P90 fans - have you found anything else as good?

I think there is no more sublime clean guitar tone than through a Gibson P90 neck pup.

 

Not everyone shares the same sonic goal, but I wish you well in the direction you’re headed. A good p90 seems to be part of your essential tool kit. Isn’t it great when we find the things that satisfy?

 

I like P90, especially the early 50s, lower wound kind - but a Dynasonic is even better, because you can make it sound like a P90, or like a Fender single coil, or anything in between, simply by playing around with pickup height vs magnet height...

 

Vintage style telecaster bridge pickup, Jaguar pickups, firebird pickups, Filtertrons, G&L Soapbar MFD, and DeArmond dynasonic pickups. I am sure I am missing something.

 

Don't be worried about making the same guitar over and over. That's what I do

 

aside from the obvious (tele pickups), i'd say firebird.

 

I like P90's, but lately I've become a huge fan of Firebirds. Not the wanna be Firebirds, but the real Firebirds. The ones with Alnico 5 or 2 magnets in each coil bobbins.

The TVJones Classic's filtertron pickups are fantastic too.

 

I am also a really big fan of original WRHB pickups for that high end sparkle with defined lows as well as some mini-hums!

 

Another good candidate for the neck or bridge position is the DeArmond style Gold Foil pickups that Allparts sells.

 

A Mean 90 isn't exactly a P-90 sound, but it's pretty close and it sounds great

 

I went through a big P90 phase and of course still love them.

But a really good set of Tele single coils really is where it’s at for me. It’s most always the sound I want to hear.

 

You might want to try some of the warmer stacked single coils that purists disregard because they're "not like a real strat/tele single coil". For example, I'm completely in love with the Duncan Classic Stack Plus strat neck pickup that I have in my Tele. It's a little warmer, smoother and more powerful than the good strat singles I've used...which is just what I want! I bet there are some like that in the DiMarzio Area series - not the Area T, or 54/67/61s but the hotter ones. I haven't tried them, though.

It will probably take some experimentation, which can get expensive. If you can buy used or on a good sale you can probably sell the ones you don't want without taking too much of a pounding.

That said, a p90 in the bridge position is the most glorious girthy twang that I've ever played.

 

I'm very close to ordering a neck staple type from Lollar. It seems like a good P90 - traditional tele mix.

https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-p-90-pickups/staple-p-90-neck

 

I really want to try a Dynasonic sometime soon. I love the sound I have heard from them in the neck.

 

Fralin P90s are sonic joy. But outside of the P90 realm, i like jazzmaster, WRHB and the Dearmond goldtones.

 

I've had 3 guitars with P90s and they all sounded totally different. So I struggle to think of P90s as a predictable group the way strat pickups, tele pickups, or humbuckers usually are.

 

Here's something I've really liked since I built it about 3 years ago, SD QuarterPound bridge and Guitar Madness Songbird.

 

Lace Alum 90. I bought a PRS SE1 that has an Alum 90 installed. Incredible clarity when playing with a substantial OD. Very impressed with this pickup.

 

Never had a P90 guitar, but I have a P94, a Kent Armstrong humbucker sized single coil and a P100, so I know what to expect.

On the other hand I also have a strat pickup and several tele pickups and humbuckers that sound wildly different from others of their kind.