can't get a good sound P90

matttheaxe

matttheaxe

New member
OK I have this Crafter guitar. Basically a Taylor T5 copy. The acoustic pickup is spectacular sounding. The electric..not so much.
It's a Kent Armstrong P90 in the neck position. It does sound good if you like the warm soft tone, but what I want is a bit more bite and a little crisper high end. I have tried a lot of amps and some effects, but it just sounds round and warm no matter what I do.

Does anyone have any amp/effect ideas that will get me where I want to go???

(the guitar has a stereo output so I can send each pickup to 2 amps/DI)
 
Neck position is naturally not as bright as bridge or P90 as bright as humbucker. There is only so much you will be able to do with that pup in that position. Boost treble, cut mid and bass then use a different guitar.


lou
 
Sky Blue Lou said:
Neck position is naturally not as bright as bridge or P90 as bright as humbucker. There is only so much you will be able to do with that pup in that position. Boost treble, cut mid and bass then use a different guitar.
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I have never had a guitar with a P90, but I thought P90's were brighter sounding than 'buckers. Not so?

Spot on about the neck position.
 
ggunn said:
I have never had a guitar with a P90, but I thought P90's were brighter sounding than 'buckers. Not so?

Spot on about the neck position.
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A little brighter, more "focused" sounding, a little snappier. In the neck position they are very warm and smooth.
 
I guess it depends on how you define "bright". I think of it as treble-enhanced. I have a set of Shaw's buckers in my LP Custom that'll make yer ears bleed. My PAFs in the Deluxe are more mellow but still "brighter" than my P90s. I think of P90s as more raw sounding with a mid edge.

I'm not real good with lingo so what I think of as "bright" may not be the common acceptance.


lou
 
I'm sure if it was a strat single coil, I could get it. They are just what I want.
I would think a P90 is like a 'bucker with single coil snap.
Guess They are not.

I suppose my search for the ultimate guitar goes on. The real T5 has a lipstick
(or rather lip-shit) pup in the bridge position and its better, but not quite what I want.

I wonder if I could cut a hole in the bridge position, add a pickup and use the wires from the P90??? What do you think?
If I do that, what pup should I go with? I won't have much room to experiment. I gotta get it right the first time.
 
Does the guitar have a volume control for the pickup? If so, have you tried cutting it back and turning up the amp some? I have P-94s (not P-90s), and they're heavily mid focused, but when I roll off the volume, the mids seem to reduce quicker than the bass and highs. I've thought that they sounded more like standard single coils when I turned down the volume, but I haven't really pursued that thought.

Maybe sounds far fetched (and maybe it is), but it's worth trying before you get out the router :)
 
Yes it has a volume. I might suspect the quality is lacking because rolling it off reduces some hi end and thats what I'm after.
I think it might just be the position. The other worry is that I might end up cutting through some critical bracing if I get out the router.
 
matttheaxe said:
...I might end up cutting through some critical bracing if I get out the router.
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Do NOT cut holes in the top of an acoustic instrument. In a solid body guitar you've got a solid slab of wood counteracting the pull of the strings, so a pickup hole is not that big a deal, but you risk severe structural damage if you do that to an acoustic. My advice is to shop around and buy a guitar that makes the sound you want.
 
Sky Blue Lou said:
I guess it depends on how you define "bright". I think of it as treble-enhanced. I have a set of Shaw's buckers in my LP Custom that'll make yer ears bleed. My PAFs in the Deluxe are more mellow but still "brighter" than my P90s. I think of P90s as more raw sounding with a mid edge.

I'm not real good with lingo so what I think of as "bright" may not be the common acceptance.

lou
Click to expand...

Your description sounds good, Lou-I have a Melody Maker with a single dog-ear P-90 in the bridge and raw with an edge states it well.
The OP might need different values of volume and tune pots to get the sound they are looking for-and my guitar has a 223 ceramic cap like most other Gibson guitars.
 
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