I ve replaced magnets in Squire p-ups like you have. You can get AlNiCo rods that slip smoothly and easily in pushing out the steel poles. Or 2 small AlNiCo Bars instead of the ceramic. At under 4K DC ohms they re great in series. Using AlNiCo bars: G - Bridge -Middle - + series gives a killer bitey attack and is full yet clear. You can hear the P90 style magnet alignment.
P90s in a strat
- Thread starter Asmith
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Vladimir
Friend of Leo's
Here is an Edwards (ESP) Sugizo signature model, only available in Japan unfortunately! This guy is a wicked player and knows how to make those P90's sing.
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Asmith
Friend of Leo's
That's pretty much it, solder the bare wires in place of the black wires and the other one in place of the white, you might have to swap the wires around though (or not). Pickups can be wired in or out of phase but preferably in phase. You'll know if they're out of phase because in position 2 and 4 the switch the guitar will sound really weak and thin if this is the case reverse swap the wires around on the middle pickup (because those P90s uses shielded wire). If you have any more questions you should post your own thread, it just helps keep threads on topic/up to date. Posting in the correct sections will also help you get more/better replies, a technical question is best asked in the tele-technical sub forum
http://www.tdpri.com/forums/tele-technical.8/
And don't worry about it being strictly telecaster over there, wiring questions are common and we're more than happy to help even if you don't have a telecaster (yet!)
Welcome to the forum and don't be a stranger.That looks really nice, a staple P90 would be cool too but that's way out of budget. I'm guessing it's only available in japan due to a certain trademark issue
Asmith
Friend of Leo's
I was thinking I could probably experiment with the two spare pickups and make a cheap and nasty humbucker out of them by doing as you said and removing the ceramic mags but mounting the pups right next to each other using a single alnico bar magnet between them, although it would probably go unused. One of these days I'll start winding pickups... along with the other list of stuff I want to do but have not yet tried. They all eventually come around like the guitar I'm building and I've recently become obsessed with building effects and then there is building amps which I nearly started.
Asmith
Friend of Leo's
I like bareknuckles stuff but I think they charge a lot for what you get, when there is a lot of good alternatives out there for less like the creamery and Mojo pickups. If I was looking for a pricier set I would probably look into Mojo pickups in the UK, they have some good stuff by the looks of it they're £65 each but, that's probably the budget for a set on this cheap guitar with the word crapocaster across the headstock.
Zepfan
Doctor of Teleocity
I may have missed it, but what about Toneriders P90's and Rebel 90's?
Asmith
Friend of Leo's
Haven't missed anything, I forgot about toneriders, I'll have to have a look at them but so far it looks like I'm choosing between the Iron Gear Platinum 90s, the tonerider hot 90s or vintage 90s (another thing to ponder, A2 or A5 magnets) and the mystery ebay set I'll try on a whim since they're so cheap.
I've already ordered a set but it'll be a couple of weeks before they arrive but I'm curious about the spec. I'm wondering how 'Hot' are they? The listing says the bridge is 10k ohm and the neck is 8k ohm DC, obviously that's misleading as they could be wound with a thinner than usual gauge wire. Probably harder to answer but do you know what magnet type is in these, alnico type is obviously tricky to differentiate but do you know if they're ceramic or alnico?
Cheers
. . .
Probably harder to answer but do you know what magnet type is in these, alnico type is obviously tricky to differentiate but do you know if they're ceramic or alnico?
Cheers
This (above) is a question I'd like to see answered too - my 3xp90 Sortacaster arrived via the List of Craig, so I've just taken what it came with.
If I knew what to do to goof w/ the magnets (and had some idea what it would change in sonic signature) I'd be happy to "be experimental".
Peace - Deeve
Asmith
Friend of Leo's
So many knobs haha, 3 volumes and 3 tones or is there something more mysterious at play here? It looks pretty similar to what I'm going for. Regarding magnets, I'm sure the biggest difference in tone comes from the actual magnet strength, stronger magnets usually make a brighter pup but there are other factors which are usually based on magnet strength too. If I remember correctly swapping bar magnets is quite easy and the tonal properties of magnets shouldn't be too hard to find plenty of pickup forums will have many threads discussing that kind of thing.
Ask @Antigua Tele or @Deneb.
I could be remembering it completely wrong but I think some time ago, Antigua mentioned something about magnetometers or gauss meters and that only A5 exhibits x or y so you can tell by some sort of reading it's A5 or not A5, or that it's A4 or A3 or A2, etc...
Deneb is also very knowledgeable about a variety of magnet types. I'm waiting for him to get around to manufacturing pickups because he's got some unique designs. I've got a set of neodymium powered single coil rails in my Strat and I think they probably have a P90 ring to them. They're different from the A5 single coils or the OEM ceramics I had in it originally.
Antigua Tele
Friend of Leo's
I've already ordered a set but it'll be a couple of weeks before they arrive but I'm curious about the spec. I'm wondering how 'Hot' are they? The listing says the bridge is 10k ohm and the neck is 8k ohm DC, obviously that's misleading as they could be wound with a thinner than usual gauge wire. Probably harder to answer but do you know what magnet type is in these, alnico type is obviously tricky to differentiate but do you know if they're ceramic or alnico?
Cheers
It's hard to tell, since the magnetic bars are are inside the pickup. I've ordered some cheap P-90s that had AlNiCo bars, but $13 is really cheap for a pickup with two AlNiCo bars in it. I'd be really curious to see inside. 8k neck and 10k bridge are standard P-90 values. They're the same value as Seymour Duncan's P-90's, whom a lot of Chinese manufacturers appear to copy, detail for detail.
It's worth noting that these P-90s use brass base plates where as most premium brands use nickel silver, but I've measured the impedance curves of both and found that the difference is negligible http://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7909/tonerider-vintage-hot-analysis-review , so if by chance there are ceramic bars in there, you could swap them out with AlNiCo and you'd be good to go. They might even sound rather good with ceramic bars, for all I know.
I ve done the HB w the 2 squires. The bar fits perfectly. I glued it in place w Silcon Rubber Cement. I also put popsicle sticks pieces across the p-up mounting bolt holes then drilled 2 new ones to match the pickguard HB slot holes. One could also drill four holes for the existing p-up holes in the guard... This is one of the best p-ups I ve ever heard. It sounds like a Strat p-up as a HB. Normal Fender HB don t, do to the less tall coils.
Asmith
Friend of Leo's
I'll be poking around in there any way out of curiosity, I want to see the construction of the pup behind that brass plate. I'm not hung up on the plate material being used behind the pup, the difference will amount to less than comparing a humbucker with and without a cover which in most cases is considered an aesthetic choice. I'm not against ceramic either, I never had an issue with pups in my long gone MIM strat which used 2 ceramics, they must have used smaller mags though as their resistance was much higher than these squier ones with the same constuction (and I assume the same gauge wire.) I'll just have to wait and see I guess and if I don't like them I can try a magnet swap if I find they're ceramic.
Asmith
Friend of Leo's
Might be worth a go then, no guitar to put one in though unless I unesquier my tele. My tele has pretty much been a test bed for all of my strange ideas.
Zepfan
Doctor of Teleocity
I've been wanting to put 3 P90's in my Strat clone for some time. The plan was to have the middle pup RWRP and wired to a 5-way switch - 1 volume - 1 tone ,but to also have a series/parallel option for the middle pup.
P90's Take up a lot of space, so 2 pups side by side as a HB doesn't leave much room for anything else. Then again, 3 of them does the same. You could stack the 90's, but that's been done(P100) and the results weren't well liked.
Another idea of mine was to make my own version of the SD PRail pickup using 2 regular P90's and 2 Lipstick Tubes with the Triple Shot switches. You could get Teleish tones, Strat tones, Dano tones and Gibby tones out of that.
P90's Take up a lot of space, so 2 pups side by side as a HB doesn't leave much room for anything else. Then again, 3 of them does the same. You could stack the 90's, but that's been done(P100) and the results weren't well liked.
Another idea of mine was to make my own version of the SD PRail pickup using 2 regular P90's and 2 Lipstick Tubes with the Triple Shot switches. You could get Teleish tones, Strat tones, Dano tones and Gibby tones out of that.
Asmith
Friend of Leo's
Zepfan
Doctor of Teleocity
Gottcha. I love my 2 strat pups wired in series. H/S/S style placement. Neck is 5k and middle is 5.5k and they sound awesome. Oak body/Maple neck.
Asmith
Friend of Leo's
Series is something that I could try, what I really dislike at the moment is that they are ridiculously bright and have no bass. I remedied the brightness with a circuit I designed that works like a varitone but on a knob, it shifts the resonant peak into a lower register. I designed the circuit before getting the guitar and when I got it and heard the pickups I knew it was perfect for test the circuit. The only trouble is that you can't add bass (as far as I'm aware) and these are really lacking that, I guess series would be the best way to thicken the tone. Still, I have p90 gas so I still need to remedy that anyway...
Inductors in your circuit ? Talking Series, put a Squire in the M w AlNiCo and ground it for either M+B or M+N and it sounds right in the normal HB range. Strats in series can be just a tad muddy depending on the p-ups. When each is under 6K like Zepfan , it is usually like he said. Another cool hook up is ground your favorite position N,M,B and then have it in series with the other 2 in parallel. Say G-B+(N ll M) - HotSeries is something that I could try, what I really dislike at the moment is that they are ridiculously bright and have no bass. I remedied the brightness with a circuit I designed that works like a varitone but on a knob, it shifts the resonant peak into a lower register. I designed the circuit before getting the guitar and when I got it and heard the pickups I knew it was perfect for test the circuit. The only trouble is that you can't add bass (as far as I'm aware) and these are really lacking that, I guess series would be the best way to thicken the tone. Still, I have p90 gas so I still need to remedy that anyway...
