P-90 PICK ups

[MAXIFUNK]

P-90 pick-ups what makes them cool?
I know another open ended question.
But I have some really cool looking guitars with them lately. I was just wonder how do they sound and what is the biggest difference when compared to other single coils or HB pick-ups?

[Radioboy950]

To me, P90s sound too harsh or “grainy” compared to the others you mentioned.
I’ve always preferred the warmer, smoother, fatter sound of a vintage style Humbucker.

[hubberjub]

P-90s have a raw but sweet tone. Typically fatter sounding than a standard single coil.

[just strum]

I'm with Radioboy on this one. Maybe it's a case of having crappy P90's in my Wildkat, but I could never grow comfortable with them. I much prefer humbuckers over any other pick-up I've tried.

[ZMAN]

I have two sets of P90 pickups. The first set I have are in my 1968 Gibson SG. They are raunchy to say the least. I think the hype about them stems from the fact that they were the original pickups in most Gibson guitars. They are much larger than the fender singles and they have a pretty full tone. Along with that comes the feedback and the 60 cycle hum.
If you are one that is not a fan of unwanted noise from your guitars you will NOT like them. If you don't care and want some raunchy, over the top tones they are for you. Most of them are hum cancelling in the middle postion with the volume controls equal. My other guitar has a more modern set of P90s in it. The different in the output is substantial. The old p90s are in the 7.5k range and the new ones are 12 to 14 range. Lots of noise as well but hum cancelling in the middle.
You can get hum bucking p90s, but that is why they made humbucking pickups in the first place.
I am a huge fan of humbuckers and second would be the p90s.
If you can listen to sound clips or even try one out, make sure you listen fro the noise, and or try it along with a humbucking guitar.
If you know anything about Fender style singles you know they are hum cancelling in position 2 and 4. These are twice as big and only hum cnacel in the middle postion.

[Retro Hound]

I just picked up a book, The Guitar Pickup Handbook by Dave Hunter and it has descriptions of all the pickups and a CD with samples. It's pretty nice, and he warns that many other things (amps, guitars, etc.) can make a big difference also.

[Tig]

ZMAN covered it best. What surprises me about the ones I have, is the sweet clean tones I get with the guitar's volume backed down some. Smooth, warm jazz tones without an ounce of humbucker mud. Up the volume and amp drive for an agressive, but not too raunchy overdriven crunch. That said, any future P-90 guitar I'll own would have 3 pickups for the position 2 and 4 options. High gain with a single P-90 pickup is not pretty!

[sunvalleylaw]

The best p90 tone I can think of off the top is Gilmour on "The Wall" part two, with his LP.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZKvkRSBEGI

See at 2:10. If I were going to have a P90 guitar, it would be a gold top LP (type, would probably say Agile on it).

Generally though I think a guy could cover it mostly with Fender style single coils, which you can dirty up, and warm up for some jazz with a pedal and your tone knobs. You can raunch up a good clean, but hard to clean up a good raunch. IMHO. :AOK I may be wrong of course. But that has been my reasoning so far. My LP (type) that I get someday will have buckers I bet.

[sumitomo]

I have a guitar with I'll say big singles in it.It is a Rondo but I really like the sound of those pups,they are not to noisey and Sun I think you should get 2 LP's one with buckers and one with 90's.Sumi:D

[Tone2TheBone]

You can adjust the raunch with the volume and tone knobs. I love my P-90s. It also helps to start off with great tone to begin with on your amph.

[Plank_Spanker]

Two guitars with P90's - a Les Paul and an SG. I think they sound great. I like the way they sound clean - a good single coil jangle, but with some beef. I like them better when the amp has some drive - a good raw edged jangle, but not thin at all like some singles get. My favorite sound is the get the Germino set where it just starts getting a little dirty with the volume rolled up on either the Lester or the SG. That single coil bite with the good P90 mid response and a little hair on the amp sets my hair on fire.

P90's have a downside - they can be very noisy. I have played bars loaded with flourescent lights over the stage that made playing P90's impossible unless you're really into obnoxious 60 cycle hum. Some other bars weren't so bad - the guitar had a slight hum that you could cancel by turning the guitar's volume down between songs....and you don't hear it at all when the band is playing.

All in all, P90's are my favorite pickup.

[Tig]

Hum comes with the territory, eh?

Here are a few nice, short clips from noitpure using 90's thru a Swart Space Tone.

SG with some drive.
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Les Paul Jr. reissue.
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They clean up nice.
Les Paul 54 reissue with Lollar's wound to original 1953 spec's.
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[Tone2TheBone]

I absolutely love the P-90 neck pup on a Les Paul. It's a cool mixture of single coil type sound with a Lester. The ultimate in tone!

[Brian Krashpad]

P-90's are the best of both worlds.