Varieties of P-90s

N

notCardio

I walk the line
I've got four guitars with P90s. I'm going to replace at least one of the sets with mini-hums, and I want to eventually upgrade the others. I'm wondering how many different 'kind' of P90 sounds there are that I would want to have guitars equipped for.

I like a couple of different ones I've heard on the BKP site.

Any thoughts or recommendations?
 
Well today i learned that a P90 is never just a P90. Thanks notCardio. I am going to dive into this a bit deeper myself. That BKP site was cool.
 
Greg_L said:
I'm thinking about replacing my mini-hums with P-90s.

P-90s are the shiznit.
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Yeah, I love P90s, but I feel like I ought to have at least one mini-hum guitar, and that still leaves me with three sets of P90s.

I'm just trying to get the 'best of' of different flavors of them. I'm thinking one warm, clean-ish jazzy style, one 'dirty boogie', and one Leslie West/Mountain.

But then there's also early Santana, and Black Sabbath.

What's a guitaraholic to do?
 
mixsit said:
I was looking (again) at getting into the p/u's my Gibson and just became aware of these.
P-Rails with Triple Shot – arched Set, Black | Seymour Duncan
Not keen on doing the switches on the pickups, but curious about them and haven't gotten any further that though.
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I have a P-Rail in the bridge of my Hallmark 60 Custom Mosrite clone. I love it. Great pickup IMO. I don't use the triple-shot mount though. Won't fit my guitar. I use a regular mini-toggle.
 
I keep wanting to like P-90s. So far I've failed. Maybe someday I'll succeed. I put them in my SG thinking it might be cool to have that Live at Leeds tone--and then rarely played it. Guess I'm no Townshend. Out came the P-90s, in went a pair of Duncan Seth Lovers, and it became my favorite axe. I'm done buying guitars for the foreseeable future, but maybe some day I'll stumble on the right combination of guitar and P-90.
 
I suppose like anything they are an acquired taste. I still have yet to fall in love with ultra mega high gain guitars in punk rock or metal still. I try, but i can't do it. I just remember test driving guitars for the first time as a "serious" musician and wanting to own a guitar that wasn't from sears or a pawn shop and being instantly struck with the tone a P90 with fresh strings. It just has that, thing. that feel and bite to it that all the other guitars didn't quite seem to have. It's rugged and yet incredibly simple in sound and design. I dig that sort of thing.

After reading this post it lead me to do some more reading to see just how many P90 flavors are out there. I honestly thought a P90 was justa P90. Kind of like how a Ford is just a Ford? Like it wass the brand so to speak? Anyhow i came across Luther Lees P90's and it turns out a few of my own 'heros' use those. So maybe it is just a thing like any other thing. Some people gravitate towards certain sounds.

Might be worth looking into at notCardio? One more option to fill your cart with? Check it out here. Guitar pickups
 
Robus said:
I keep wanting to like P-90s. So far I've failed. Maybe someday I'll succeed. I put them in my SG thinking it might be cool to have that Live at Leeds tone--and then rarely played it. Guess I'm no Townshend. Out came the P-90s, in went a pair of Duncan Seth Lovers, and it became my favorite axe. I'm done buying guitars for the foreseeable future, but maybe some day I'll stumble on the right combination of guitar and P-90.
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If you swapped out P90s for Seths, that leads me to believe that you didn't have actual legit P90s in there, but had HB sized P90s.

---------- Update ----------

Thanks, Shan. I'll check 'em out.
 
notCardio said:
If you swapped out P90s for Seths, that leads me to believe that you didn't have actual legit P90s in there, but had HB sized P90s.
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True. P-90s and standard size humbuckers are not interchangeable. The body routing on the guitar doesn't work like that.
 
I have a fetish for minihumbuckers. Not only do I like the sound of the ones I've had, but I think they look wicked cool.
Still, I hear such great things about P90s, I think I might throw some in a guitar I'm building.
 
I have never had a git with the mini's in it; don't recall ever playing one, either. I've been jonesing something fierce for this new SG special but I'd have to get rid of a guitar or 2 to pull it off.
 
I've never had one with mini-hums, but when I was a kid playing in bands in the mid-70s, the guitar player in a few of them had an LP with minis, and I played it a lot. I remember liking them, but thinking that they were kind of one trick ponies. Looking back, that probably had more to do with everything else in the signal chain (which wasn't much) and the fact that we were really only pretty much trying to do one trick anyway. Or at least that's the way we saw it. But things were different back then, and so were we. :o
 
beezelbubba said:
I have a fetish for minihumbuckers. Not only do I like the sound of the ones I've had, but I think they look wicked cool.
Still, I hear such great things about P90s, I think I might throw some in a guitar I'm building.
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Well, the cool thing is that you can swap P90s and mini-hums back and forth, so if you don't like the P90s, you can sell 'em and throw some mini-hums in there with minimal hassle.
 
One thing I do remember is that that mini-hum LP sounded totally badass straight into my '65 Vibro-Champ. At least that's the way I remember it.

But then, most things with halfway decent pickups sound badass through that amp. My early '60s Melody Maker for example. Or my mid-'50s Vega Westerner. That was pure vintage John Lee Hooker at the right setting. I gotta get that thing back together. I loved that guitar for certain things. Ahhh, but I digress...
 
Mike Ness from the band, Social Distortion, buys Les Pauls with mini-hums, removes them(mini-hums) and replaces them with P-90s. There's a reason he does that.:listeningmusic:
 
Beeze, go check out the Bare Knuckle Pickups site, and listen to the various P90s. It'll give you an idea of whether or not they would appeal to you.
 
XploZiveToyz said:
Mike Ness from the band, Social Distortion, buys Les Pauls with mini-hums, removes them(mini-hums) and replaces them with P-90s. There's a reason he does that.:listeningmusic:
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OK, why? You can buy them with P90s already in them. Not sure I understand the point, unless he's buying the vintage LPs because he likes the way they play.
 
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