![]() ![]() Magnet strength is also inconsistent: Gibson used varying types of alnico magnets, depending on what was available at production time. The number of pickup-wire winds-which determines the output-can vary greatly. Like all vintage pickups, old P-90s exhibit major variations from unit to unit. But even then, the result won't sound exactly like the original-or rather, the originals. The most common compromise is to use thinner pickup wire (say, 43 gauge instead of 42) to permit the traditional number of winds on a humbucker-sized bobbin. As experts like Seymour Duncan, Lindy Fralin, and Jason Lollar hasten to point out, even if you use the same materials and manufacturing methods that Gibson employed in the 1950s, simply changing the format from the original P-90's wide, low coil to the humbucker's relatively tall, narrow one inevitably alters the tone. Please note the words “P-90-style." None of the pickups covered here are true P-90s. That's why so many manufacturers have started issuing humbucker-sized P-90-style pickups. But both traditional versions of the P-90-the “dog ear" and “soap bar" styles-require guitars specifically routed for those formats. (And yes, P-90s transmit 60-cycle hum just like most non-humbucking pickups.)Ĭhances are, more players would explore the P-90 sound if the pickups fit into guitars with Fender- or Gibson-style routing. Yet P-90s tend to sound twangier and more transparent than vintage-style humbuckers. ![]() Though the humbucker's powerful tones and noise-free performance largely overshadowed the P-90, a vocal minority of players has long preferred the P-90's crisper tones, clearer mids, and potentially ragged edge. Like humbuckers, P-90s rely on a bar magnet with steel pole pieces, as opposed to the individual magnetic pole pieces of most Fender pickups, an architecture that tends to deliver fatter mids and less twang than classic Fender single-coils. The most likely P-90 converts are humbucker users who yearn for brighter tones and snappier attack, and single-coil players who wish their pickups had more midrange muscle. It's probably an oversimplification to say that the P-90 splits the difference between a vintage-style Fender pickup and a humbucker, yet there's some truth to the notion. (Wes played a Gibson ES-175 with P-90s until switching to a Gibson L5 with humbuckers in the latter part of his career.) Even jazz players have embraced it, notably Grant Green and Wes Montgomery. Consider the Beatles, who used P-90-equipped Epiphone Casinos throughout the band's middle years. And for some, the definition of P-90 attitude begins and ends with Leslie West's tone on Mountain's “Mississippi Queen."īut the P-90 isn't always rude-sounding. Punk pioneers such as New York Doll Johnny Thunders and the Clash's Mick Jones loved its raw intensity. The P-90 is probably most associated with raunchy rock, from the Gibson SG Special Pete Townshend demolished at Leeds to Billie Joe Armstrong's hard-working Les Paul Junior. ![]() Gibson invented the P-90 and used it in many guitars between the pickup's 1946 debut on through the dawn of the humbucker a decade later-and thereafter it became a mainstay on once-budget-priced models such as the Les Paul Junior or Les Paul Junior Special. But lurking somewhere in the middle is a pickup type that's often overlooked: the P-90-style single-coil. For most players, the pendulum of guitar-pickup fashion seems to swing between humbuckers-be they vintage, PAF-style or something more modern-and some type of take on Strat- or Tele-style single-coils. ![]()
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