Troubles with the bridge PU - P90 Obsessive Compulsive

[soulfield]

Searched the HFC and over the years there has been a lot of discussion about phat cats and P90's in general but I couldn't find a thread that hit my note!

THE PLOT:

So I yanked the Seth Lovers out of my artist custom (lovers will be up for sale soon) and put in phat cats.  Absolutely love it!  Best thing Ive done.  Standard Fralin p90's in one of my specials but I prefer the Phat Cats.  For blues and rock that I play, they were literally made for this maple topped hog!  Ive adjusted the PU heights and have gotten a pretty good balance but the neck is still a bit hotter (read bridge as high as possible.)  I play more in the middle and neck positions honestly, but when I want more meat and gain for barre chords and such the bridge phat cat is just lacking a hair.  Id love to stay with a p90 but get a little more out of the bridge position.

THE Q's

1:  Any HB sized bridge p90's that are hotter and complement a phat cat neck?  Anybody using Fralin, Lollar, or Rio for the bridge?  Mag swap the Phat Cat?

 2:  Now that my strat is set up HSS (not digging the 59 I put in the bridge) I'm thinking of going P90 for the strat bridge as well.  Pending the question above I could throw the PC bridge in or try something else bucker sized.  Any recommendations?  

Clearly Im head over heels for P90's here lately and can say I do not miss humbuckers at all.

Any experiences or wisdom would be greatly appreciated fellas!

[veatch]

If it were me, I would talk with Josh Gravelin and have him wind you something. Phat Cats are good, but the bucker P90 Josh made for me is the best I've tried. 

Other than that, I'd try a PAF bucker in the bridge,  like maybe a Seth Lover...

I had a pearly gates/ phat cat combo in  a couple of guitars that worked quite well. 

[Jakeboy]

Maybe lower the neck to better balance with the bridge? Adjust amp to give the bridge the extra girth and then adjust neck to taste?

I like to swap in new pups too, but I do like to try things that cost me nothing too

[soulfield]

Thanks guys!  Well I've had several runs adjusting the PU heights and I can force them to balance but the tone of each (neck in particular) gets away from the sweet spot. The neck is well below the ring and it sounds best about 1/16 above it. The bridge PU is now damn near touching the strings and although louder, the tone just falls apart. 

As jakeboy has said the artist is such a great gtr and really has become my "#1" so I intend to continue my OCD approach until I can find a good match to the neck PU in its sweet spot. 

When I switched from the lovers to the phat cats they were noticeably hotter than the former so probably won't try the lover bridge. 

Maybe the phat cats are common enough a custom winder could target a p90 that's say 10% hotter than the Phat cat bridge. 

Will look into gravelin for sure. Have a PG neck on hand but that would be pretty bright in the bridge. 

VEATCH-can you confirm the pearly gates bridge phat cat neck arrangement.  You said a few guitars, so assume this combo rocked.  I'd love to hear more??

Any other experience with hot p90s in the bridge, I'm all ears

 

 

[veatch]

The most recent guitar I had the PG/PC combo on was an old Dean Caddy. I ended up replacing the pair with pickups from Josh. 

Silly question, but you didn't happen to get the bridge and neck mixed up when putting in the phat cats?  Stranger things have happened.

[BubbaVO]

Phat cat neck / rio grande BBQ  is a very nice pairing.

The neck p90 josh wound up for me is the best one I've ever had.   If not for PayPal and auto repairs, I would have him wind up a matching bridge.   Talk to Josh, you won't regret it.

[JGravelin]

If you like the overall tone of the bridge pickup, swapping the neck pickup magnets from Alnico 2 to Alnico 3 will balance things right out and provide some pretty excellent 50's-era P90 sounds. You'll notice a leaner bass response, a slight peak in the mids and a little more shimmery harmonic action on top. For a lot of players who like vintage tones, Alnico 3 in a neck pos. P90 is hard to beat.

If you like the overall tone of the neck pickup and want more output gain from the bridge, swapping the bridge pickup magnets to Alnico 4 or 5 would bump up the output and balance out better with the stock Alnico 2 in the neck. If memory serves, the Phatcat bridge pickup is in the 8.6k range - med. 'vintage' output and a great candidate for swapping to magnets with higher gauss.

I can help with this if you like and it'll cost a lot less than buying anyones new hb-sized P90. You may be handy with an iron and can do it yourself, in which case I'd be happy to supply magnets. If there's anything I can do to assist, get in touch!

 

[soulfield]

21 hours ago, JGravelin said:

If you like the overall tone of the bridge pickup, swapping the neck pickup magnets from Alnico 2 to Alnico 3 will balance things right out and provide some pretty excellent 50's-era P90 sounds. You'll notice a leaner bass response, a slight peak in the mids and a little more shimmery harmonic action on top. For a lot of players who like vintage tones, Alnico 3 in a neck pos. P90 is hard to beat.

If you like the overall tone of the neck pickup and want more output gain from the bridge, swapping the bridge pickup magnets to Alnico 4 or 5 would bump up the output and balance out better with the stock Alnico 2 in the neck. If memory serves, the Phatcat bridge pickup is in the 8.6k range - med. 'vintage' output and a great candidate for swapping to magnets with higher gauss.

I can help with this if you like and it'll cost a lot less than buying anyones new hb-sized P90. You may be handy with an iron and can do it yourself, in which case I'd be happy to supply magnets. If there's anything I can do to assist, get in touch!

 

Awesome!  Thanks for the info man.  Im definitely capable with an iron and would love to fire up the hakko and start swapping mags.  I am pretty ignorant when it comes to magnet choices and their affect on tone.  Aside from just googling it can anyone point me towards a good read on magnet types and mag swapping in general??

I'll PM you about magnets. 

[velorush]

Found this from a no-longer-available thread in the My Les Paul forum.  Hope it helps!

[Jakeboy]

Soul field, Josh is a MASTER winder, as Enola and Grace Shlabotnik clearly prove. Follow his advice.

[soulfield]

You guys are the greatest!  The HFC rocks

Between Josh's advice and Velorush's link it will soon be time for me to do my first mag swaps!  I really love the sound of the neck phat cat and I'll be able to raise it back up a hair to the real sweet spot if the bridge gets hotter. It sounds like the A5 or A6 may get me where I want the bridge to be.  Ill be sure and post my results once the deed is done.

[soulfield]

6 hours ago, velorush said:

Found this from a no-longer-available thread in the My Les Paul forum.  Hope it helps!

This is a huge help!  Priceless!  Thank you