Fishman/Greg Koch Gristle Tone p90's. Anyone here played them?

[CapnCrunch]

I've watched a few videos and they seem quite versatile. I'm just wondering if they actually sound and feel like a real single coil p90 (sans the noise) and what others think. I'm working on a small bodied Jazzmaster style tele hybrid and want to put p90's in it. Seriously considering these so any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[Seafoamgreen]

Also curious. Just got my first set of P90s (in a Yamaha Revstar) and the wiring in my house has made the hum as bad as feared, so I'm checking out noiseless alternatives. I have a set of Fluence humbuckers in my Charvel, so I'm familiar with their platform.

 

[CapnCrunch]

Also curious. Just got my first set of P90s (in a Yamaha Revstar) and the wiring in my house has made the hum as bad as feared, so I'm checking out noiseless alternatives. I have a set of Fluence humbuckers in my Charvel, so I'm familiar with their platform.

Not a lot of chatter on these. Curious what you think of the Fluence humbuckers? The Tele set and the p-90's sound very good in all of the Greg Koch videos, but I suspect he could make anything sound great.

 

[CapnCrunch]

Wrong place to ask, evidently.

 

[boxocrap]

Wrong place to ask, evidently.

ya prolly the wrong place..check out the pickups section..you may get a better response there..i'm curious about those pickups myself..the tele singles actually

 

[CapnCrunch]

ya prolly the wrong place..check out the pickups section..you may get a better response there..i'm curious about those pickups myself..the tele singles actually

This is the pickup section. Is there another one?

 

[boxocrap]

This is the pickup section. Is there another one?

ha..sorry bout that...no i found this post on whats new

 

[Rat City]

I haven’t played them yet. Soon…

 

[CapnCrunch]

I haven’t played them yet. Soon…

View attachment 943741

Nice! What are they going in, and what kind of bridge is that? Last question: Where in Washington are you, generally anyway. We could be neighbors.

 

[Rat City]

Nice! What are they going in, and what kind of bridge is that? Last question: Where in Washington are you, generally anyway. We could be neighbors.

Those pups are going into a koa top T style partscaster. It’s a Callaham bridge/saddles. West Seattle.

 

[CapnCrunch]

Those pups are going into a koa top T style partscaster. It’s a Callaham bridge/saddles. West Seattle.

Would love to see some pics when you get it put together. Koa and Claro Walnut are two of my very favorite woods. I'm looking at putting these PU's into an Alder body that is Jazzmaster shaped but Tele sized. It will be Fiesta Red when I finally get around to spraying it. It has a Maple neck with a Cocobolo board, and will have a Celluloid Tort guard. I'm in North Kitsap.

 

[dukewellington]

Not sure what your amp/tone setup is compared to the videos so not sure how the video stacks up to reality, but our other guitarist has them in an alder body partscaster, and that guitar sounds pretty ripping good. To my ear, they’re very articulate.

 

[Rat City]

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[spangler41]

I installed a set of the Greg Koch signature Tele pickups. I'm really impressed! I've been playing over 60 years and have tried many many different pickups and these are really good. I wonder if anyone has added a middle pickup? I want to do that, using a Strat Fluence and changing out the pickup selector switch.

 

[58Bassman]

Not a lot of chatter on these. Curious what you think of the Fluence humbuckers? The Tele set and the p-90's sound very good in all of the Greg Koch videos, but I suspect he could make anything sound great.

A fair number of people comment on his FB feed- some have multiple Reverend Gristlecasters in different colors and I don't remember seeing bad reviews.

I think he used to be a member here- I know he was on the Fender Discussion Page, but his schedule has really exploded and he's gigging more than ever, plus he has started going to Wildwood again for the demo videos.

 

[ABetterTelePlayer]

Strange! Greg's Fluence pickups have been on my mind lately....

I have been thinking about putting his Tele pickups in my Jason Isbell Telecaster. Not that there's anything wrong with the Twisted Tele pickups set. I suppose I just have gas! The only thing that is stopping me was this review which makes me hesitant.

 

[58Bassman]

Strange! Greg's Fluence pickups have been on my mind lately....

I have been thinking about putting his Tele pickups in my Jason Isbell Telecaster. Not that there's anything wrong with the Twisted Tele pickups set. I suppose I just have gas! The only thing that is stopping me was this review which makes me hesitant.

Not getting the crunch like the Duncans is because the output isn't a shot- the amp or a pedal in the existing chain should be able to provide that.

Also, that's only one review- they didn't comment on their picking style, other equipment, etc, so it's hard to know how they sounded or why.

Do you have a Reverend guitar dealer near you? If so, I would call to find out if they have a Gristlecaster and go there to play it. If your amp is easy to carry with you, I would take it, so you can hear it as it would be if you buy them.

If you only play clean, I don't know if the review really matters.

Are you considering these because of the low noise? If you like the ones in the guitar but find it too noisy, would reducing the noise be acceptable? That can be dealt with- I just dropped the noise level of my Offset Tele greatly and it wasn't difficult. It's still noisy near a strong source (like my TV), but it's much quieter than it was.

 

[CapnCrunch]

A fair number of people comment on his FB feed- some have multiple Reverend Gristlecasters in different colors and I don't remember seeing bad reviews.

I think he used to be a member here- I know he was on the Fender Discussion Page, but his schedule has really exploded and he's gigging more than ever, plus he has started going to Wildwood again for the demo videos.

I ended up trying a set of the Fluence strat pick-ups in a MIJ strat that I was not playing very much. They sound much more like real single coils than other noise cancelling strat PU's I've played. That said, they are very bright to my ear. I've had to re-eq my amps and all my effects, and they still sound too bright to me. They are also faaaar from noiseless. I was surprised at the level of hum because most reviews say they are dead quiet. They're nowhere near as noisy as traditional SC's, but they are not dead silent either. I still would love to have a set of quiet P-90's but I don't think I'll go with the Fluence version after trying the Strat offerings.

 

[ABetterTelePlayer]

Not getting the crunch like the Duncans is because the output isn't a shot- the amp or a pedal in the existing chain should be able to provide that.

Also, that's only one review- they didn't comment on their picking style, other equipment, etc, so it's hard to know how they sounded or why.

Do you have a Reverend guitar dealer near you? If so, I would call to find out if they have a Gristlecaster and go there to play it. If your amp is easy to carry with you, I would take it, so you can hear it as it would be if you buy them.

If you only play clean, I don't know if the review really matters.

Are you considering these because of the low noise? If you like the ones in the guitar but find it too noisy, would reducing the noise be acceptable? That can be dealt with- I just dropped the noise level of my Offset Tele greatly and it wasn't difficult. It's still noisy near a strong source (like my TV), but it's much quieter than it was.

I play more overdriven than clean but clean is a good base. It's a bit off-putting because it's hard to tell what exactly the reviewer even meant with that. I wonder if they were just saying that the pickups reacted in such a way that the clean mix/blend bleeds into the overdrive - much like the the way the Vintera 50's single coils interacts with overdrive/distortion. No matter how much OD/Dist you use, there will always be some clean mixed into the signal slightly overpowering the drive, making it sound like like a dual amp simulation in a way.

As for the Gristlecaster, it's on my list! I have been eye-ing it for some time on Sweetwater but hard to say if it could feel or sound better than my Jason Isbell Telecaster which has the Fender Twisted Tele set. As far as Seymour Duncan sets, never been disappointed with them except for one - the JB/57. As far as I'm concerned, Fender and Seymour Duncan are still at top of the game for pickups. And I've tried too many. Most recently put Fender's Kingfish HB set into my Ibanez Joe Satriani axe, Seymour Duncan Hendrix set into a Fender Strat and Seymour Duncan Green Magic set into an LTD Eclipse. Right now putting Seymour Duncan's newest set (The Clean Machine set by Cory Wong) into another strat. Even though the Jason Isbell Telecaster is almost perfect in feel and sound, I'm still curious to try new things just for the heck of it. I don't know.

I ended up trying a set of the Fluence strat pick-ups in a MIJ strat that I was not playing very much. They sound much more like real single coils than other noise cancelling strat PU's I've played. That said, they are very bright to my ear. I've had to re-eq my amps and all my effects, and they still sound too bright to me. They are also faaaar from noiseless. I was surprised at the level of hum because most reviews say they are dead quiet. They're nowhere near as noisy as traditional SC's, but they are not dead silent either. I still would love to have a set of quiet P-90's but I don't think I'll go with the Fluence version after trying the Strat offerings.

That was the biggest problem with my Fender Deluxe Player Strat, using the newest iteration of Fender's newest Noiseless technology cancels/cuts too many important frequencies in order to quiet the guitar. Quite different from putting an anodized pickgaurd on your strat which quiets things up yet slightly enhances your tone. Anyway, swapped those Noiseless pickups out for the Seymour Duncan's Hendrix set and couldn't be happier.

Fender makes some amazing pickups though but yeah, the Noiseless ones are the only ones that I couldn't recommend. Otherwise, they do make amazing stuff

 

[58Bassman]

Is this noise present when using a lot of gain and/or pedals? If so, I wouldn't expect miracles- when someone describes a pickup as 'noiseless', it's because it was noiseless when tested under specific conditions, not in ALL conditions.

But the pickups might not be what's allowing the noise to enter- wires that aren't shielded or twisted are a prime reason something may be noisy and this applies to hum AND buzz- it's important to find out where and how the noise is entering. Some hum is caused by ground loops, which are usually caused by some device (like the amp) being on one outlet and something else (like a pedalboard) powered by another outlet or on a different power phase, which means they're each using one of the two Hot cables entering the electrical service panel, but they're not using the same one. The loop is caused by resistance between the devices and it could be on the hot, neutral or ground.

Hum can also be from the magnetic field created by transformers- small devices don't create a strong one, but an amplifier can if the shell of the transformers is loose or a cable is close to a high voltage conductor in the amp. This is one of the reasons people comment on the wire routing in amplifiers.

Buzz is usually coming from after the rectifier and before the filtering and in my case, it comes from my TV. When that isn't on, by Offset Tele is extremely quiet. For the record, it has the original pickups, AFAIK- they weren't changed before I got it and the photos on Reverb look the same. I just don't understand why they didn't ground the neck pickup cover (the Reverb photo shows it the same) and they didn't use a metal plate under the bridge pickup which has always been grounded on all of the bridge pickups I have seen. 62 years later and they still aren't throwing us much of a bone.

When I first brought this guitar home, it was noisier if the TV was off, so I twisted the pickup and jack wires & added a ground wire to the neck pickup cover- I connected the cover to the black wire but it wasn't very effective. Using a separate wire will also make it easy to replace the selector switch, if I want to add other wiring configurations, such as a series or out of phase position.

Since the third wire and twisting helped but weren't totally effective (in my weird mind), I used Copper foil in the cavities, soldered at many places where it overlapped (but not all- that will be done next time I change strings). I also installed a four wire terminal strip, to make changing the pickguard/neck pickup easy and to allow me to use a piece of thin shielded, twisted pair Belden cable to connect to the controls.

Coming from someone who has worked in Audio/Video, home theater and network systems, I hate noise. It's not always easy to remove and that's something people who use systems other than musical instruments, specifically electric guitars, amplifiers and effects, do not tolerate. If the frequency response is changed by removing the noise, it can be adjusted in some way to recover that but if someone is playing and they stop touching the metal parts on the guitar, even at bedroom level, they shouldn't have to put up with the sound of a chainsaw, IMO.

I'll see if the noise is there next time I see Greg play.