P100 pickups- tell me about them

[JukeJointJunkie]

Ah yes, the hated P100 "quiet" P90 style pickup. Pretty much universally despised.

Myself, I have no experience with them. Besides no hum, what is it that is different about them? Are they brighter than a standard P90? Duller? More/less midrange? Tell me about them.

 

[Jakedog]

They’re a little hotter, but not a lot. They don’t sound as “open”, and don’t have the same airy top end.

All that aside, they’re freakin great sounding pickups. And dead quiet. If you expect them to sound like great P90’s, they’re not that. And you won’t like them. If you just want a good sounding pickup that doesn’t make any noise, and is kinda in the P90 ballpark, they’re great.

FWIW- When I had my 90’s LP Special with P100s, other players would always ask me at gigs “P90’s or P100’s?”. If so many had to ask while listening to the guitar live in the room, they can’t be THAT different.

I think they got their bad rep from purists who just don’t like anything that differs from original spec.

 

[hopdybob]

They’re a little hotter, but not a lot. They don’t sound as “open”, and don’t have the same airy top end.

All that aside, they’re freakin great sounding pickups. And dead quiet. If you expect them to sound like great P90’s, they’re not that. And you won’t like them. If you just want a good sounding pickup that doesn’t make any noise, and is kinda in the P90 ballpark, they’re great.

FWIW- When I had my 90’s LP Special with P100s, other players would always ask me at gigs “P90’s or P100’s?”. If so many had to ask while listening to the guitar live in the room, they can’t be THAT different.

I think they got their bad rep from purists who just don’t like anything that differs from original spec.

could that airy/open problem not be solved with using other Kohm values in the pots?
can imaging that they drop t them in existing guitars with standard values that maybe are not just right for these P100

 

[Rob DiStefano]

Never heard a Gibson P100 I liked, terrible wonky tone ... but hey, that's just me.

 

[elihu]

I used to have a cherry Gibson ES-135 with two P-100's...ran it into my Deluxe Reverb with a Weber Alnico speaker at mid to high volume...sounded like something between Chuck Berry and the Georgia Satellites.

I loved that setup.

 

[hotcoffeenochill]

They're 10 more P's than the 90, duh!

 

[Dismalhead]

Back in the '90s I was obsessed with getting a TV Yellow LP Special. Spent a while in a music store comparing one with P100s to a LP Studio with the 490 pickups and a P90 equipped Hamer. Compared to the other two the P100s were thin and one-dimensional, without that open throatiness and the pretty single-coil overtones you get from P90s. Ended up going home with a new LP Studio, also ended up getting the Hamer about a year later. To this day I still haven't gotten my TV Yellow LP.

 

[pippoman]

I used to have a cherry Gibson ES-135 with two P-100's...ran it into my Deluxe Reverb with a Weber Alnico speaker at mid to high volume...sounded like something between Chuck Berry and the Georgia Satellites.

I loved that setup.

I had a similar setup and they sounded fine. A snobby, know-it-all salesman at a local guitar store that primarily deals in high end guitars told me they sounded horrible when I mentioned I had them in my ES135. When I insisted they sounded good to my ears he became even more insulting so I left. A couple years later I had a set of SD P90s installed and they sounded a little different, but not actually better, and I missed the quieter P100s, so I reinstalled them. That was many moons ago and I sold the es135 since then.

Don’t let people tell you what you should and shouldn’t like. There’s nothing wrong with P100s if you like them, or P90s for that matter.

 

[radiocaster]

I have one of the earlier ones, lower impedance and not as loud, in bridge position. I like it but no doubt many don't.

They later came out with a louder one, I guess intended for the bridge position. At first there was only one type, same with P90s.

 

[fretknot]

I had one in a LP Junior. It is a usable pickup, but not for me. They don't offer the complexity and harmonics of a P-90, yet don't seem to reach the sound of a PAF. Kind of an in-between place that doesn't speak to my ear.

I also tried the Mojotone "Quiet Coil" version. I've come to believe that there is no equal substitute for a P-90 when it comes to bite, tone, and articulation. Something always gets lost with hum cancelling pickups.

I've learned to live with the hum by rolling the volume knob off between songs and phrases. The benefits are worth it.

 

[backporchmusic]

I have several P90 guitars, different pickup makers too. I have one guitar with P100. I'm not a fan. As others have said, they seem to lack breath and dimension. They don't seem as 'live.'

 

[schmee]

I have a Gibson P100, I don't have anything to put it in right now. I thought it sounded fine, not quite as lively as a P90 maybe, but a step up from a HB IMO.... but then, I'm not a HB fan that much!
SPAM: $65 shipped and PP'd if anyone wants it.

 

[Jakedog]

I had one in a LP Junior. It is a usable pickup, but not for me. They don't offer the complexity and harmonics of a P-90, yet don't seem to reach the sound of a PAF. Kind of an in-between place that doesn't speak to my ear.

I also tried the Mojotone "Quiet Coil" version. I've come to believe that there is no equal substitute for a P-90 when it comes to bite, tone, and articulation. Something always gets lost with hum cancelling pickups.

I've learned to live with the hum by rolling the volume knob off between songs and phrases. The benefits are worth it.

Yeah, but there are some places you just can’t do that. My house is one of them. My favorite bar is another. The electric is just so bad that it’s impossible to use single coils with any gain or drive whatsoever. And it’s not that pleasant even totally clean.

I have a hum debugger, but that makes the sound weird as well. It’s nice to play in modern buildings with up to date electricity. But it’s just not something that happens all that often. Especially in a city like mine where so many of the cool places are in buildings that are 80-150 years old. And then there’s road work where you never know what you’re gonna get.

I wouldn’t dream of gigging without hum canceling pickups. It’s just not practical.

 

[Peegoo]

I have a pair of 'em in an ES135. Are they pickups? Yes, they are. Are they P90s? No, they are not. They have a reduced top end and a bit more low grunt than a typical Gibson P90 that specs to around 8K. If you have 'em in a guitar, they work fine and sound good. If you're expecting P90 tones across the board, you'll be disappointed.

Kent Armstrong makes a humbucking P90 called the Stealth 90. These sound a lot more like a traditional P90 than the P100. I have the Stealth 90 in two of my Les Paul Juniors; it's a direct replacement and fits the Gibson cover exactly. So nobody but you will know.

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

I had one in a LP Junior. It is a usable pickup, but not for me. They don't offer the complexity and harmonics of a P-90, yet don't seem to reach the sound of a PAF. Kind of an in-between place that doesn't speak to my ear.

I also tried the Mojotone "Quiet Coil" version. I've come to believe that there is no equal substitute for a P-90 when it comes to bite, tone, and articulation. Something always gets lost with hum cancelling pickups.

I've learned to live with the hum by rolling the volume knob off between songs and phrases. The benefits are worth it.

100% agreed.

 

[Joe-Bob]

My LP Jr came with P-100s. They did not have a full-range frequency response. There was no bass.
Plus, they were very noisy with an annoying hum!
I put in SD P-90s. They make my ears smile, and no hum!

 

[Jakedog]

My LP Jr came with P-100s. They did not have a full-range frequency response. There was no bass.
Plus, they were very noisy with an annoying hum!
I put in SD P-90s. They make my ears smile, and no hum!

Then they weren’t P100’s, or were not installed correctly. The P100 is a humbucker. It’s far from being noisy. And it’s got decent (though not huge) low end.

 

[Mr. St. Paul]

Yeah, but there are some places you just can’t do that. My house is one of them. My favorite bar is another. The electric is just so bad that it’s impossible to use single coils with any gain or drive whatsoever. And it’s not that pleasant even totally clean.

I have a hum debugger, but that makes the sound weird as well. It’s nice to play in modern buildings with up to date electricity. But it’s just not something that happens all that often. Especially in a city like mine where so many of the cool places are in buildings that are 80-150 years old. And then there’s road work where you never know what you’re gonna get.

I wouldn’t dream of gigging without hum canceling pickups. It’s just not practical.

The only downfall to P-90s, as far as I'm concerned. I love them, ever since I got an Epi '56 Gold Top with Fralin P-90s. But I ran into venues where it was practically unusable, due to bad wiring or neon sign overload. I ended up bringing a LP with humbuckers to every gig just in case.

A friend of mine replaced the P-90 in his Grote jazz box with the Mojotone Quiet Coil. His house has wiring issues and he plays with fairly high gain often. He likes the Mojotone, but he has noiseless pickups in most of his guitars, for the reasons stated above. The wiring is my house is good, and I'm not a high gain player, so I'm fine with the (little) noise I get from my P-90 guitars.