Your next guitar revisited

[Uncle E]

You guys and your p-90's

Have you ever considered a standard ceramic single coil?
To me a standard single coil with ceramic magnets have a fatter rounder tone then Alnico P90's

Just to clarify, this video is not demonstrating true single coils. He is swapping bar magnets, as found in budget import Strats or single coil-sized humbuckers.

[codec_spurt]

That is a thing of extreme beauty!

Thank you! I'm very proud of it. It's the most successful product I've created. Here are some other colors:

Absolutely outstanding!

Work of the highest order.


(Peter Frampton would be proud!)

[codec_spurt]

You guys and your p-90's

Have you ever considered a standard ceramic single coil?
To me a standard single coil with ceramic magnets have a fatter rounder tone then Alnico P90's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFfBWoEYnL0

Interesting how the accepted wisdom is that Alnicos are more smoother and well-rounded and warmer compared to Ceramic, yet here you are stating the opposite. And it's also something I would say as well.

My Strat has Alnicos (Ok, it's just a Squier) and it is very bright. Other guitars I have that I know are Ceramic are much duller (but they may just be not very good pups). Then again, not all of them. Some of them are pretty bright too.

My no.1 guitar has Ceramic pups though (Zebra Protomatic 3's). But then again they are old now as well, decades old. So they lose their bite a bit. So I am told. They still sound out of this world good.

Anyway, I'd never judge a guitar on whether it has Alnico or Ceramic pups. Both can sound bad or good, depending. Alnicos are more expensive of course...

My favorite pup maker in the world (American) also agrees with this.

But I have some really bad pickups in some guitars. They need to be replaced. But they sound great at some settings on some amps with certain FX.

Anyway, interesting to see someone else going against the grain of accepted wisdom in the guitar world. I suppose we can say things like this here without getting shot down in flames. So many vested interests.

There's a lot of musicians out there that just want to have fun with guitars and don't want to get bogged down in all that cork-sniffing. But it's still fun and informative to find out certain facts and prove provenance in certain areas. No point in being contrary for the sake of it.

On second reading, maybe I got your post wrong tapper mike. Apologies if so. Oh well, maybe there is some information in there. Pull me up by all means if I got anything wrong.

[Uncle E]

Interesting how the accepted wisdom is that Alnicos are more smoother and well-rounded and warmer compared to Ceramic, yet here you are stating the opposite. And it's also something I would say as well.

Alnico is a bit of a magic word. I had a similar revelation recently with ceramic and alnico speakers, finally admitting to myself that I actually prefer the sound of ceramic speakers despite what every cool guy magazine article has said in the last 30 years. Unfortunately, unless you're Fender or Vox, it's usually easier just to give people what they're asking for.

[Jafo]

My $20 (2¢ adjusted for inflation). Ceramic can be great; I tried various Alnico mags in a Super Distortion, and decided I liked the overpowered ceramic best -- in that pup, it was more organic and chewy. I usually choose unoriented A5 or even A3, though; they tend to feel more complex to me, compared to ceramic, maybe even raw. Pleasingly irregular? Ceramic just tends to feel too... polished? precise? neutral? Still, you never know what a given pup or mag will sound like in a given guitar.

Except that P90s are simply awesome -- raunchy, raw, elegant, refined, they can do it all -- and sound good everywhere.

[tapper mike]

You guys and your p-90's

Have you ever considered a standard ceramic single coil?
To me a standard single coil with ceramic magnets have a fatter rounder tone then Alnico P90's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFfBWoEYnL0

Interesting how the accepted wisdom is that Alnicos are more smoother and well-rounded and warmer compared to Ceramic, yet here you are stating the opposite. And it's also something I would say as well.

My Strat has Alnicos (Ok, it's just a Squier) and it is very bright. Other guitars I have that I know are Ceramic are much duller (but they may just be not very good pups). Then again, not all of them. Some of them are pretty bright too.

My no.1 guitar has Ceramic pups though (Zebra Protomatic 3's). But then again they are old now as well, decades old. So they lose their bite a bit. So I am told. They still sound out of this world good.

Anyway, I'd never judge a guitar on whether it has Alnico or Ceramic pups. Both can sound bad or good, depending. Alnicos are more expensive of course...

My favorite pup maker in the world (American) also agrees with this.

But I have some really bad pickups in some guitars. They need to be replaced. But they sound great at some settings on some amps with certain FX.


On second reading, maybe I got your post wrong tapper mike. Apologies if so. Oh well, maybe there is some information in there. Pull me up by all means if I got anything wrong.

No we're all good. obviously not all P90's are magnetic. Though in general P90's have a beefier tone than standard single coils.

I made too separate points that weren't really connected so it could be my bad. I just noticed that when something related to a P90 comes up everyone clammers in mostly in praise of the growl they provide.

I've had some lowsy pups as well in my day (or at least ones that didn't fit me well) Mostly they were the foil ones on bodies made of plywood.

As mentioned earlier I"m picking up an Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor Pro II.
I'm already thinking about swapping out the Alnico 2 pups with ceramic humbuckers. I'm afraid the alnico pups won't have enough punch. But that will have to wait at least 6 months after I pick up the guitar.

[cptgone]

My next guitar was gonna be a Revelation RJT-60.
I've been waiting 6 months now, and I'm worried.

[vurt]

i feel your pain.
please send toilet roll packages. please

[cptgone]

I'm sure we still have some V1 or V2 missiles handy, we'll beat Amazon to the market in automated toilet roll delivery.
Just say "daddy wants rolls" to your Alexa device, repeatedly (speak up if necessary, Alexa may have trouble understanding your offshore accent).

[vurt]

in all seriousness though, i dont want to spend the rest of my life playing british guitars, through british pedals in to a british amp.
ok, the amp and guitar, not so bad, but there arent many great pedal manufacturers in britain, add that tariff to the already luxury item cost of a chase bliss for example, it's pretty much a no go

not f**king happy.

[vurt]

at least the weed is grown here, so no import tax there.

[Uncle E]

How does it work with the biggest British amp companies, Marshall and Vox, making most of their products in China and Vietnam?

[vurt]

How does it work with the biggest British amp companies, Marshall and Vox, making most of their products in China and Vietnam?

not sure to be honest, because they have a manufacturers suggested retail price, which is set here.
so it will probably go up, unless they take the cost (unlikely) but wont be an additional cost on top.
i dont know if they would get a business discount on a 1000 amps for example that means an individual amp at market wont have the same increased cost of an american amp?

tbh, i dont think anyone knows.
different people keep saying different things dont apply and such (in the wider world not audio) so who knows what's going to happen?

[vurt]

even brands that build stuff here, orange (i think they still do) will be buying parts from overseas, as we dont have any manufacturers of electronics i dont think?
so there will be increases there too.

[cptgone]

at least the weed is grown here, so no import tax there.

Say cheese