Modern P-90s sound more tame to me. Or is it just me?

[Naillerz78]

I got it used a couple of years ago, so I got a pretty good deal — steal hurt, ha. They're pretty pricey boutique brand but they live up to the rep on all of the ones I've played. By "alive" I just mean expressive and very touch sensitive. All of the old P90s seem to be ready to bust loose when digging in. I'm a big P90 fan, dog ear, soapbar, I love em all.

Yeah that’s weird . I would expect a boutique brand/boutique pickups to have oodles of those qualities. And that Lollars etc were the top tier cos of all that due to the construction and repro materials to duplicate the qualities of the best ones etc.

I’m not sure about those LP special DC type of guitars tbh. Afaik they were most popular in Punk music ?Could it be the amp perhaps. Maybe you need a Marshall for them to really bust loose.

[CapnLockheed]

I know what you mean.....I had a '61 LP Junior, (SG style), with a single dog ear.
It was a total hellbeast!! I also had a mid 90's Chandler Metro with a custom wound P-90
in the neck...that also screamed. My main current P-90 fix is a Hagstrom F200-P. It plays great and it's P-90's sound good but do seem a bit tame especially compared to my old LP Jr. Gawd I miss that gal!!

[Naillerz78]

I know what you mean.....I had a '61 LP Junior, (SG style), with a single dog ear.
It was a total hellbeast!! I also had a mid 90's Chandler Metro with a custom wound P-90
in the neck...that also screamed. My main current P-90 fix is a Hagstrom F200-P. It plays great and it's P-90's sound good but do seem a bit tame especially compared to my old LP Jr. Gawd I miss that gal!!

Nice Hagstrom is it made in China? Fender scale 25.5 or Gibson?
Everyone raves about the old vintage juniors I’d love to try one sometime.

I just bought a Tokai legacy ES335 made in China.
Totally irrelevant to the topic, but I just had to tell someone.

E782D519-1F7B-4558-AD19-E050F5E27D9B.jpeg

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Are any noiseless P90s worth a damn? Maybe Lollar? I've got a Les Paul Special DC with P90s that I finally got to play in tune after a few years but the noise still bugs me.

That Collings is beautiful BTW.

[Bombadil]

Noiseless P-90s is an oxymoron.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Noiseless P-90s is an oxymoron.

Yet they exist. Are they stacked Humbuckers meant to look and sound like P90s and marketed as P90s? Yea. But that's what I'm inquiring about.

[Uncle E]

The new Seymour Duncans are 3 coils side-by-side. I haven't tried them yet. Their older stacked version isn't accurate sounding at all but it can be wired in interesting ways because of how powerful the two coils are.

The Lindy Fralin Alnico Rod Noiseless P-90's sound amazing. They're not meant to sound like real P-90's but I had several people tell me they're the best P-90's they've ever heard. I guess if you wish a P-90 sounded a little more like a Strat, these would be it.

[Bombadil]

The only thing I can contribute here is I have Jeff Beck Hot Noiseless pups on my Strat. It really doesn't sound like a Strat that much, any more. Stacked humbuckers. I'm thinking of switching them out.

[resynthesis]

Noiseless P-90s is an oxymoron.

Yet they exist. Are they stacked Humbuckers meant to look and sound like P90s and marketed as P90s? Yea. But that's what I'm inquiring about.

Gibson sold their stacked version as the P100 and I never remember anybody saying anything good about them.

[Naillerz78]

That's awesome, congrats on the new Tokai! I'm sure it plays and sounds great. Chinese-made guitars can definitely be hit or miss, but it seems like Tokai knows what they're doing.

Thanks man ! I’ve owned 3 of the MIC Legacy series now to date - LP Goldtop p90s, SG and this.
decent build quality but.. hardware and pickups are cheap sounding tbh. P90s noisy & weak esp.
Quite fat neck profile also on their Gibson style range.

Had a Tokai Love Rock MiK previously ,that was much better quality tbh

[Naillerz78]

Are any noiseless P90s worth a damn? Maybe Lollar? I've got a Les Paul Special DC with P90s that I finally got to play in tune after a few years but the noise still bugs me.

That Collings is beautiful BTW.

Yeah the noise is annoying AF. They can be as noisy as a cheap strat. I live down under in Oz. Kinman noiseless pickups have a great rep / reviews. He does a p90 he claims keeps the classic sound intact.

But then again.. that’s what they all say

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I have Kinman's in my Jazzmaster (JM pickups also noisy AF). They don't sound anything like a traditional JM pickup IMO but they sound really cool. Dead dead quiet. Super dynamic. Very bright though (my tone knob never goes above 7). Takes distortion like a champ.

I was really wondering more about the Fralins (I previously said Lollars). They've got a set of noiseless P90s. Mojotone and Dimarzio too.

[Winstontaneous]

I have Fralin noiseless P-90s in a chambered Godin with mahogany body/neck, maple top and rosewood fingerboard. They sound fantastic, I think they are standard wind. Plenty of treble bite and good clarity but no harshness or muddiness. Def responsive to volume control and playing dynamics.

I'm a tone snob, and on bass I usually prefer pure single coils - especially in a Jazz bass. On guitar, high gain/distortion makes noise, buzz & hum soooo much louder. But most single coil noise is manageable with good shielding, and finding that one direction where the buzz nulls out in the Earth's magnetic field.

I'm more annoyed by microphonic pickups on bass - where sometimes I'm resting my right thumb on a pickup, and it comes through with a thump or scratch.

If anybody's interested in a set of single coil Seymour Duncan P-90s, LMK. I have the ones that came with the Godin, a "Vintage" neck pickup around 8-9k and a "Custom" bridge around 12-13k (that's resistance not $$ )

[lfm]

How a pickup sounds, good or bad, I think is mostly due to the guitar you put it in.

Many like an LP with P90 in neck position, since more trebly than a HB. HB tend to create rather boomy sound that might not be what you want from that guitar.

We moved a minihumbucker from an LP Deluxe to a SG style Sigma guitar long ago. It did not bring anything we liked in this Sigma. But really good on an LP Deluxe, a little less boomy low end.

If Leslie West you want a rock and roll sound and pick P90, if Mark Knopfler you want a softer sound and do humbucker.

A pickup has certain frequency characteristics(bass, mid, high), that's all there is, if this brings something you like better or not on a certain guitar.
- basically an EQ on what the woods in the guitar brings

So always refer to which guitar and what pickup.

But there are different quality of pickups of course, how well do in bringing the frequencies on every string(string separation) and such.

[Naillerz78]

A pickup has certain frequency characteristics(bass, mid, high), that's all there is, if this brings something you like better or not on a certain guitar.
- basically an EQ on what the woods in the guitar brings

So always refer to which guitar and what pickup.

But there are different quality of pickups of course, how well do in bringing the frequencies on every string(string separation) and such.

This is spot on imo.
There is a LOT of hyperbole (and also pure bullsh1t claims) spouted by pickup manufacturers on their sales pages about the magical qualities of their amazing pickups.
At the end of the day they are all just magnets and copper wire. there’s only so much they can basically do. Even Lollars, SDs, Dimarzios, UK Bare knuckles hand wound boutique yada yada( they are all guilty) I have all these tried to date.

Winding a pickup one way or the other is always a “trade off” between sounds better Clean vs. sounds better Distorted.

The most obviously guilty of these are the ‘song named’ pickups such as SDs “ Whole Lotta Humbucker” or bare knuckles “ Black Dog” HB - claiming to give that classic rock sound of a certain artist.

The basic (live) sound of Jimmy Page is the sound of a Les Paul through a Marshall / Orange (or both) the rest is in his brain, his hands, his phrasing and his attack… possibly how low he slings his guitar also

To suggest that magic can be replicated in a certain construction of magnets and copper wire .. is verging on ludicrous tbh.

Great for sales tho