A/B comparison P-90 v. Noiseless P-90:Lollar Standard P-90 v. Kinman noiseless P-90Hx

[thrashmetl]

So I recently dropped a noiseless Kinman P-90Hx in the neck of one of my Tele's and since I haven't heard an A/B comparison between that and a real P-90, I thought I would do one. The playing field is almost even. My real P-90 is a Lollar Standard P-90 in a K-line Tele Special Chris made for me, Ash body, fat neck, 500k pots. The Kinman is in the neck position of a Tele with a Barden in the bridge, Ash body, fat neck, 500k volume pot and a 250k tone pot.

I start off with the Lollar and go back and forth between the two. I hope you like, I'm not much of a player.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10195233

[missinglinkwray]

Thanks for that. You're a good player, man. I've never owned a set of p90s, I'm hoping to dig in to some soon.

[Telenator]

Wow, that Kinman is very impressive. I hear the biggest difference in the lows. The Lollar is a bit more focused in the mids and lows. But when you get to highs, it's almost difficult to tell them apart. Thanks for posting the clip. A set of Kinman P90s is on my short lits.

[Tony474]

For sure, they sounded very similar indeed. The Kinman was perhaps just a tiny touch darker in some parts of the recording, but that could be attributable to the 250K tone pot as compared with the 500K one for the Lollar. Even the individual physics of each of the two guitars could make a difference; the only way to have a completely level playing field would be to install each pickup in turn in one guitar and record it with each, but even then there would be unavoidable minor variations in the player's touch... Nitpicky or what?!

I'm a big fan of Chris Kinman's pickups - I have various kinds in four Strat-type guitars and not only do they sound terrific but they are also beautifully made. I really do hope that the recent terrible floods in and around Brisbane haven't affected Chris and his business too badly.

[thrashmetl]

Originally Posted by Telenator

Wow, that Kinman is very impressive. I hear the biggest difference in the lows. The Lollar is a bit more focused in the mids and lows. But when you get to highs, it's almost difficult to tell them apart. Thanks for posting the clip. A set of Kinman P90s is on my short lits.

Originally Posted by Tony474

For sure, they sounded very similar indeed. The Kinman was perhaps just a tiny touch darker in some parts of the recording, but that could be attributable to the 250K tone pot as compared with the 500K one for the Lollar. Even the individual physics of each of the two guitars could make a difference; the only way to have a completely level playing field would be to install each pickup in turn in one guitar and record it with each, but even then there would be unavoidable minor variations in the player's touch... Nitpicky or what?!

I'm a big fan of Chris Kinman's pickups - I have various kinds in four Strat-type guitars and not only do they sound terrific but they are also beautifully made. I really do hope that the recent terrible floods in and around Brisbane haven't affected Chris and his business too badly.

I forgot to mention that the Lollar is a actually a bit hotter than the Kinman so I adjusted the gain to compensate to try to level them out. Aside from that, the tone settings were not touched. Most likely this is a large reason why the mids and lows are a bit different. I dialed the tone in with the K-line Tele Special and if I had tweaked the tone a little more for the Kinman outfitted guitar, I could probably get them to sound almost identical. The Kinman would actually probably compare better to the Lollar 50's wind P-90 as they would match in output a bit better. When output is reduced, mids and lows change, highs get brighter as well.

The Kinman is truly a killer pickup. I may end up replacing the Barden in the bridge with one of his Broadcasters.

[Chrismo]

Nice demo man! I dug it and I dug both P-90s equally, with the slight edge to the Lollar. Noiseless-wise, that Kinman nails it.