P 90's?

[wichita]

Could you guys give me your opinions on which p90's are the best?
I just got a custom made non reverse firebird with 2 P 90's and am looking to put some better pickups in it.
Thanks

[DerekMinnich]

Harmonic Designs sound excellent. I haven't heard the Lollar's yet but I've heard they are flat out killers. Supposed to just have the right balance of everything. I wonder when WCR is gonna start into the P90's unless he makes them but doesn't have them on his site.

[wichita]

Thanks D!

[rh]

Lollar. Lollar. Lollar.

[DerekMinnich]

No prob....by the way...I've never paid attention to how different Filtertrons and a P90 are in size...but if they run the same dimensions, I bet some TV Jones Pup's(Like a TV'Tron, PowerTron, or Thundertron) would sound awesome in a firebird.

[wichita]

Maybe so.
My friend Chris Hoffschnieder built me the coolest non reverse sort of thing. Put cactus fret markers in and hand stained the body. Very unique and super cool.
Im gonna call Jason....

[Heffjbaby]

I played a friends Koll Glide Jr. with two Lollars' and a hipshot trem. I nearly cried when I had to hand it back to him 2 hours later! I had a Pensa Classic guitar built by John Suhr's protege Mas just after John left Rudy's in NYC. I used two great original P 90's from a 50's Les Paul in that guitar. In retrospect they now sound muddy and less balanced than the Lollars'. I know what my next guitar and pickup is gonna be!

[Chrissy]

I love the Fralin Alnico P90s I put in my Hamer Goldtop (the vintage style ones without the adjustable polepieces) for a vintage type of sound.

Lance, I have a NR Firebird myself and think they are a REALLY cool guitar (mine has 2 hums - Lollar Imperials btw!) and I'd LOVE to see a pic of your new guitar if possible.

Chris

[wichita]

I'll see if I can post one. Chris did all this custom stuff so it really is original looking although the basis for the thing is the non reverse firebird.
I will try to take some photos of it tonight.

[Chrissy]

Thanks! :)

[Chrissy]

A gentle bump as I'm curious to see the new axe ;)

[Leonc]

Originally posted by rhuddleston
Lollar. Lollar. Lollar.

ditto. ditto. ditto.

:D

[Dr Rico]

I have a set of Jason Lollar's excellent P90s in my McSoapy. They are my fave. They are not as middy and snarly as the old Gibson P90s, though. They have a wider bandwidth and an overall more modern feel. But I find they are way more versatile and sound really great. I'm not the least bit interested in swapping them out...and I change pups like some folks change their knickers.

[Chris]

I put a set of Lollars in my McInturff Taurus, and thought they were quite an improvement over the stock (DiMarzio) P-90s. However, I also have a TCM Royal with Fralin P-90s, and I prefer the sounds coming out of the Royal. It's not a fair comparison because the Taurus and the Royal are two very different guitars, but I'm pretty pleased with the Fralins. I'd love to swap the Fralins in the Royal out for Lollars just to find out for sure, but that's a fair amount of work, and so far, I'm in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" happy place.

[big mike]

Played a Driskill with 3 Rio Grande P90s yesterday and WOW. The best P90 tone ever!

[mainsale]

I like Jason Lollar's P-90's and ended up putting a set into my Gibson LP Special, McInturff Royal and McInturff Sportster. The Royal really shines with these excellent P-90's!

[ericb]

Originally posted by splatt
lk,
on balance, i really the dig the HD vp-90's.
i also totally dig jason lollar's bridge p-90 (his neck p-90 is a bit jammed-up/constricted in the low-mids, to me, w/a bit too much information), and fralin's slightly underwound neck p-90 (his standard-wind bridge p-90 is kinda 'whiny' & small, to me).
dt / spltrcl

Never tried the Lollar's .. .Actually never even heard of them and I'm surprised so many here have! However, when I got a really nice Robin Savoy guitar awhile back , I was on a quest to find the best neck p90 for it, and my quest ended with a Duncan Antiquity.. IT's just beautiful... Didn't like the Bridge Antiquity much but the neck model was great(at least in that guitar which is a mahagony semi-hollow body)

ERIC

[TNJ]

I'm with Splatt.
:cool:
S.
j

[tybone]

Quick Tech question. Do you guys (and potentially gals) go for a RWRP on one of your P-90's to cancel hum when both pups are on?

[big mike]

Originally posted by tybone
Quick Tech question. Do you guys (and potentially gals) go for a RWRP on one of your P-90's to cancel hum when both pups are on?

Yup. Best way to go. Doesn't effect tone IMO, so it's nice to have one position that cancels.

[Greggy]

Originally posted by splatt
lk,
....and fralin's slightly underwound neck p-90 (his standard-wind bridge p-90 is kinda 'whiny' & small, to me).
dt / spltrcl

I'm finding this out by experience. Recently installed Fralins in my Agile LP gold top. 10% underwind on neck, 5% overwind on bridge. The neck pup flat out kills, breaks up my amps into a "smooth" fuzz tone without pedals. But the bridge pup is 20% quieter with the vol knob at the same position. Don't know if I'd call it whiny, but does sound smaller to me. Until I make compensating adjustments to the signal chain, then it sounds better but not as good as the neck pup.

[Greggy]

Originally posted by splatt
yeah.....
my fralins are:
neck= -15%
bridge= 'flat'

whereas the neck p'up is open, smooth and throaty, the bridge p'up is just kind of un-dimensional, without much butt+waist on it, but lots of nasal-tones available.....

dt / spltrcl

The Lollar bridge pup now sounds tempting. Gotta sleep on that one.

[wpod]

I tend to like the 'vintage' growl of a P-90 v. the modern sound.

On my Lesters I am using a set of Rio Grande Jazz/Blue Bars in my '94 TV Special and just added Fralins to my '01 R4 Goldtop. Had SD Anties in a previous R4.

Also had serveral PRS McSoaps with OE SD's installed ...not my first choice for that guitar but never experimented as none of the PRS's where keepers for me.

Really like the Rio Grande's with the all mahogany Special. Expect to love the Fralins & R4 :D

[bigroy]

I'm happy with my Rio Grandes in my LP special, but I would love to try the Lollars, I've never had a chance to try them.

[ES330]

harmonic design

[Eric Pykala]

Not to hijack, but what are you folks liking for P90 sound in a HB-size housing? I've got a Santana SSE that I want to convert into a P90 axe, and was thinking Duncan Phat Cats (I get Duncan stuff cheap, and like his stuff), but my mind is open to suggestion. Thanks!-Eric

[bluemud]

please don't be snobbish about this,but has anyone tried any of the dimarzio DLX models? do any get close to a real p-90 sound?i'd like to take advantage of them, being humbuckers with 4 leads

[MichaelA]

Originally posted by splatt
yes, me do that.
however, it oughta be said that i've found the HD VP90's --- which, granted, are not everyone's cup o'tea --- are easily 30% quieter (hum-wise) than any other p90 i've played, in single-pickup use.
dt / spltrcl

I've never played a guitar with P-90s - are they generally noisier than Strat single-coils? How do the HD VP90's compare to the typical Strat single coil in terms of hum?

[erksin]

In my experience, P-90s aren't any noisier than Strat pups - perhaps even less so.

If the VP-90s are anything like their Z-90s, they should be VERY quiet - mine are almost dead silent and I live in a horrible location for RF...

FWIW - I also have the HD STP and Vintage Plus Strat pups and they're ultra quiet too...

[tjs]

I wonder when WCR is gonna start into the P90's unless he makes them but doesn't have them on his site.

I've heard that the Black Magic sounds a lot like a P-90. I've never heard them, though, so I can't say for sure.

[HHB]

please don't be snobbish about this,but has anyone tried any of the dimarzio DLX models? do any get close to a real p-90 sound?i'd like to take advantage of them, being humbuckers with 4 leads

I'm using a Virtual P-90 in the neck and ( I hesitate to post this LOL ) a Terry McInturff speced DLX in the bridge of my all mahogany TCM, love em! Tried Lollars and found the bridge really weak and whimpy, really am tempted by the Harmonic Design but my DiMarzio's sound great and are dead quiet, I have a 58 LPjr w/ THE P-90 to compare and the DiMarzio's are right there w/ the benchmark dogear

[hipfan]

I'm finding this out by experience. Recently installed Fralins in my Agile LP gold top. 10% underwind on neck, 5% overwind on bridge. The neck pup flat out kills, breaks up my amps into a "smooth" fuzz tone without pedals. But the bridge pup is 20% quieter with the vol knob at the same position. Don't know if I'd call it whiny, but does sound smaller to me. Until I make compensating adjustments to the signal chain, then it sounds better but not as good as the neck pup.

I'm not assuming anything about your set-up, but I've found that bridge P90's need to be really up there near the strings to get the most out of them. If you haven't tried putting the bridge pup up at about 4/64" (not just the polepieces, the whole thing with the E string polepieces down flush), I would give that a try before deep sixing the Fralin. Also, I like bridge P90's much better when shimmed up with real wood, as opposed to height regulated with foam or springs. Just something to consider for future tweaks... Again, you may know all of this already, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

As for the general P90 question, I love the Stephen Design soapbars I have in an Agile LP copy. Lovely ballsy tones and great clean-up. The jury is still out on the 8.9K Lollar and 9.8K Voodoo dogears that I keep alternating in my LP Junior though. Some days I love them, some days I hear too much high-end information and too little middy snarl.

[telechuck]

Not to hijack, but what are you folks liking for P90 sound in a HB-size housing? I've got a Santana SSE that I want to convert into a P90 axe, and was thinking Duncan Phat Cats (I get Duncan stuff cheap, and like his stuff), but my mind is open to suggestion. Thanks!-Eric

I don't know if it sounds zactly like a p-90 but Harmonic Design Z-90's are just great sounding pickups. I went through Lollar P-90's , Fralin sp 43's and several others but when I put the HD's in my strat I knew I found the sound I was lookin for. Love their tele pups also.

[filmosound]

I recommend J S Moore pickups. I just got a P90 soapbar from him, and it's the best sounding P90 I've heard (played thru my TopHat amp, and other vintage style amps). Only $50! He doesn't have the reputation/popularity of Lollar or Harmonic Design yet, but I can't imagine a P90 pickup better sounding than this, and I saved myself $30 to $50. You can choose the type of AlNiCo magnet you want..... II, III, IV, or V, as well as the number of winds (percent under or overwound, or the resistance you're looking for). I asked for 8.8K (bridge position) with AlNiCo V magnets.

I also considered Manlius P-90 pickups, but wasn't sure I wanted AlNiCo III magnets, and they were a bit more money - $70 each or $130/pair.

The website for J S Moore is www.tonefordays.com (http://www.tonefordays.com)

[cuz/karl]

I just had aconversation about with a tech at RS Guitarworks the other day when I was looking into their pre wired wiring harnesses.
He says he has delt with many of the makes mentioned hear & by compairing to his early Les Paul jr that he judges all P90's on ,only the http://www.wolfetone.com/ Meaners come close & in fact are dead nuts.

I'm in the prosses of moving some gear to finance having RS rewire & install a set of wolftones in my Firebird as we speak.
I'll report back when the work is done & have a first hand opinion.

[go7]

anyone tried wolfetone P90`s . i have some ordered for my heatley and wanted some opinions. tks go7

[shallbe]

Harmonic Design. Longtime user and big P-90 lover here. I have one of his first sets, which went into production after the z90's took off. Scott Peterson does something truly unique with his pickups. They are somehow louder, with a wider frequency reponse, but are quieter and never sound overwound. I've filled all my P-90 guitars with HD's, except on old Gibson goldtop that sounds wonderful stock.

Scott even made a set of 3 VP90's, hum cancelling, for my TA Cobra. Damn close to perfection, IMO. The only negative is the wait. He winds everything himself and does production runs of each pickuptype, so if you miss a run, you may have to wait several weeks or longer until he gets back to that model.

[James]

Love the Lollar P90s and am planning to get some more for two of my P90 guitars.

[Mutley]

I have tried a few sets in my McInturff Zodiac w/ported top. I had DLXs in there for some time, but they sounded harsh to my ears. YMMV. I found a gentleman named Pete Biltoft with Vintage Vibe Guitars who make pickups and settled on his ceramic magnet set and I won't be trying anymore in that guitar. He has many different P90 sets to choose from, costs a lot less than Mr. Lollar (whose P90s are great) and gave me a 30 day test run on them. The bridge pup on my set sounds a lot like a Lollar bridge I heard in a Heritage H137 and the neck pup sounds better IMO than the Lollar neck pup. More articulate and had some attitude. www.vintagevibeguitars.com/about.html (http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/about.html)

Just another flavor to consider. I haven't heard the HD90s. Gibby's honk too much for me in the bridge position. Again just my opinion here. :)

[PlexiBreath]

Lollar. Lollar. Lollar. Oh yeah!? How 'bout, Lollar. Lollar. Lollar. Lollar. Lollar. Lollar. Lollar.

I have the standard Lollar set and love them, these are fantastic pickups! I'd also like to try his neck P90 with the Strat like magnets.

[steeler6120]

couldnt agree more! Lollars!

[MjCartney]

I have a set of Harmonic Design VP90s in my Paul and just love them. Fantastic pickups. Scott makes magical stuff.

[seafoamer]

50's Gibson's.

[the_Chris]

Liked Lollars, but they lack the aggressiveness of the original P90s (Gibson P90s have that really rich mid range growl that just rips). Mind you the sets I've always used were the standard winds, I haven't tried custom ordering them overwound. To my ears they are refined P90s. The neck is by far my favorite part of the set - it's simply a killer smokey blues tone, but for my taste the bridge was a little too bright and thin. Together they got some really full bodied tones that would fit in perfect with a funk/pop band.

Probably my favorite P90s at this time are Wolfetones. Right blend of aggressiveness, balance and clarity for me. YMMV, of course :)

[tlabrie9]

Are the Seymour Duncan SP90-1B any good? I am thinking about putting one in my lap steel