Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center

P90's: who loves them and why?


Travis

Recommended Posts

Over the course of my life I've had north of 40 different guitars.  However, not a single one of them has been equipped with P90's.  I've been really looking at juniors, maybe even P90 specials or Artist/semi-hollow/semi-solid guitars loaded with P90's.  

What P90's do you like and why?  Soap bar vs dog eared, Duncan/Dimarzio/Lollar/etc...? 1, 2, or 3 P90's in a guitar? P90 matched with a humbucker or traditional single coil, or some other crazy combo...?  Any and all P90 thoughts are welcome.  I want to hear them all.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love them.  Have had a bunch over the years.  My favorites are still Lollars, it is what put him on the map.  I've had plenty of others, don't like them when they run too hot, (most SDs) or too cool, (I once won a pair from a small builder that were so underwhelming I thought they were broken).  When they work well, they are the best. Great clean to mean tones with just using finger dynamics, also respond really well to rolling back on the knobs.  They have a full round tone that is just pleasant as can be on the ears, but can also get spanky in the right context.  RWRD helps with the single coil hum.    Only difference between dogear and soapbar is how they are mounted, the pickup under the cover is the same.

 

And they look damn sexy.

kuwY0ub.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have loved them ever since the first I played in an original 1956 model. Followed by an older Gibson ES-330. There are many good ones. I tend to NOT like the overly hot Duncan ones that tended to be used in Hamers over the years, but the Duncan Antiquities are great, IMO. A couple of my favorites......The Walker has 3 Lollars and is incredibly versatile, the Monaco has 3 other "boutiques" (cannot recall the brand), the Hartung (like the Huber Krautster II) has Haussels. The match up of the HOT HB in the bridge (splittable) with the P90 in the neck is a great match. The Junior style is also great, I just don't use it much. Pretty sure I posted it here a while back.scott walker-electro 2.jpg

hamer monaco III Natural.jpg

Hartung Junico2.jpg

Huber-CurlyJunior-12-09-1.jpg

Nice figure in the mahogany, BTW, as well as the Brazilian board!

Huber-CurlyJunior-12-09-3.jpg

Many good choices out there!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The one in here:

100_4601small.jpg

....sounded flat to me, so Murkat fixed it up with some secret recipe and the thing does the perfect (as I remember it) '58 Jr sound. It's fantastic.

These have that, too:

DSCN4780small.jpg

....but they're original 1960 and should.

I prefer the right-sounding P90 to any other pickup. I haven't heard a Duncan that can do it, but I hear Mr. Gravelin has the knack.

Here's more just because:

100_4836small.jpg

100_5418small.jpg

DSCN5698small.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to have a love/hate relationship with overwound P90s...they kill and are perfect distorted RNR pickups...but what about clean? In my Peavey Soapbar Firenza I have gone back to the original KMS Old Alnico low-wind P90s. And there it is. Beautiful cleans yet they still make the classic P90s distorted, snotty snarl.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love the versatility where P-90s sit spectrum wise between Fender-style singles and buckers ... phatter than a Fender, bright like a Fender, but not as phat as a bucker but still kinda phat like a bucker, and more vol knob and touch sensitive to boot. P-90s aren't my favorite pickups but if I could only have one guitar for the rest of my life, to do anything and everything that might present itself, I'd likely want that guitar to have P-90s.

My only P-90 guitar is this old plank from 1955 me and HEL Shannon restored a couple years ago. Its P-90 is a Jason Lollar, not an overwind or an underwind, I guess a typical JL wind. Barks like a vintage P but more 3D stereophonic and vibey in the ear canals. Most versatile one-pickup guitar I've ever experienced.

36374589_10216197801718216_4152616141186924544_n.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't think I'd like them until I bought a 90s Special.  As others have said, it's great for the player dynamics - that amp sound that's clean if you pick softly but nasty if you dig in.  So while it's two things, it does that thing really well.  You really can't replicate that with a hum bucker or a Fender style single.  It's nice to have that tonal range available. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a 2005 Dean Z Korean made Prototype to a run of 16 just like it. Victoria. :)

7zs3.jpg

 

It was inspired by this sweet Standard. Missed this when it went on sale but I think I still remember where it is.

bcrstandardp90z.jpg

 

That was after I discovered P90s and decided to try to make that happen with my Dean connections. LOVE the growl of the P90s but also the challenge to make them work and sound good. Much along the lines of what JeffR has posted.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is only one place I go now for P90's. GRAVELIN P90's Josh has wound me 3 or 4 I think now, not because the first one was bad, it was the fact that I kept wanting more. His dual tap pickups are great, and I used that Junior I had for the first year I was in the current band. No matter what amp I was playing that Junior went with me. Then came the Shishkov and now that one goes with me to every gig. 

HxC2LZW.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I prefer a special setup over a junior because I live on the neck position. I’ve got an SG special and an R6 and really like the factory Gibson pickups in both.  I’ve got a PRS McCarty soap bar with 3 P90s    (stock Duncan’s). I really like the guitar but the pickups are pretty meh so I don’t grab it very often.  I’ve used Lollar’s P90s and preferred the Gibsons. I’ve owned two LPs and a V with Fralins and they’re my favorite for nailing the classic Gibson thing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like them, but they are kinda more a one trick pony when it comes to dirt sounds than humbuckers. Either they sound to weak and the distortion gets fuzzy and ugly, or they are hot and they sound mean. But kinda one dirt sound. I get more varied overdriven tones from my humbucker guitars. Still, I love the two P90 guitars I have. They are great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Dave Scepter said:

I must be the minority here again as I love the SD Phat cats

Count me in to the minority.

14 hours ago, hamerhead said:

I liked the Phat Cat as its own thing (like in the Newport), but to me it didn't have the traditional P90 sound.

That’s actually true. The PhatCats are flavoring a Tele style as opposed to the more mid range classic flavor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, gorch said:

Count me in to the minority.

That’s actually true. The PhatCats are flavoring a Tele style as opposed to the more mid range classic flavor.

Weren't the PhatCats designed to go into the hollow body Newport? I always found the Newport a warmer tone overall than Studios I've had.  I did like the phat cats in an Ibanez solid body I had - but IIRC that was a darker sounding guitar. I probably would like the PCs in a Newport too.  

I think that  the description of PC being  P90- ish with a Tele style flavoring captures the spirit of what I hear in the PCs too.   

Now you have me wondering whether the DDs in the Tally would be better off in a Newport too.

But when it's all said and done, to my ears, the PCs certainly do not inhabit the mid-range that true p90s do.   I'll vouch for Josh's interpretation of p-90s in a humbucker size... I put one in the neck position of Mirage I had and it resided in a very sweet mid-range.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Vintage spec P90s have their own thing going on. Kind of like a true Tele bridge pickup, it has its own sonic signature. Raspier than nearly any Fender single coil, yet it cuts better than nearly any humbucker. 

Beyond Townsend's and Santana's recordings with an SG Special and Leslie West's infamous Mississippi Queen tone, this is one of the sounds/tones that really forced me to take P90s seriously. Forward to 3:15 to hear what on old singlecut Junior sounds like through a stock Super Lead. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you love the sound of early Who, Mountain, early Boston, Steve Miller (who owns some of Leslie West's Juniors), the p-90s will get you there. They have the bite of a single coil, with more of the beef of a humbucker.  The wide and flat bobbin just does something wonderful with the sound.

A P90 Special is the way I got into Hamer. My first P90 guitar was a 70's SG Special. LOVE. THEM. P90S.

Sadly, you don't see them very often at all anymore on hollow bodied guitars these days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, BubbaVO said:

Now you have me wondering whether the DDs in the Tally would be better off in a Newport too.

But when it's all said and done, to my ears, the PCs certainly do not inhabit the mid-range that true p90s do.   I'll vouch for Josh's interpretation of p-90s in a humbucker size... I put one in the neck position of Mirage I had and it resided in a very sweet mid-range.   

Would certainly be worth a try. The DDs are not as hot as the PC. 

I had P90s in my Newport for a while and thought they were to much on the bottom end where the PC are leaving room for the hollow resonance to chime in. I would expect the same effect with the DD.

The effect just works for hollow bodied guitars. In solids they would certainly miss the bottom. Which actually could be an advantage in band contexts. However, would not work in a standalone situation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will say, the P90s that came stock with the P90 specials and most Hamers are HOT. They are the Custom and hot P-90s, which are definitely hotter than standard. Even just switching to the Seymour Duncan "Vintage" p-90s will get you a much better pickup for "vintage" sounds. 

The "vintage" P90s from Seymour Duncan have Alnico 5 magnets with 8k / 9.7k neck/bridge. Pretty much standard for a "regular" P-90

The "hot" p90s have  Small Ceramic Bar Magnets, with 12k / 15k winds, and the "custom" p90s have two BIG ceramic bar magnets, with 12K / 14.6k winds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, bubs_42 said:

There is only one place I go now for P90's. GRAVELIN P90's

Same! Have a set in a 92 LP Special and they are delightful.

Apart from that guitar, there’s at least one p-90 type in 3 other guitars (Sheptone HB sized, Rio Grande Dirty Harry).

I’m a fan of the p90 flavour, for sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...