NGD, another SG Special
- Thread starter SG John
- Start date
Yeah, those “slug P90” pickups were not received well. “Weak and thin” were the descriptions that I remember reading in many of the reviews. Definitely not your average P90.
ivan H
Ambassador of Tubes & Grooves
My only experience with P90's is the soapbars in my 50's tribute LP. I find that I like them best through lower gain type amps. Through my 5F1 Champ type amp they sound good, both clean & somewhat overdriven (I'm not a "dime the amp" type guy, no matter what amp). I like them best through my JTM50 Black Flag type amp, which I use for my "clean or just on the edge" type Marshall tones. Through my "gainier" or more overdriven type amps I can still get reasonably good tones, just not in the ballpark of what I can get with the lower gain & cleaner set amps where they really seem to shine. All that said, like you I prefer humbuckers. Cheers
Mr Grumpy
Ambassador of Comings and Goings
Blimey, a lot of lunacy here regarding P90s! 
Which I kinda understand, especially in a Special - I've found Specials to be the most beautiful guitars (to my eyes, but a bit of bite missing from the sound); I've got a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquities arriving today which I hope will give me the bite I want. Lollar and some of the other P90s seem to be very nice, but for the Fender player, cleaner player, to my ears. Remember the 60s players like Townsend had fairly low gain amps, but were cranking the fuk out of the power tubes - probably not easily done nowadays unless you're playing the Hollywood Bowl.
I'm pretty sure Gball would love the sound of the dogear P90 in a Junior - no need to change out the stock Gibson pickup; supposedly, it's the same as the other Gibson P90s just with a different housing, but it sounds very different. The dogar P90 in a Junior is pure rock and roll heaven, I offer some classic Americana as evidence:
(^ I said Americana, not Americans! )
&, hard to say this P90 didn't have tone:
Which I kinda understand, especially in a Special - I've found Specials to be the most beautiful guitars (to my eyes, but a bit of bite missing from the sound); I've got a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquities arriving today which I hope will give me the bite I want. Lollar and some of the other P90s seem to be very nice, but for the Fender player, cleaner player, to my ears. Remember the 60s players like Townsend had fairly low gain amps, but were cranking the fuk out of the power tubes - probably not easily done nowadays unless you're playing the Hollywood Bowl.
I'm pretty sure Gball would love the sound of the dogear P90 in a Junior - no need to change out the stock Gibson pickup; supposedly, it's the same as the other Gibson P90s just with a different housing, but it sounds very different. The dogar P90 in a Junior is pure rock and roll heaven, I offer some classic Americana as evidence:
(^ I said Americana, not Americans!
)&, hard to say this P90 didn't have tone:
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
Blimey, a lot of lunacy here regarding P90s!
Which I kinda understand, especially in a Special - I've found Specials to be the most beautiful guitars (to my eyes, but a bit of bite missing from the sound); I've got a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquities arriving today which I hope will give me the bite I want. Lollar and some of the other P90s seem to be very nice, but for the Fender player, cleaner player, to my ears. Remember the 60s players like Townsend had fairly low gain amps, but were cranking the fuk out of the power tubes - probably not easily done nowadays unless you're playing the Hollywood Bowl.
I'm pretty sure Gball would love the sound of the dogear P90 in a Junior - no need to change out the stock Gibson pickup; supposedly, it's the same as the other Gibson P90s just with a different housing, but it sounds very different. The dogar P90 in a Junior is pure rock and roll heaven, I offer some classic Americana as evidence:
View attachment 38739
(^ I said Americana, not Americans!
View attachment 38740
View attachment 38741
&, hard to say this P90 didn't have tone:
I gave up on the clip...over a minute in and the song hadn’t started. Anyway, yeah, that ONE song always gets trotted out to prove how great P-90’s sound bit even Leslie West stopped using them eventually. Gonna keep at ot though - time to see how this thing sounds through the Mark 5.
I don’t know what to say...I have not had too much trouble getting good(to me...and no audience complaints either) high gain sounds out of my P90 equipped guitars. I’ve even had multiple offers for the Gladiaror LP Special-ish guitar with the Wilkinson OEM P90s. My playing is all over the place though...clean, pushed, fairly heavy, to modern high gain.
I just played our entire last rehearsal with my SG Standard P90...we covered a fair amount of stylistic ground...from clean to heavy, drop C# originals...to Sabbath’s Children of the Grave(played drop C#)...using my Phaez for everything...and the guitar volume and tone knobs on the guitar. The amp(22watt, 2X 6V6) was running pretty hot on the master, and I spent a lot of time with the guitar volume knobs around 5-7, tone knobs set to taste....crank up the volume knob for leads/boost etc. Gain on the dirt channel was set kinda high, so that it was where I wanted to be when dialed back on the guitar.
I’m with you on the marginal differences in average output P90 replacements...I went ”radically“ different in the Special 60s Trib SG in my avatar...super hot wound, with ceramic mag’s. Those are different beasts, but clean up well.
Mr Grumpy
Ambassador of Comings and Goings
^ you make a good point about using the volume control when using P90s, TBDon. I can understand why somebody like Robert who says he never uses the guitar volume control might not like P90s - you gotta use the guitar controls to get the best sounds (it's very easy, just role down the volume till the guitar sounds good; you can even use the tone controls on a brave day).
Mr Grumpy
Ambassador of Comings and Goings
Maybe I could have posted a different clip...
Now, if you can't get sounds you like through the Mark V there's an issue. Everyone's ears are different, maybe yours just prefer the frequencies/girth/something of humbuckers?
