HB vs P90

[disaster]

I am looking for a Gibson HB style guitar but I'm confused.  I have a 5-year old HSS strat that I play all the time.  Nothing special tone wise, just Alnico SC pickups.  I've tried a couple of SG guitars with various HB pickups & I just don't like the tone.  They all seem very muddy & bass.  I expected a different tone than the strat but nothing as muddy as what I've played.  I haven't tried a P90.  Are the P90 pickups closer to a strat single coil sound?  Or are they also muddy like the HB pickups?

To be fair I played a mid-60s HB equipped SG regularly as a kid & I don't remember the tone being as muddy as what I've tried recently.

Thanks.

 

[Mor Paul]

I normally have to adjust the EQ a lot with hums. P90s.. I love them. Very clear when I tried.

 

[tfarny]

1. don't judge all humbuckers by playing just a couple! Sheesh.
2. P90s can be muddy depending on how how hot they are wound, what position (neck or bridge), the amp settings, and your own personal definition of muddy.
3. P90s can also be described as having a fantastic fat but still articulate sound - a strat pickup that is beefed up and muscly, easy to dial in to the spot between clean and overdrive where your picking really changes the tone.

Sounds like you need to keep playing different guitars and exploring the tone that fits you. Go into the best music store on a weekday morning, get a nice little tube amp set up for fairly clean, and try everything they'll let you touch.

 

[-CB-]

Here's the whole story cut to the chase -

Humbuckers vary all over the place in tone.  Lower wound chimey PAFs to hot death-metal and all points in between.

Strat and Tele single coils - all over the place in tone.

P90's - you guessed it - all over the place in tone.  I have some experience with "the Gibson P90" which has changed dramatically over the years.  Very early models were rather light wound, and went in hollow body guitars.  The Les Paul 52-56 P90's are a little hotter, beefier - not its not the body that does it, they intentionally upped the windings.  Later they upped the windings again when the P90 was relegated to the bottom end guitars as a bit of a sales prank.  When the vintage craze hit, they lowered the P90 a bit to some middle winding status, but then, upped the winding count again when they came out with the BFG.  I know it was with the BFG, because I'd gotten four or five "pre-BFG" pickups and they were a thousand ohms lighter.  The three that I've gotten since the BFG was in production are a thousand ohms heavier - and too heavy for my taste, except maybe in the BFG (which I also have).

So.... thats that.

A REALLY good all-around pickup that is fatter than a Strat, lighter than most P90's (about even with the originals) is the PhatCat from Duncan.  Its a really well versed pickup.

 

[Steve_Karl]

A few months ago I picked up a Les Paul Studio ( 2002 ) used and it's the first set of Gibson hum bucking pickups I've ever had that sounded good going direct.
These newer ones ( I think they're called burst buckers ) actually have a nicely balanced tone straight off the pickup.

 

[-CB-]

Those would be Burstbucker Pro (formerly Burstbucker V).  AlNiCo 5 magnets fully charged and moderate, yet mismatched coil windings.  The BBpro 1/2 is roughly the same windings as the BB 2/3 non pro... with the BBpro 2 just a tad lighter wind than the BB-3.

I agree they sound GREAT on a Les Paul.  Put 'em in a ES-335 and they sound like poo.  In an SG they're shrill.  They're good in thick-toned guitars like a lester.