P90 on a Squier51 for jazzy tone

**elavd** · February 2nd, 2007, 08:34 AM

I am a single coil guy but also I would like to have a more jazzy tone in some of the songs that I play.

I think of replacing the stock humbucker of my Squier 51 with a P90 and maby the neck one too (I'll have to route the body for this...)

Do you think that the P90s will do the trick for me?

**Jimi75** · February 2nd, 2007, 08:44 AM

Hey, the P 90's already did the trick for many Strat players, too...

Generally, I am not a fan of changing a guitar's basic character completely.
Are you sure that you can not get the jazzy sound from tweakin your amp and playing with the 51's tone knob?

**elavd** · February 2nd, 2007, 08:47 AM

Originally Posted by Jimi75

Are you sure that you can not get the jazzy sound from tweakin your amp and playing with the 51's tone knob?

The Squier 51 does not have a tone knob...

**Jimi75** · February 2nd, 2007, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by elavd

The Squier 51 does not have a tone knob...

Sorry for that misunderstanding! I thought the second knob would be a tone knob.

**elavd** · February 2nd, 2007, 08:55 AM

It's a common misunderstanding

It's the pickup selector knob

**jpfeifer** · February 2nd, 2007, 09:54 AM

Hi elavd,

I've been playing a guitar with P90's for several years now and I really like the tone you can get in the neck position. The guitar I have uses a P90 design from Seymore Duncan called Phat Cats. It's a P90 that is housed in a humbucker-sized casing. This allows you to drop in this pick-up in the same place that you would normally use a humbucker. Or you can swap out the P-90 later on for a humbucker if you ever want to. Here is a link to this pickup:
http://www.zzounds.com/item--SEMSPH90

This pickup sounds incredible. In the bridge position you can get fantastic tones ranging from Tele-like twang to raging AC/DC rock tones. (it also does the Epiphone Casino tone very nicely if you want to do your Beatle thing)

In the neck position the pickup sounds very warm. It works great for Jazz, Blues, or even higher gain stuff. (for some reason it sounds really good for Sanata-style tones, which is suprising to me)

The only issue with the pickup is that it is a single coil so you will get some noise from it. However, the tone makes it worth it in my opinion.

-- Jim

**sunvalleylaw** · February 2nd, 2007, 10:58 AM

What about changing out the neck to a P90 and leaving the bridge a humbucker?

**elavd** · February 2nd, 2007, 11:01 AM

I don't like very much the stock humbucker...
It sounds a bit muddy to my ears...

marnold*** · February 2nd, 2007, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by elavd

I don't like very much the stock humbucker...
It sounds a bit muddy to my ears...

Yours sounds muddy? Wow. My '51s humbucker is as bright as bright can be. Very trebly. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if different pickups were used on different batches though.

Spudman*** · February 2nd, 2007, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by elavd

I don't like very much the stock humbucker...
It sounds a bit muddy to my ears...

Trick to the 51's humbucker is to lower it. It doesn't like being jacked up right under the strings or it does get muddy. Lowering it really make it shine. I feel they are really great stock humbucking pickups.

**elavd** · February 2nd, 2007, 02:19 PM

As I wrote on the first post, I am a single-coil guy, so maybe ALL humbackers will sound muddy to my ears...

Anyway, do you know if any jazz player has ever used p90 type pickups?

**jpfeifer** · February 2nd, 2007, 02:44 PM

Yes, Grant Green did.

**SuperSwede** · February 2nd, 2007, 03:02 PM

elavd, the Gibson ES-125 has P90´s and they are used by many jazz guitarists.

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