BWG P90's sound dull ...... HELP!

jtcnj

jtcnj

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Until a lot of gain is added but the dull character still remains.

I have been swapping bridge magnets and pickups on my BWG Santa Fe DC P90.
After playing some other P90's I am really not liking these.
the magnets were switched from ceramics - which I found to be brittle / harsh - to A5 neck A2 bridge.

Same rig settings (adjust a little for guitar vol / preamp signal differences) plug in the AD-2300 with unknown aftermarket P90, and SX Liquid with a Gibson Lead P90.
Both sound great.

I did this the other day too with a different amp; (tweed champ circuit based) same results, so I tried Marshall 1974x / 18w circuit amp. And to try my ears on a different day since they seem to vary a lot too.

The overall sound is either too dark, or to trebly and harsh - using the guitar tone pot.
Seems the mids / upper mids are what is missing / no bite -from P90 pickups!!!
WTF twighlight zone sh*t I tell ya.

Tried swapping in the original bridge from my SX liquid with (but A2 magnets)/ same type of dull sounds with some / lower gain - think AC/DC. The neck has A5 magnets and has the same overall character.

Tonewood make this kind / this much difference? - I dont believe so, but I am stumped at the moment.

IT is the kind of dull sound tone I commonly experience with other guitars / pickups playing root-5 power chords on the A string root: when in between clean and a enough dirt to get a gritty / crunch rhythm tone, which is not a lot of gain.

Adding gain starts to get there but that wuhh sounding character is still prevalent - through different OD pedals.

I tried snipping the ground for tone pot take it out of the signal path; no change of general character. To clarify the tone pot roll off was usable before.

Can the no name mini pots themselves be pulling out some frequencies even wide open? I have some CTS 500k pots from the great Ubuy AXL liquidation a few years ago.
 
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I have extensively worked on pick up height from way up close - with a lot of that tremolo effect, to down quite a bit lower.
They are no markings on pots; I will meter them later today. I thought about that as I was writing up the first post.
Since both bridge pickups, and the neck have the same character, I am figuring it is something else with the guitar - and I hope the pots is the answer.

The body and neck are some type of Asian "mahogany" It is very light, but the wood is fairly hard.
Much harder than pine or whatever the super soft Asian basswood is.
I like this guitar a LOT; I may do something rash if it cant be sorted.

these pickups - both tried at bridge also sound like a gnashing mess - no articulation.
IF I get this sorted I will try lower pickup / higher poles I think is supposed to help that.

After dicking around with these a while, when I first picked up the Liquid / Gibson bridge P90, I was really surprised at just how much different and better the Gibson sounded - in 25 1/2" scale maple neck alder body; if we are going there.
 
In my experience with P-90's, if they sound "dull" they are not good pickups and should be replaced. As you mention the Gibson pickup cured the ills, so I think maybe there's your answer.
 
gball said:
In my experience with P-90's, if they sound "dull" they are not good pickups and should be replaced. As you mention the Gibson pickup cured the ills, so I think maybe there's your answer.
Click to expand...

I have been on the hunt, but also since I have tried a few pickup related changes and the overall dull character remains.
The SX Liquid pickup sounded pretty good in the Liquid - NOT like it does now, but it had the ceramic magnets - i will try those magnets later today as it takes all of about 15 min total.

I just like the Liquid so much and found that used Gibson Lead P90 or $40.
 
it took exactly 16 min to swap in ceramic magnets to the SX pickup and tune up- same as what came in it but maybe not the same 2 magnets.
It sounds ok / usable and I will live with it for now.
The tone pots are 500k, i could not read the volumes with the pickup leads attached.
The tone caps are .047µf .
When I get time I will put the CTS 500k pots in I have on hand.

Will be on the hunt for better but affordable pickups.


I
 
jtcnj said:
The tone caps are .047µf .
Click to expand...

I know it doesn't affect the sound when the pots are wide open, but isn't that quite a large capacitor for a P90? I only say that because looking around at P90 capacitor sizes recently, I came across .033 for folks who like quite a dark sound to .018 as recommended by Bare Knuckle to go with their P90s; many folks using .022 which is what I went for, but I might also try a .033 if I'm not happy with the sound range.
 
If the 500K pots don't do it for you, try bumping the pots to 1000K. I did that to a Strat one time and it actually sounded good.
 
for cheap-----I have had great success with Guitar Madness pickups as well as Guitar Fetish pickups---

for more $ (but can be had used) Bare Knuckles Pickups always deliver the goods
 
I have a set of Wilkinson soap bar P90s that sound pretty darned good to me. I might have just been lucky though. They came in my Gladiator LP Special-ish guitar, so I didn’t buy them...they certainly are not expensive.
 
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