Toulouse_Tuhles
Senior Member
- Messages
- 236
I was just describing how I made up some telecaster variants with a P90 at the neck and humbucker at the bridge. Gibson did that on their BFG, which I had, actually liked a lot. Chunky neck was great. Very light chambered body. They also accepted refinish work like a blank canvas to an artist....
That got me thinking of another P90 guitar I converted and refinished.
Which started life as an SG Special "faded" (crap finish), which also had a fairly chunky neck, and I liked. Those came stock with the Gibson 490/490 pickup set. This one got the black cherry burst with Mohawk toners and a lot of Deft lacquer spray. Also has the neck pickup set about 3/8 back from the "normal" P90 position, so I didn't have to route the tenon area at all. Naturally, the pickguard was custom cut.
So... all of this got me thinking.....
Most players realize, admit, discuss, even argue the differences in all the flavors of humbuckers. Most players feel the same way about Strat pickups, or Tele pickups. All sorts of flavors. Then ask them about a P90, and its sort of a one flavor pickup. They'll say "I'm thinking about putting a P90 in my guitar", or "P90's are too fat, too rough, too (whatever) for me, so I'm taking it out". They treat 'em all the same.
They ain't the same.
I've had the good fortune of having just a wee bit of experience with some P90 pickups as Gibson produced them. For a time, the P90 was used in archtops, and in thin hollow body and thinline guitars, but after humbuckers were invented and mainstreamed, the P90 was only put in entry level guitars, and when that happened the recipe was changed. You'll find very very light and sweet original P90's that were in ES guitars like an ES-125 or the top line ES-5, or can find original heavy, raunchy, roadhouse tone pickups from old LP Junior or SG Juniors.
From Wikipedia: "In common with many other modern pickup types, there are two versions of modern P-90: neck and bridge version. Their DC resistance tends to be around 7-8 kΩ for neck pickups and 8-9 kΩ for bridge pickups. Early P-90 pickups made before approx 1974 were manufactured with no difference in the bridge and neck position and were interchangeable."Dont believe everything you read on the internet. From as far back as the 1990's, Gibson has had only "P90" pickups, no neck, no bridge variety. However, there is considerable winding differences. I've measured the P90 from the early-to-mid 1960, at as high as 13.5k, others in the 10k range. Earlier than that, from ES-225 at only 6.5k - all original. Gibson never announced anything special, or different, but they were. Wikipedia says they changed to Alnico 5 magnets in 1957, and I'm not sure that's the case, but its possible as the output was hotter than hot, and not too muted in tone due to the high winding resistance.
The pickups I used, were all from the early 2000's, bought new. In the high 7k range, with some variation. The Gibson P94 was hotter, in a smaller package, dunno how they did that. I will say, the P90 at the neck is a nice tone, but hard to balance with any humbucker in the bridge, unless you get a really hot shredder special. When you do that, the tone is not the best balance. I found the Burstbucker #3 to be a decent compromise and a good bridge pickup at any rate, even without a P90 at the neck. Even so, that P90 had to be set rather low and the Burstbucker rather high to get a good balance when both pickups were used.Lollar had a few flavors of P90's, not sure what he offers these days. Ditto Fralin, but Lindy makes a P90 close to what Gibson did in the late 40's/early 50's. If you want a more raunchy, in-your-face tone, get one of his overwound pickups.And... that's my little PSA on P90 pickups.
That got me thinking of another P90 guitar I converted and refinished.
Which started life as an SG Special "faded" (crap finish), which also had a fairly chunky neck, and I liked. Those came stock with the Gibson 490/490 pickup set. This one got the black cherry burst with Mohawk toners and a lot of Deft lacquer spray. Also has the neck pickup set about 3/8 back from the "normal" P90 position, so I didn't have to route the tenon area at all. Naturally, the pickguard was custom cut.
So... all of this got me thinking.....
Most players realize, admit, discuss, even argue the differences in all the flavors of humbuckers. Most players feel the same way about Strat pickups, or Tele pickups. All sorts of flavors. Then ask them about a P90, and its sort of a one flavor pickup. They'll say "I'm thinking about putting a P90 in my guitar", or "P90's are too fat, too rough, too (whatever) for me, so I'm taking it out". They treat 'em all the same.
They ain't the same.
I've had the good fortune of having just a wee bit of experience with some P90 pickups as Gibson produced them. For a time, the P90 was used in archtops, and in thin hollow body and thinline guitars, but after humbuckers were invented and mainstreamed, the P90 was only put in entry level guitars, and when that happened the recipe was changed. You'll find very very light and sweet original P90's that were in ES guitars like an ES-125 or the top line ES-5, or can find original heavy, raunchy, roadhouse tone pickups from old LP Junior or SG Juniors.
From Wikipedia: "In common with many other modern pickup types, there are two versions of modern P-90: neck and bridge version. Their DC resistance tends to be around 7-8 kΩ for neck pickups and 8-9 kΩ for bridge pickups. Early P-90 pickups made before approx 1974 were manufactured with no difference in the bridge and neck position and were interchangeable."Dont believe everything you read on the internet. From as far back as the 1990's, Gibson has had only "P90" pickups, no neck, no bridge variety. However, there is considerable winding differences. I've measured the P90 from the early-to-mid 1960, at as high as 13.5k, others in the 10k range. Earlier than that, from ES-225 at only 6.5k - all original. Gibson never announced anything special, or different, but they were. Wikipedia says they changed to Alnico 5 magnets in 1957, and I'm not sure that's the case, but its possible as the output was hotter than hot, and not too muted in tone due to the high winding resistance.
The pickups I used, were all from the early 2000's, bought new. In the high 7k range, with some variation. The Gibson P94 was hotter, in a smaller package, dunno how they did that. I will say, the P90 at the neck is a nice tone, but hard to balance with any humbucker in the bridge, unless you get a really hot shredder special. When you do that, the tone is not the best balance. I found the Burstbucker #3 to be a decent compromise and a good bridge pickup at any rate, even without a P90 at the neck. Even so, that P90 had to be set rather low and the Burstbucker rather high to get a good balance when both pickups were used.Lollar had a few flavors of P90's, not sure what he offers these days. Ditto Fralin, but Lindy makes a P90 close to what Gibson did in the late 40's/early 50's. If you want a more raunchy, in-your-face tone, get one of his overwound pickups.And... that's my little PSA on P90 pickups.
