-vi ... -les-paul/

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