Opinion needed on P90

Hi there,

An opinion needed on who folks think make the best P90 out there, meaning the best of what a P90 offers, or the golden age of P90's

Thanks,

Gary

I have heard guitar with GFS P90's, and P90's in a humbucker casing ("Mean 90's") and I prefer both to anything that Gibson has to offer. I also prefer these to any P90s in humbucker casing. 1+ GFS (for the cheapskate guitarist. lol)

TV Jones, Jason Lollar and Lindy Fralin all make P90s that to my ears are far better than current Gibson offerings.

On a budget? I picked up those Wilkinson P90's for $19.99 & I can't wipe the grin off my face.

Oh dear, I seem to be in the minority here. Having tried many types/ makes of P90, I personally find the Gibson offering to be the best, by far.

By stark contrast, I found SDs' offerings to be the worst. Basically, wimpy-sounding by comparison.

I've just been swapping p90's in and out of the same guitar today...

3 sets... first I tried were Josie Warmans UK "dog's o War" dogears...... I've had these in for a few months,very happy...
wanted the neck PU for another build to try with a gibbo bridge hb... nice!...

took them out and put a creme set of Warman, Soapy Joes, same coils in a centre mount p90... matches the body color better.. much the same..

and a set of Kent Armstrong's out of a St Blues stock guitar... centre mount... very nice too..

went back to the soapys... equal or better than the KA's... ihmo.. tad more output and clearer bass,

somehow, I liked the original set up with the black dog ear, man o wars... though the neck is in another guitar now...
I'd certainly get another set of those....

I haven't got a gibbo set here to compare... if these sets I've got here are what p90's are about... the gibbos would have to be a whole lot better to even look at them...

I'm putting a new set of pickups in this (http://brazenguitars.com/grafx/guitars/dynasty_p90_large.jpg). It's currently got Seymour Duncan regular neck & hot bridge...they are okay but nothing special. I've always loved Roadhouse Pickups (http://roadhousepickups.com/) they have a clarity & fullness in tone that I have not found in ANY other pickup. Ken let me try out a few of his guitars & I must say I was blown away by his P90s. He has them loaded in a pine-caster that was amazing & just sang. The unbelievable thing about Roadhouse Pickups is the depth of spectrum, they just sound so much more complete (if that makes sense), like you can hear more of the EQ then other pickups. This fullness in the tonal spectrum leads to a clarity that (in my experienced) is unsurpassed. I will say that they let the guitar/amp shine thru. I HIGHLY recommend you take a look at his pickups!!! He has a return/exchange policy that really makes it a risk free experiment.

I have a Don Grosh ElectraJet Standard with G-90s (their version of a P-90) and they are superb for both clean and overdriven sounds.

thorn gt-90 is my current favorite, fralin and lollar i like as well but slightly different animals

The Rio Grande p90s are very nice, I have a Jazzdawg in lp jr and it's way better that the original Gibson, more articulate, with better string separation (less moosh)
lots of great choices out there.

I think it depends on the guitar, and the amp its plugged into. Had an Edwards LP goldtop. Dropped in Lollars - brighter and clearer yes, but I preferred the stock Duncan Vintage P90s so I went back to it.

In another similar Edwards I changed the neck Duncan to an Antiquity - preferred the stock Duncan (and I like Antiquities, btw).

Fralins P90s I only tried in a strat and without trying other P90s, so its hard to really say - but they sounded bland in that setup. I know a chap with an original '53 goldtop - replaced the orig PUs (for reasons I don't know) with Fralins and he loves em.

Gibson P-90s for me. Nice and raw.

Yes, I'm Gibson P90 fan as well. The only other P90's I really dig are made by Suhr and they're called S90's. Big, fat P90 tone that gets real rude if you let it!

It has a lot to do with what type of magnet the PU uses. For me for the true P-90 I like ALnico II's>>> Antiquites and Wolftone are heavy contenders.