Members niceguy Posted May 14, 2011 Members Share Posted May 14, 2011 I can't get enough of using my Strat in the neck position when I'm recording clean arpeggios. I mean, holy {censored}. Pure win. It's an MIM Strat but I put Highway One strat pickups in it. Eventually, I'd like to get an ash American Deluxe strat, but that can wait. That got me thinking---my Strat has a unique tone, so different from my Les Paul. I'd like to round things out with a third type of guitar, something very different from my Strat and LP. P90s? How do these pickups compare to a Strat? My LP has coil splits, and while the middle position is OK, it's not a very great single coil tone. I'm thinking some sort of Gibson with P90s....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twotimingpete Posted May 14, 2011 Members Share Posted May 14, 2011 p90 is completely its own animal, but if I was going to try to explain it to someone in broad, general terms, I'd say it falls halfway between a strat pickup and a humbucker. it's the best of both. I love them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beyer160 Posted May 15, 2011 Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 P90s don't sound anything like split humbuckers. They really do combine the best tonal aspects of Fender style singles and humbuckers- you can listen to youtube clips all day long, but you really need to go try them to understand. They're really sensitive to the volume knob, too- they sound great flat-out, but goosing the knobs at the brink of raunchy overdrive gives you a lot of flexibility. A Strat, a humbucker Lester, and some kind of dual P90 axe will cover a LOT of tonal ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wagdog Posted May 15, 2011 Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 I had an xv600 w/p90's and tonewise, that guitar was incredible. The neck pickup was really solid, deep, but not muddy. It had great humbucker-like power, but single-coil shing to it. Bridge pickup was awesome w/some dirt on it. Again, humbucker-like, but with some nice bite it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stackabones Posted May 15, 2011 Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 Just get a Squier Telecaster Custom II w/P90s. Killer deal at $249 and the P90s are great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ashasha Posted May 15, 2011 Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 Yeah split humbuckers don't even do a good strat sound let alone a P90 P90's are really versatile and would round out your tonal selection there. Like others said they are a bit of a cross between the two, the aggressive output of a humbucker, but the sweetness of a single coil. Very clear and tight sounding and if you roll the volume back it just sounds amazingly beautiful; roll it back up and it's all hell breaking loose. Now I am sure that some people will disagree with me, but the only thing I can't really do with them is a great metal tone, it kind of falls apart on me, but from crystal clean and chimey to super fat and overdriven it's a really hard pickup to beat. The only downfall is the hum; it can get pretty noisey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members csm Posted May 15, 2011 Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 My take -- As already pointed out, at their best, good P90s can combine the weight, density and punch of a 'bucker with the cut, clarity and edge of a Fender-style single-coil. (Check Pete Townshend's WONDERFUL Woodstock/Leeds/Isle of Wight SG Special tone ... where you can hear him go from sparkling clarity to fuzzed-out raunch without going NEAR a pedal ... just with this guitar's volume control.) Downsides: P90s are BRUTAL pickups. They are considerably louder than either regular SCs OR HBs ... and they can indeed be INCREDIBLY noisy. Imagine the sonic garbage sometimes generated by a Fender-style SC only very, VERY LOUD. Remember ... Seth Lover's original 'bucker design was voiced to sound like a P90, only without the aforementioned sonic garbage ... which resulted in a sound which was not only quieter ...but smoother, because the cutting edge lives in the same space as the hiss and hum. Personally, I also LOVE the Strat neck-PU tone ... I have a Tele with a Strat unit at the neck, and if it had a wigglestick I'd probably rarely play anything else. And ... there's a lot more to a Fender single-coil than just half-a-humbucker ... though a split HB is an interesting and useful tone in its own right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BryanMichael Posted May 15, 2011 Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 Great post CSM:thu: My take is that a really GOOD P90 can do what CSM and others have suggested, but often I will say that using P90's has been frustrating for me, I always find myself trying to "clean it up just a bit" to make it sound like a strat single coil or "fatten it up" a bit to make it sound more like a humbucker. For me, they stop becoming "unique" and just become kind of the WORST of all possible worlds - a bit unfocused and fuzzy around the edges. I did put some Lindy Fralins in a Gibson once (BluesHawk) and I must say that I loved the way they sounded compared to the oddball stock Gibson Blues 90's - I also put a DiMarzio "Virtual p90" set in an LP special once and I really regretted it- lifeless IMO, and it probably put me OFF of DiMarzio forever - I've just always had better luck with Duncan or more expensive pickups... So, just know what you are getting into before purchasing, really try them out to see if that tone is something you want. I think I always felt like I was SUPPOSED to be loving the P90's because everyone always RAVES about them...but my ears said otherwise .02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members niceguy Posted May 15, 2011 Author Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 Excellent responses! Thanks, all. That's it, then. I gotta spend a good amount of time playing a P90 axe into a decent tube amp. In theory, it sounds like it would be a good guitar type for me, but like many of you said, I need to hear it in person first Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jerry_picker Posted May 15, 2011 Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 My take -- As already pointed out, at their best, good P90s can combine the weight, density and punch of a 'bucker with the cut, clarity and edge of a Fender-style single-coil. (Check Pete Townshend's WONDERFUL Woodstock/Leeds/Isle of Wight SG Special tone ... where you can hear him go from sparkling clarity to fuzzed-out raunch without going NEAR a pedal ... just with this guitar's volume control.) Downsides: P90s are BRUTAL pickups. They are considerably louder than either regular SCs OR HBs ... and they can indeed be INCREDIBLY noisy. Imagine the sonic garbage sometimes generated by a Fender-style SC only very, VERY LOUD. Remember ... Seth Lover's original 'bucker design was voiced to sound like a P90, only without the aforementioned sonic garbage ... which resulted in a sound which was not only quieter ...but smoother, because the cutting edge lives in the same space as the hiss and hum. Personally, I also LOVE the Strat neck-PU tone ... I have a Tele with a Strat unit at the neck, and if it had a wigglestick I'd probably rarely play anything else. And ... there's a lot more to a Fender single-coil than just half-a-humbucker ... though a split HB is an interesting and useful tone in its own right. Well put. "...the cutting edge lives in the same space as the hiss and hum." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bsman Posted May 15, 2011 Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 Just as everyone else has noted. strat neck isn't going to get you in the neighborhood of P90, and the reverse is also true. FWIW, I am not terribly fond on the neck P90 tone in most of the two-pickup P90s I've played (disclaimer -- I've never played a hollow-body P90 git), so I find the LP Jrs and their ilk to be rather ideal... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted May 15, 2011 Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 A neck P90 can get a bit too smooth, and a bridge P90 can get a bit too ehh, but the blend position will always treat you just right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Willyguitar Posted May 15, 2011 Members Share Posted May 15, 2011 ^^ ehh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted May 16, 2011 Members Share Posted May 16, 2011 Yeah, like a bit too much of everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members niceguy Posted May 16, 2011 Author Members Share Posted May 16, 2011 Yeah, like a bit too much of everything. Haha, that's how I feel about my LP's clean tone. Just too much of every frequency. Distorted, however, is pure WIN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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