Members lowwatt Posted March 15, 2011 Members Share Posted March 15, 2011 I have a PRS SE Soapbar and am looking to upgrade the pups. BG gets raves and are about $130/pair shipped. Toneriders are $78/pair shipped and get good reviews - neither have many examples to hear on the net. SDs, Lollars, etc are way out of range for an SE in my opinion. Has anyone heard several brands in the "reasonable" price range that can comment? Would the additional cost of the BGs over Toneriders (or others) be worth it? Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Poltergeist Posted March 15, 2011 Members Share Posted March 15, 2011 Gibson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elias Graves Posted March 15, 2011 Members Share Posted March 15, 2011 I've heard a lot of P90s and the funny thing is, the most expensive ones aren't that much better than cheap ones. The biggest differences I hear are noise (good ones tend to be quieter) and voicing. Many of the modern ones are Alnico 5 or ceramic and are overwound. Those tend to be higher output, but also heavier in the mids and less musical. Low outputs are the opposite. Not as middy, more bell like in the tone. BGs are great, but about any of them will get you close. The stock ones in your SE are alnico 5 and overwound like crazy. Go with some vintage winds and that's where you'll hear the difference. EG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richey888 Posted March 15, 2011 Members Share Posted March 15, 2011 I don't know if the guy is still around. Search Fleabay for Guitar Heads prodicts. I had a Epi '57 LP Jr. reissue (set neck 1 P-90, comes with a gawdawful P-100 stock) that I put a Guitar Heads P-90 in. It flat out rocked! I dunno if he winds them himself or what, I wanna say it was $39.00 a pickup. I have a faded LP DC now and the stock Gibby's are dynamite, maybe used.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sleewell Posted March 15, 2011 Members Share Posted March 15, 2011 i just bought a se soapbar with lollar p90's already in it. but if i had the chance to upgrade myself i would go with BG all the way. he is a standup guy with great products, fellow HCEG forum member too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Willyguitar Posted March 15, 2011 Members Share Posted March 15, 2011 Lollar are very good. Gibson are good. Bacon is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members webwarmiller Posted March 15, 2011 Members Share Posted March 15, 2011 I don't know if the guy is still around. Search Fleabay for Guitar Heads prodicts. I had a Epi '57 LP Jr. reissue (set neck 1 P-90, comes with a gawdawful P-100 stock) that I put a Guitar Heads P-90 in. It flat out rocked! I dunno if he winds them himself or what, I wanna say it was $39.00 a pickup. I have a faded LP DC now and the stock Gibby's are dynamite, maybe used.... They are $40 for a pair: http://guitarheads.net/products/pickups/p90soapbar.html I've never used them so can't comment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richey888 Posted March 15, 2011 Members Share Posted March 15, 2011 They are $40 for a pair: http://guitarheads.net/products/pickups/p90soapbar.html I've never used them so can't comment That's him!! I loved that pickup. Took it to Russo to trade in, dude there could tell it wwas aftermarket (I'm a sloppy solderer), but was asking if it was a Lollar or Antiquity.....nope, paid whatever on eBay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted March 15, 2011 Members Share Posted March 15, 2011 Forty bucks a pair? And they rock? Now I'm gettin' P90 gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members caveman Posted March 15, 2011 Members Share Posted March 15, 2011 I have a PRS SE Soapbar and am looking to upgrade the pups. BG gets raves and are about $130/pair shipped. Toneriders are $78/pair shipped and get good reviews - neither have many examples to hear on the net. SDs, Lollars, etc are way out of range for an SE in my opinion.Has anyone heard several brands in the "reasonable" price range that can comment? Would the additional cost of the BGs over Toneriders (or others) be worth it?Thanks in advance I currently have Lollar, GFS and Gibson Blues P90s in use. The Gibby's are not true P90s and a different sounding bird. The difference in the others is that the Lollars slightly louder and darker, while the GFS are more articulate in the mix. I'm with Elias, the law of diminishing returns kicks in quickly with P90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lowwatt Posted March 16, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 16, 2011 Thanks all for the suggestions. I have some strat & tele BGs, so I appreciate Brian's work, but I take to heart the comments about diminishing returns on the investment. I considered changing out the magnets in the stock pups to alnico 2, which is small $$, but I measured the windings at 9.1K and 9.5K, so I think the stock pups are way out of the vintage range and I'd be better off with Tonerider vintage; alnico 2 and ~7.4K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mel Cooley Posted March 16, 2011 Members Share Posted March 16, 2011 I'll third Gibson. Nobody seems to want to give them a chance, but the ones they use on their higher end guitars are great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Quarter Posted March 16, 2011 Members Share Posted March 16, 2011 Some of the cheaper mass produced P90's can sound pretty dam good. For me though, a nice hand wound like a BG has a more complex, dynamic, and pick responsive tone then you get from the machine wounds. Again, I'm not knocking something like the Toneriders which are very decent, just that if you want that last little bit of 90 goodness, a winder like Bryan is the path to getting it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sheraton Posted March 16, 2011 Members Share Posted March 16, 2011 It all comes down to what sound you're looking for. There are differing views on what a good P90 sounds like. What amp you're playing through and what type of music you're playing has a big impact on perception. Do you like articulate cleans with some sparkle? Heavy midrange on the edge of breakup? Overdriven saturation? I've had P90 guitars that did one or more of those things extremely well but none did all of them. Almost all had the stock pickups, some where cheapies, some were higher end. I agree though, the gap between the top and bottom was fairly small. I just bought my second PRS SE Soapbar. This one is a '03 singlecut and the previous one was a '06 Soapbar II. I sold the last one because I hated it through a Blues Jr. I had at the time. I liked it through my Music Man 65 (but everything sounds good through that amp) but I wanted the PRS and BJr to be a lighter weight combination for when I jam with friends in smaller places. A pickup change might have improved things but I traded it for a Deluxe Players Strat that sounded great through the BJr. Currently my smaller amp is an Ampeg Jet J-20 (2 x 6V6) and the PRS SE Soapbar sounds fantastic through it with the stock pickups. I'd love to know what amp you're playing through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted March 16, 2011 Members Share Posted March 16, 2011 They are $40 for a pair: http://guitarheads.net/products/pickups/p90soapbar.html I've never used them so can't comment Man, if I'd known about those a couple years ago, I might still have an LTD EC300 Goldtop! The guitar played great, but the pickups weren't really what I'd call inspiring. At least not on clean-ish tones. For $40 a pair, they have to be worth a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted March 17, 2011 Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 Some of the cheaper mass produced P90's can sound pretty dam good. For me though, a nice hand wound like a BG has a more complex, dynamic, and pick responsive tone then you get from the machine wounds. Again, I'm not knocking something like the Toneriders which are very decent, just that if you want that last little bit of 90 goodness, a winder like Bryan is the path to getting it all. Ain't no such thang as wound wound pups. Never have been, never will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xStonr Posted March 17, 2011 Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 I picked up a pair of those $40 P90's a while back to use while Bryan was rewinding some toaster pickups for me. Let me tell ya, they are still in that guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lowwatt Posted March 17, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 It all comes down to what sound you're looking for. There are differing views on what a good P90 sounds like. What amp you're playing through and what type of music you're playing has a big impact on perception. Do you like articulate cleans with some sparkle? Heavy midrange on the edge of breakup? Overdriven saturation? I've had P90 guitars that did one or more of those things extremely well but none did all of them. Almost all had the stock pickups, some where cheapies, some were higher end. I agree though, the gap between the top and bottom was fairly small. I just bought my second PRS SE Soapbar. This one is a '03 singlecut and the previous one was a '06 Soapbar II. I sold the last one because I hated it through a Blues Jr. I had at the time. I liked it through my Music Man 65 (but everything sounds good through that amp) but I wanted the PRS and BJr to be a lighter weight combination for when I jam with friends in smaller places. A pickup change might have improved things but I traded it for a Deluxe Players Strat that sounded great through the BJr. Currently my smaller amp is an Ampeg Jet J-20 (2 x 6V6) and the PRS SE Soapbar sounds fantastic through it with the stock pickups. I'd love to know what amp you're playing through. I have a Egnater Tweaker and a home built Fender Tweed 5E3 derivative. The stock P90s can sound very nice through both of these, especially sweet bluesy stuff on the verge of breakup. I've communicated directly with a guy that has interchanged magnets on these, so my current strategy is to try weaker magnets and see how that works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vintage clubber Posted March 17, 2011 Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 I picked up a pair of those $40 P90's a while back to use while Bryan was rewinding some toaster pickups for me. Let me tell ya, they are still in that guitar. That's a hell of an endorsement, Steve! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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