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Duffy
April 25th, 2011, 05:58 AM
Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of the GFS P90 sized humbuckers?

I'm talking about the new Soapbar 180 humbuckers or the soapbar minitron humbuckers.

I have a nice P90 LP style guitar that has zero noise cancelling and noisy P90's; plus the stock P90's don't sound nearly as good as my other P90 guitar with duncan designed middle noise cancelling P90's. So this beautiful mahogany set neck guitar is ready for some nice quiet, good sounding pickups, and I want to move "away" from the single coil sound with it.

These GFS P90 sized humbuckers look possibly interesting and may have gained the attentions of some of you guys. Feedback is appreciated.

I will definitely consider other brands of P90 sized humbuckers as well.

ZMAN
April 25th, 2011, 07:16 AM
Hey Duffy as you might remember I was looking to do the same with one of my P90 guitars. At the time I was looking at GFS mini humbuckers. GFS had some issues with my ordering from Canada to have the pickups sent to Maine so it didn't happen.
Now they have them in a P90 style. I think they would be pretty good. They would be easy to mount with the screws provided.
They come with long wood screws and a piece of foam that you can put behind the pickups. When I ordered I asked for an extra piece of foam in each one. It would be pretty hard to adjust the pickups with only one piece of foam. You might want to do the same. I think for 65 bucks you can't go wrong. The guitar would retain the "look" of the p90. I wish they had some sound clips. Some people don't like the tone of a mini humbucker, but if it reduces the hum it will be all good.
It might be a bit of a decision as to what set to get, or a combination of both. Being you might not get too many reviews on them.

Duffy
April 25th, 2011, 08:19 AM
True on that "not many responses".

I installed a direct mount telecaster neck pickup last month or so and when I put it in I used extra foam AND I put springs on the screws. I put the springs on by cutting out holes in the foam to accomodate the springs, or something like that, and tightened the pickup down. It works great and the pickup is now adjustable.

On another tele I replaced the pickguard with a nicer one and it had the holes so I made the neck pickup adjustable without taking off the pickguard. Do you think there is any tonal difference between mounting the tele neck pickup directly into the body wood or onto the pickguard? Seemingly the body vibrations are more removed from the pickup when it is mounted on the pickguard instead of into the wood directly. But is this sonic difference perceptible by the ear? I guess it would be hard to tell without having used testing equipment. Fender probably has done it but I doubt if the results would be available. My Michael Kelly Patriot Custom has direct mounted humbuckers and they claim that this is good for the tone.

ZMAN
April 25th, 2011, 10:17 AM
The way the Gibson P90 was originally installed was with a plate that screwed into the body. The pickups screwed into the plate, and you could adjust the height. The aftermarket uses all sorts of ways of mounting the pickups. Lollar uses a spring, plastic cylinder and a wood screw. GFS has come up with a foam idea. I like your spring idea. I have a schemtaic for making one of the original style mounting plates, because nobody seems to make them. It is pretty straight forward.
As far as attaching to the body, vs pickguard I really don't think it would make a whole lot of difference. The strings vibrate and the pickups pick up the vibration. I suppose there will be varying opinions. I would go with what is easy and looks the most professional.