P90 setup

[tot_Ou_tard]

The is a single neck P90 in my new Godin 5th Avenue (no, it's not the Godin Kingpin, but an aftermarket Lollar added to the 5th Avenue).

I've never had a P90 before & would like opinions on pickup height & pole-piece adjustment.

It currently has 2 spacers underneath it (there are no pickup height adjustment screws) there is room for another one or two.

I messed with the pole piece height & I found that raising a screw brought the mids up independent of the string.

A lower height on the unwound strings sounded brighter than a higher height which surprised me.

Erick who added the P90 used CTS 300K pots, an orange drop .022 cap, & a switchcraft jack.

It sounds great to me. What would you use?


I'd like to hear more about the care & feeding of P90s.

[Bloozcat]

If this guitar is set up like most with P-90 soapbars (as opposed to the dogear P-90 type), there should be two pickup height adjustment screws that go through the pickup cover and the pickup itself. They should be screwed right into the body beneath the pickup. Look for the two screws that look different from the others.

In my experiences with P-90 pickups I've found that the neck pickup sounds best when cranked down to where the pickup cover is flush or almost flush with the pickguard/top of body. I've found the opposite to be true with the bridge pickup. It seems to sound best close to the strings. Of course, pickups will vary depending on manufacturer, and these adjustments can vary as a result.

Try a wide range of pickup heights and decide which sounds best to your ear.

I also like 300k CTS pots with P-90's, so long as they read 300k or better on my VOM. I've always thought that 250k pots sound a little too dark, and 500k pots a little bright (but not always). Another good compromise is to take a 500k pot and solder a 1 meg resistor from outside pole to outside pole on the pot. This reduces the resistance to 333k.

[poodlesrule]

A related question: Are the individual pole pieces height-adjustable, generally...?

Bloozcat, what about on yours ..?

[tot_Ou_tard]

It's a dogear Blooz.

Yes, I've found that it sounds better with the pole pieces down. It's nice to have an agreement of the 300K pots.

Poodle the pole pieces are individually adjustable.

[Bloozcat]

Yeah, the pole pieces are usually adjustable like on a humbucker, but there are some older ones that have fixed pole pieces like on a Strat pickup.

I like to use the pole screw adjustments to balance individual strings when necessary, and the pickup height as a way to regulate the tone of the pickup as a whole.

tot...

How's the pickup attached to the guitar? Are they screwed into the body?

[poodlesrule]

I like to use the pole screw adjustments to balance individual strings when necessary

Ah, cool, I just tried!

A single turn appears to move pole head by 1/16" or so on my P90.

[tot_Ou_tard]

tot...

How's the pickup attached to the guitar? Are they screwed into the body?

Yup, with two spacers between it & the body.

[Bloozcat]

Yup, with two spacers between it & the body.

If the pickup cavity is deep enough beneath the pickup, you could remove the spacers and cut a couple of small, not too thick, pieces of foam rubber that you could then place under the pickup just inside of the mounting screws. The foam will compress as you tighten down on the mounting screws giving you a flexible yet consistent pickup height setting.

Another thing I like to add if it's not already there, is a couple of springs that the mounting screws would go through. You can use springs from cheap ball point pens for this. The foam may compress over time and get sort of a "memory" that may make for a sloppy pickup mounting should you decide to raise the pickup at a later date. With the springs, you can use foam pieces that are a bit thinner. The foam instead of being used to create tension against the pickup as you tighten it down, will now act as more of a stabilizer to keep the pickup from rocking on the mounting screws. The springs will now take the place of the foam, creating the necessary resistance as you tighten down on the mounting screws.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Blooz, it's a hollowbody so the cavity is cavernous.

[Bloozcat]

Blooz, it's a hollowbody so the cavity is cavernous.

Never mind......

It helps to look at the model we're talking about here before making assumptions.

I can't think offhand of what you might do to add height adjustment to this pickup. It seems kind of strange that they went with the dogear P-90's and then not mount the pickups to the top of the guitar so that you could adjust them. Mounting screws through the top with springs between the inside of the top and the pickup would have solved that problem.

I guess Godin thought they had the pickup height set right where it needed to be, so they dispensed with any adjustments.

[tot_Ou_tard]

The P90 was added to the acoustic version by CB Perkins, but Godin's version with P90 is also a dogear.

It looks plenty cool.

It sounds great as it is, I think I'll leave it.