Meatier than a P90? Raunchier than a humbucker?

S

swarfrat

Guest
I'm not ready to make the plunge just yet, and even if I were, I think I'd be inclined to try the puppy dog clause for a while - just on principle. I like the tone I get from the Mean 90. On the neck it's fabulous, and not as rude as I would have thought. On the bridge it does deliver on rude,  I like the midrange character, but what I think I'd really like to find is to keep all the midrange raunch, while getting just a bit more beefy lower/mid oomph. Something with some more authoritah.

I know one man's beef is another man's mud, that every wants 'fatter' unless they don't, in which case they'll call what they do want something else. (For instance, I need more definition. Nobody will say 'I want less fat on my bridge pickup'.) Having said all that... what're some humbuckers that maybe I should consider? I've read most of the common ones over the years. I'm more interested to hear opinions. 

For anyone not been reading the boards the past 18 months.. It's going in a short scale, wenge neck, chambered BK strat.
 
Ever used a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker? If not, you may want to give one a try. The design is unchanged for over 30 years for a reason and arguably made that company. Worse thing that can happen is you flip it here or on eBay, because everybody wants at least one. They're not too heavy in any particular frequency, and while it's a "hot" pickup, it's not so hot it gets muddy/mushy while still being able to beat up on a preamp section enough to make even an old Fender amp stand up and be proud. Back it off a bit, and it cleans right up. It's a nice design.
 
+1 on the Duncan JB,

I'd also recommend the Duncan Custom 5, it's got "low mid oomph" without being too much, sounds great, I even have one right now that I'd trade or sell to you if you'd like. (black open coils) PM me if interested  :headbang:
 
Looked through, listened to clips. Actually the most interesting sounding humbucker SD had (going by the clips, for this guitar) was the Stag Mag. Didn't really expect that, but I preferred the PhatCat - so maybe I'll just keep my Mean 90 after all.  DiMarzio has some interesting looking models, but when I listened to their clips they were all gained out and sounded too much alike. (But the Evo2, Evolution, and Norton looked interesting from their descriptions and charts. )
 
I really like P90 tone but not so much the hum. The GFS VEH is a great sounding full size humbucker, I've been very impressed with it. I do like the Duncan JB also but it does not have the lower mid P90 "honk" I like.  One of my favorite P90 style pups is the Dimarzio DP162 (a dual coil P90), good mids, not too muddy, hum canceling and 4 wire series/parallel/split options. I asked Steve at Dimarzio what full size pickup he thought was similar to the DP162 and he suggested the Evolution. I put the Evolution bridge in an ash body Strat but it is a bit too bright and hot for my taste (of course the ash may be contributing to the brightness). It does have a lot of mids but more the edgy upper mids and not the lower mid "honk" I'm looking for. Might be great in a warm all mahogany guitar...
 
The hum is also something I'm going to have to do something about. I've played strats for 25 years, and until I got EMG's, I played mostly #2 and #4 positions. The pickups are hum cancelling when combined, but ... that's not quite as flexible in a two pickup guitar.
 
I really like the look of the SD Phat Cat, and the price of the Mean 90, for my Brutal Legend V project. Can anyone contrast/compare these pups for me? The plan right now is to try the Mean 90s first and if one or both aren't quite up to snuff, replace with the pricier Phat Cat. Or should I just bite the bullet right away and go with the SDs?
 
1. Send a copy of your OP to this address:
pickups@roadhousepickups.com
2. Wait for reply.
3. Send $
4. Wait patiently
5. Instal new pickups
6. :icon_biggrin:

That's the way it worked for me.
:rock-on:
 
I actually pm'd Ken when I started this project - but way back then, he said he didn't have a source for the bobbins or something. I guess if you take long enough...
 
swarfrat said:
I actually pm'd Ken when I started this project - but way back then, he said he didn't have a source for the bobbins or something. I guess if you take long enough...
I stand corrected.
Must be more to it than I am aware.
I mixed his RH Tele Specials & Triple Crown HB and he came up with a well balanced set right off the bat. I guess I just got lucky.
 
A set of Bare Knuckles would cost as much as the neck and body combined. While I'm sure they're great... Surely there's a garden variety bucker closer to my goals.
 
Back then I was manually creating the bobbins and it was too time consuming to make it worth while. I now have them laser cut and they are great! You should email me agian. I think I have what you need.  :icon_thumright:
 
Just a note of followup:

After getting everything working right, I really like the Mean 90, a LOT, except for the hum. Right now my plan is to sacrifice a dummy mean 90 and do the buffered dummy coil in series thing.

 
swarfrat said:
Just a note of followup:

After getting everything working right, I really like the Mean 90, a LOT, except for the hum. Right now my plan is to sacrifice a dummy mean 90 and do the buffered dummy coil in series thing.

That's good info on the Mean 90 for me. I've been considering those to replace the Hums in an Ibanez semi-solid.
 
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