P-90s for Epiphone Broadway - which ones?

I'm looking for a pair of dog ear p-90s to put into my Epiphone Broadway, but it looks like there's quite a large space between the body and the strings and I want to make sure the pick-ups get adequately close to the strings, since I heard this is pretty important when it comes to p-90s. Maybe I'll need unsightly spacers.
Anyone recommend a pair that would fit a Broadway. Must be dog-ear since I like that look. Also, do you know if I would have to reroute the humbuckers holes, or does the p-90 fit in the same slot as the HB.
Thanks.

I would contact Budz. He makes wonderful p-90s but having to have dog-ears? I don't get that. Why not have some that fit where the HBs come out? It's your guitar.

UNFORTUNATELY, if you were swapping pickups for cosmetic reasons, the unhappy truth is, they don't fit - period.

Humbucker holes are too wide nut-to-bridge and too short side-to-side for P90s. You would have to widen the holes side-to-side to fit the P90s, and the nut-to-bridge sides will show a gap. It's NOT gonna be pretty, unless you are a real champ at fabrication and refinishing.

I second the notion of using humbucker-sized P90s, if the reason for the swap is to improve or change the sound of the guitar. It's a straight swap with no sawdust, and you won't have to worry about spacers for the height adjustment, either.

Humbucker holes are too wide nut-to-bridge and too short side-to-side for P90s. You would have to widen the holes side-to-side to fit the P90s, and the nut-to-bridge sides will show a gap. It's NOT gonna be pretty, unless you are a real champ at fabrication and refinishing.

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Definitely would have to widen it side to side, but I think a dog ear mount is actually about the same size as a humbucker nut to bridge.

Still, a humbucker sized P90 type pickup makes a lot of sense.

I'd go with Duncan Phat Cats. I've got a set in my Gretsch 5120 and the sound great. They're HB sized.

Definitely would have to widen it side to side, but I think a dog ear mount is actually about the same size as a humbucker nut to bridge.

You might think that, but this is the voice of experience here...
Dogears are STILL too short to completely cover the nut-to-bridge hole from a humbucker.

I did a project a couple of years ago restoring an original Kalamazoo Casino, where someone had installed humbuckers. When I put P90s back in it, I had to shim up the boogered humbucker routs, as the holes still showed underneath the dog-ear covers....

http://www.deaf-eddie.net/casino/blocks1.jpg

That's a shame that somebody whould want 'buckers in a Casino. Ruins the whole vibe IMHO.

P-90's won't fit. For p90 type buckers I'd vote either Duncan Phat Cats or Harmonic Design Z-90's

The Phat Cats can be tweaked by swapping the magnets....something you cannot do on most other P90 sized buckers (particularly GFS Dream 90's or the like). You can dial in an accurate P90 tone on most bucker equipped guitars that way.

The Z-90's are just flat out great sounding pickups.

Yeah, the follies of our youth...

I'm sure it was done in the late sixties/early seventies. I got this from a friend who sez he got it (with the humbuckers installed) during a close-out/clearance/junk sale when one of the big San Diego music stores bit the dust in the mid-seventies (Finder's, for those of you who know SD musical history).

Remember, the Casino/ES-330s were just a low-end Gibson hollowbody back then, when everybody wanted an ES-335, 345, 355, etc... Kinda like "Epiphone vs Gibson" today. I confess that I myself did an ES-330-to-humbucker conversion for someone back then (not one of my axes, and I HOPE I did a better job of it!). You'll be pleased to know that I succeeded in restoring this ol' girl to something like her glory days:

http://deaf-eddie.net/guitars/casino-refin.jpg

I did it as a Lennon "Tribute" guitar. And yup, I still have it.

Okay, I just took a dogear cover and placed it over an empty humbucker rout. There is about a sixteenth of an inch gap on either side. I guess if you were really inclined, you could cut a grommet or spacer or pickup ring or whatever and fit it under the dogear cover to extend the little bit over the gap and it would look fine if you did a nice job of it. Here's an example of someone who did basically what the OP is talking about, putting P90's (in this case the alnico version) in an archtop. They cut the rings out of maple according to the description. The rings would also function as spacers to get the height right. I've actually held this guitar, at Buffalo Brothers. On the dogear guitars that I have, the pickup actually hangs in a basket or bracket under the cover. which has tabs that go under the mounting screw on the dogear part of the cover. Did the Casino ones have a bracket, Eddie, or did they attach into the wood like a soapbar?

Again, I'd go with the humbucker sized P90 types, unless I just wanted to do some woodworking! I love the Z90's myself, but there are many options.

Thanks for al the comments guys. I will now probably go with HB sized P90s. I'll look into your suggestions and try to find something with a black plastic cover for a more vintage look. My original reason for changing the pick-ups was the sound, but I figured I might as well make the thing look cooler as well, but I don't want it to look like a chop job just for the sake of the dogear look.

The acoustic sound of the Broadway is a little weird too, so I'm looking into fixing that. I'm adding a B6 Bigsby and Gretsch Rocker Bar bridge and switching from flat 12s to half-rounds, probably 11s or 12s. I'll see how it sounds then, but think I will still probably go ahead with the pick-up swap.

Thanks for the helpful info.

The Casino uses true dog-ears - the baseplates are different, they have little tabs, mirroring the covers. There's nothing UNDER the pups in a Casino, so "standard" P90s like you would find in an LP wouldn't work.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/products/custom_shop/other_pickups/p90_dogearstack.jpg

This is the way all Gibson's early jazz guitars had their P90s mounted, I'm sure. There's no other way to to it on an ES-175!

I'd go with Duncan Phat Cats. I've got a set in my Gretsch 5120 and the sound great. They're HB sized.

How did you like the change? I put a TV Jones Classic bridge in my Artcore hollowbody to get away from the very dark mellow stock HB and the new pick-up sounded just like a single coil in there, only bigger due to the hollowbody guitar.

I might just swap that TV Classic out again and put it in the Broadway.

That's exactly what I'm talking about Eddie, may not have described it very well. An archtop would of course have to have that.

Ricky, the Z90's come in different colors, including black. Not a cover, the pickup itself is black plastic, there is no cover made for it. I've got the tortoise ones myself, but I'm just crazy like that. There are many well liked versions of hum sized P90 types though.