Gibson P90 Under Wound Pickup?

CabanaBoy

CabanaBoy

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I going to be putting a set of P90's in my 2018 SG Special and wondering if anyone here has any experience with the Gibson under wound P90's ?

I was thinking about the under wound p90 in the neck position and a regular p90 in the bridge position.
 
Ok, then... I've ordered two vanilla fudge Gibson P90's from Gibson's website.

I've always preferred Gibson's stock stuff or at least never have really seen any reason to change it out for something else.

Maybe once they come in and I get everything all together and going vroom I'll record a song using the pups and put a link to it in the Too What Are You Listening to thread.

I'm going to use pigtails and just plug the new P90's into the circuit board. The boards don't bother me none. If the board ever gives out I'll wire it up with regular pots and what not then.

Have a good one, man...
 
CabanaBoy said:
I going to be putting a set of P90's in my 2018 SG Special and wondering if anyone here has any experience with the Gibson under wound P90's ?

I was thinking about the under wound p90 in the neck position and a regular p90 in the bridge position.
Click to expand...
The neck PU always has way more output.
Because the string vibrates more in the middle than at the ends.
This results in a muddy overloaded signal. Overwhelming low frequency.

It's easy to see why neck PUs are under-wound to reduce the tendency.
Or you can lower the pickup downward, that works too.

monty-python-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail.gif
 
I luv my P90 pickups, their a bit different for sure, but they should make for a good mix with my other SG's I have at the moment. The one has two '61 humbucker, one has the p90 side winder and burstbucker 3, and the other has two mini humbuckers. The melody maker I have has a single P90, it's a little beastie all of it's own and the gibson p90 in that has spank galore, which is pretty cool.

I'm kind of a gibson/fender vanilla fudge guy. Pretty much like them stock, but I don't think my favorite Fender pups are the pure vintage fender american pups.

Thanks for the input, etc, it's appreciated and fun.

The reverb seller I got quick connects for these P90's sent me the wrong ones, so hoping he will send the correct ones. Until then... Well... no recording a new song with the new pups - lol.
 
CabanaBoy said:
I luv my P90 pickups, their a bit different for sure, but they should make for a good mix with my other SG's I have at the moment. The one has two '61 humbucker, one has the p90 side winder and burstbucker 3, and the other has two mini humbuckers. The melody maker I have has a single P90, it's a little beastie all of it's own and the gibson p90 in that has spank galore, which is pretty cool.

I'm kind of a gibson/fender vanilla fudge guy. Pretty much like them stock, but I don't think my favorite Fender pups are the pure vintage fender american pups.

Thanks for the input, etc, it's appreciated and fun.

The reverb seller I got quick connects for these P90's sent me the wrong ones, so hoping he will send the correct ones. Until then... Well... no recording a new song with the new pups - lol.
Click to expand...

Bummer about the connectors. Good luck with them.

My issue with P-90s is they just too middle of the road for me. Fender pisckups do the single coil-thing better than P-90s and Gibson humuckers do the big-sounding growl thing better than P-90s, so I have never found a real purpose for them. Underwounds would likely push the equation more toward a Fendery sound and I think I could dig that in a Gibson guitar.

Y'know, I didn't like any "vintage style" Fender singles until I got a Start loaded with Fat '60s pickups. Those things are magic, even if not strictly speaking attempting to directly copy something from the past.
 
gball said:
Bummer about the connectors. Good luck with them.

My issue with P-90s is they just too middle of the road for me. Fender pisckups do the single coil-thing better than P-90s and Gibson humuckers do the big-sounding growl thing better than P-90s, so I have never found a real purpose for them. Underwounds would likely push the equation more toward a Fendery sound and I think I could dig that in a Gibson guitar.

Y'know, I didn't like any "vintage style" Fender singles until I got a Start loaded with Fat '60s pickups. Those things are magic, even if not strictly speaking attempting to directly copy something from the past.
Click to expand...

My motto is play what you like and like what you play. It's music there really isn't any right or wrong, know what I mean. I like humbuckers, with a good vanilla fudge Gibson being my favorite, although I really liked the old school Dimarzio super distortion and also the Carvin super distortion (I think that's what Carvin called them). My favorite single coils seem to be the Fender American Vintage tele and strat pups, they just seem to sound good and pretty much fit the bill for me. The Gibson P90's I just like for what they are, I like there tone/vibe and sometimes just seem to fill the need for what I'm looking for.

With that, I finally got the P90's in and wired up. Here's a couple pictures. I seem to remember being told years ago when I first showed up if I didn't post pictures it didn't happen - lol.

2018 SG Specieal with Gibson P90's (3).jpgP90 Pigtails On (2).jpg
 
Can't say about low output P-90s, but I had Seymour Duncan wind me two P-90s for my '66 Gibson Melody Maker.

I asked him what was the highest DC resistance he could go on a P-90, and he said the absolute hottest he would go would be 12kΩ on the bridge and 11kΩ on the neck.

I told Seymour..

rGCe2pD.jpg
 
PLX said:
Can't say about low output P-90s, but I had Seymour Duncan wind me two P-90s for my '66 Gibson Melody Maker.

I asked him what was the highest DC resistance he could go on a P-90, and he said the absolute hottest he would go would be 12kΩ on the bridge and 11kΩ on the neck.

I told Seymour..

rGCe2pD.jpg
Click to expand...
I’d have to check, but (iirc) the bridge P-90 in this should read around 16kΩ…
1756589248933.jpeg
I’m not sure of the neck…maybe 9-10kΩ … Now I’m curious…gonna go check in a bit.
 
CabanaBoy said:
My motto is play what you like and like what you play. It's music there really isn't any right or wrong, know what I mean. I like humbuckers, with a good vanilla fudge Gibson being my favorite, although I really liked the old school Dimarzio super distortion and also the Carvin super distortion (I think that's what Carvin called them). My favorite single coils seem to be the Fender American Vintage tele and strat pups, they just seem to sound good and pretty much fit the bill for me. The Gibson P90's I just like for what they are, I like there tone/vibe and sometimes just seem to fill the need for what I'm looking for.

With that, I finally got the P90's in and wired up. Here's a couple pictures. I seem to remember being told years ago when I first showed up if I didn't post pictures it didn't happen - lol.

View attachment 107301View attachment 107302
Click to expand...
Fantastic axe sir!!! Congratulations on the new pups! Love the blocks!
I should take a stab at some under wound P-90s sometime.
 
So…my bad…I was thinking of the bridge humbuckers in my Crescent Moon V and SG.
The P-90s are more like:
Bridge 13.5k Ω
1756592015865.jpeg
Neck 12.1k Ω
1756592089900.jpeg
Oops! Sorry…but that’s why I wanted to check.

Edit: This is why I wasn’t able to comment on the “under wound” versions. I have these, standard Gibson P-90s, and some random 15 year old Wilkinsons that I like very much.
 
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