P90's have got me!

[bluescube]

My P90 equipped Nelsonic tele copy is becoming number one over my Bill Lawrence L280TL equpped Squier Tele. I like the added girth that P90's have with the single coil sound of a tele added in.

[BB]

Originally Posted by bluescube

My P90 equipped Nelsonic tele copy is becoming number one over my Bill Lawrence L280TL equpped Squier Tele. I like the added girth that P90's have with the single coil sound of a tele added in.

Oh yes...P-90's have a way of doing that to ya. Wait till you try a set of Lollars!

[telel6s]

About two months ago, I happened upon a used PRS SE Soapbar in a store and picked it up. Instant love with the sound. But, it was one of the original single-cuts so I sold it off for a decent profit.

Fast forward to last Saturday. I stopped in at a different local store to simply get some back-up tubes. Off the wall and into my hands jumps a used Hamer Special. Took it straight to a gig later that afternoon and it sounded great, especially the bridge pu.

Only issue is that the previous owner got rid of the neck P90 and installed a G&L MFD soapbar. Cool, almost Stratty sound but a terrible match with the SD P90 at the bridge. Just my luck, on Monday there is a Lollar neck P90 in the garage sale. My check is already on the way to and I'm looking forward to installing that in the Hamer.

Of course, I now have to decide whether to sell my Antigua Tele or Gibson L6S (which I've had for almost 20 years) to pay for the new equipment.

[Ben Harmless]

Me too man. Ain't nothing else like 'em to go from metal, to hardcore, to punk, to jazz, to country, to rockabilly, to whatever you got!

I've been meaning to get some pix up of my new axe... I think I'm gonna go do that right now.

[David Barnett]

Three words:

Live

At

Leeds

[Twang]

I hate to say this...but since I got my Epi ES-295 two months ago I have barely picked up my Tele.

I love P-90s...and that guitar.

[Twang]

Originally Posted by BB

Oh yes...P-90's have a way of doing that to ya. Wait till you try a set of Lollars!

After hearing soo much about 'em, I am saving up for a set of Lollars right now.

[KBR]

I'm with BB.

P90s are hard to beat and deliver the Albert Collins Tele tones for me.

KBR
8)

[blackdog]

Can i see how you teles look with some P-90s? Maybe its a worthwhile venture!

[bluescube]

http://www.jasonames.net/p90/pages/p90_back.htm

[pc]

P-90s are fan-freakin-tastic, as this guitar has now taught me. :D

[bluescube]

that's a yummy natural body tele there!

I'm so glad I got my Nelsonic 290 before they sold out. I love the P90 tones. It's now my main gig axe. The stock korean P90's (alnico) are very good and i'm keeping it stock.

[moonshiner]

How would one describe the sound of a P90? I play with mostly single coils... and a few hummies... but never with a P90... If they are as good as they are being raved in the above posts... it has me interested...

[bluescube]

My tele with P90's sounds like a Tele with more meat or girth to the tone but still having that nice treble bite.

[BluesOwl]

Recently got an Aerodyne Tele. Has a P90 in the neck position. Nice hot pickup with a creamy sound. Hum is not a problem.

Have a ES-137 with P90s. Bought Fralin replacements for the Gibsons....it made a nice improvement..lost some high end harshness.

Have a Chandler Metro (sort of Stat/Tele cross) with P90s. Doesn't sound as good as the A. Tele.

[telel6s]

Moonshiner....I see you're from Milwaukee. Let me try this analogy....

A plain single coil is like a spicy Polish sausage. A little thin but full of spice.
A humbucker is like a kelbasa. Thicker and meatier but a little more mellow.
A P90 is like a beer-soaked, grilled bratwurst. Big and juicy with real good bite.

[e-merlin]

Originally Posted by moonshiner

How would one describe the sound of a P90? I play with mostly single coils... and a few hummies... but never with a P90... If they are as good as they are being raved in the above posts... it has me interested...

Mississppi Queen. P-90s are like a big, beefy single coil pickup because, well, that's what they are. You've just gotta go down to one of the local stores and plug in a guitar with some. I don't play 'em clean; they were made for nasty, snotty, distorted Rock and Blues. But they are a bit on the noisy side because of the high output.

I love P-90s. I've got a Tele with one in the neck, an Ampeg AMG-1, and a Peavey Firenza, both with two. I'm really wanting a Peavey Generation Custom that has 3 of 'em.

[moonshiner]

Originally Posted by telel6s

Moonshiner....I see you're from Milwaukee. Let me try this analogy....

A plain single coil is like a spicy Polish sausage. A little thin but full of spice.
A humbucker is like a kelbasa. Thicker and meatier but a little more mellow.
A P90 is like a beer-soaked, grilled bratwurst. Big and juicy with real good bite.

Heh.. nice analogy... even though I'm not "from" Milyucky...

Thanks... I have some on order...

[bgwatts]

Yeh,I've been kind of leaning towards p-90's my self.It started when I tried a G&L ASAT,which I LOVED!(hollow body WITH a Bigsby!)But tell me this,what's the difference with the G&L pickup and a P-90?G&L says that their pickup design is fundamentaly different enough to warrant an effort to separate it from the P-90 crowd.Marketing or electronics?
I've been scowering the St.Louis shops playing anything and everything with p-90's trying to get a feel for them.I've see a few tele's with a P-90 in the neck position.That SEEMS like a neat setup,but I don't think I actually like that big of a difference on the same guitar.So,I'm leaning towards a Tele "JR."kind of thing.
Lollar? who's that?

[Robin Nahum]

http://www.telecastergallery.com/gal...ndTeleAmp2.jpg

This one uses the SD Vintage P90 with a Jerry Donahue in the bridge. I'm very pleased with it. As the others have written, it has that nice combination of girth and clarity.

[PVTele]

I have to confess to having fallen quite seriously for the Godin LG-SP90... what a gorgeous little guitar that is. Mahogany body, so it sings like a thrush, bolt neck, so it sustains and just goes on sustaining, and those P90-3 Customs - what a truly lovely sound! And it's just so nice to look at in the natural semi-gloss finish. Huh - may just loosen my Fender-dependence more than a little!

[Chris S.]

Originally Posted by bgwatts

But tell me this,what's the difference with the G&L pickup and a P-90?G&L says that their pickup design is fundamentaly different enough to warrant an effort to separate it from the P-90 crowd.Marketing or electronics?

Electronics. They're both large, rectangular, high-output single coil pickups, but that's where the similarities end. P-90s tend to be more raucous, "sweeter," emphasize the mids, usually use alnico magnets, and are noticeably noisier. The MFDs have extended frequency response at both ends of the spectrum, use ceramic magnets, and have a much better signal-to-noise ratio. (This pretty much holds true for all the other models of MFDs as well). If you ever get a chance, play a P-90 equipped Tele and an ASAT back to back and you'll see the pickups sound completely different. They're both really COOL, btw – just different. :-) Hope it helps, CS

P.S. Punctuating or ending a sentence? Try a <u>space bar</u>. (They're delicious AND less filling...) ;-)

[pc]

Originally Posted by moonshiner

How would one describe the sound of a P90?...

Don't know if this helps but I have a couple things you can listen to.

6/8 Blues

This is a jazz/fusion backing (by Peter Vogl) with me playing my above-pictured Tele. Sorry it's a bit long, but more than half of it is the neck P-90, clean first, then with Fulltone FD2. Toward the end I switch to the bridge pup.

You can also go to my site, click on the music page, then click on "UberGroove Music." Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the Santana tune (Yes I have the license :)) That was done entirely with the same guitar using the neck P-90, first with the FD2, then a Vintage Rat.

Hope that helps a little.

[telel6s]

As mentioned above, I recently got a Hamer Special that has the original SD P90 at the bridge but a G&L MFD at the neck position.

The MFD is a nice pickup -- reminds be of a hot strat. But it's a terrible match with the P90 at the bridge. The output level is about the same, with the bridge being just a tad louder. But the tone is so different between the two that I can't get one setting on guitar/amp that works for both. And that is also leaving the middle position with both on almost unusable live (sitting in the living room, I can play with the two volumes to get a good combined sound but that just won't work on-the-fly at a gig). I'm used to my bridge pickup having more treble and this just is not the case with the MFD. The MFD is much clearer and brighter than the mid-range heavy P90.

So I'm getting another P90 for the neck on this guitar. But I'll probably hold on the MFD as it might make it's way into something else in the future. In fact, it would probably make a good middle pickup in a 3 pickup guitar with 2 P90s or hot standard single-coils on the ends.

[Val-tone]

Do they sound pretty similar? I've always wanted to try them side-by side but never had the chance.

[moonshiner]

I installed and played with my very first P-90 yesterday... Though I really like the sound... I don't feel that it has any twang characteristics as were mentioned above... but then again.. I didn't install it in a tele...

Thanks for the info... I am now a happy P-90 owner...

[charliebrown]

Originally Posted by PVTele

I have to confess to having fallen quite seriously for the Godin LG-SP90... what a gorgeous little guitar that is. Mahogany body, so it sings like a thrush, bolt neck, so it sustains and just goes on sustaining, and those P90-3 Customs - what a truly lovely sound! And it's just so nice to look at in the natural semi-gloss finish. Huh - may just loosen my Fender-dependence more than a little!

I almost picked up an LG SP90 when I got my Tele. It will probably be the next guitar I buy. There is a gold one that is begging me to buy it at a local shop here...the gold being discontinued makes me think I'd better act fast. Great sounding and playing guitar!

[johnnelles]

Does anybody make chrome soapbar P90s?

The Epiphone Neil Young signature LP had them (click here for photo), but it's been discontinued, and my parts search has turned up nothing so far.

Chrome is the way to go for a Tele neck pup, IMO.

[FMA]

I recently got one -- a gold one, on a trade -- after jonesing for a P90 guitar for some time. It's a great guitar. Plays nice and sounds rude, like a good P90 guitar should...
Highly recommended.

[SMark]

I'm finishing up a review of Pete Biltoft's P90 offerings for the next issue of AllThingsGuitar.com and I have to say that the P90 bug has also bitten me rather hard. These are some sweet sounding pups.

I have been guilty in the past of considering P90s as just noisy humbuckers, but that is definitely NOT the case. And especially with these Vintage Vibe pups, they are not very noisy at all. Pete shields his pups well. They are much more quiet than my HD Z90s.

I'll have a number of recordings with the article as well, so be watching for it after the 1st of the month if interested.

[e-merlin]

Originally Posted by johnnelles

Does anybody make chrome soapbar P90s?

The Epiphone Neil Young signature LP had them (click here for photo), but it's been discontinued, and my parts search has turned up nothing so far.

Chrome is the way to go for a Tele neck pup, IMO.

Yep! WD has chrome covers for P-90s I have one on my Tele with the P-90 in the neck pos. and a couple on my Peavey Firenza. The polpiece holes don't line up right on the Seymour Duncan P-90s I have in my Ampeg AMG-1, though. They would need to be drilled out a bit bigger.