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

[Uncle E]

You keep throwing the baby out with the bath water. Yes, there's some dubious or even BS marketing out there but many of the differences between pickups make sense, are easy to explain, and can be tested and proven.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Really? A friend of mine bought another MIM Standard Strat guitar at the same place, maybe even same day, his sunburst, mine candy apple red, and you can drive a truck through the neck pocket gap on his. Ok...it's not as bad as a completely dogsh*t 70s Tele Deluxe I bought for way too much money and regretted like hell, but still...not a good example. My candy apple red Strat has been great. It's just cosmetically ugly with that sh*t plastic cap.

The story goes that Fender sent their Spanish speaking custom shop guys to train the people at the Mexico factory. The situation you're describing perfectly sums up what was happening, you could find one that's exquisite (built by a custom shop guy) sitting right next to one that seems like it was built by an amateur (because it was!). However, even the exquisite ones suffer from low quality hardware imported from Asia, which is a practice that still goes on today.

The screws under each strings are actually adjustable pole pieces that you can turn to dial in each string.

According to this blog post, it's mainly the steel base plate (kind of like a Tele bridge pickup) that gives it its unique sound:

https://lawingmusicalproducts.com/dr-la ... seth-lover

That's a great read. Thanks!

[Naillerz78]

You keep throwing the baby out with the bath water. Yes, there's some dubious or even BS marketing out there but many of the differences between pickups make sense, are easy to explain, and can be tested and proven.

Not for regular sized humbuckers tho really. I’ll still maintain there’s vintage or low output , hot-rodded output and crushing output (ceramics) humbuckers - (of the traditional design that is).
It’s now 5,000 varieties of these 3 imo just with different names and claims. That’s about the size of it for me
But we can agree to disagree Else we could debate forever.

I’ll leave it with a few articles by Bill Lawrence a famous pickup maker if ur interested. This pickup legend invented a fair few of the modern pickup designs (e.g. Fender Noiseless SC’s ). He tells it like it really is..

About him;

https://uniqueguitar.blogspot.com/2020/ ... t.html?m=1

His short articles below are a great read (yeah it’s real old stuff in black and white!)

The key one;

http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/Picku ... elinks.htm

Note his main point -“ Conclusion: a pickup by itself has no sound.“ say whaaaaaat?!

Other gold ;

http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/Picku ... uation.htm

http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/Picku ... ndings.htm

http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/All_A ... geBull.htm

http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/Picku ... agnets.htm

There’s more in the other links on his main page.

http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/All_A ... pology.htm

Case rested.




Ummm … (Awkward silence )
so how bout them p90s tho… great sound

[pekbro]

@Uncle E,

You don't make your own line of pickups in your HW division?

[Uncle E]

Yes, we hand wind pickups, mainly a Jazzmaster pickup in a P-90 housing.

[Naillerz78]

Yes, we hand wind pickups, mainly a Jazzmaster pickup in a P-90 housing.

Cool! And how would you’d describe them sound wise …compared to a regular fender JM pickup or p90 pickup ? And how much $ each or a set.

[Uncle E]

The vintage wind sounds like a Jazzmaster. It has alnico pole pieces like a Jazzmaster instead of the traditional P-90 bar magnet. They’re $69. We can wind hotter, if you like.

[Naillerz78]

The vintage wind sounds like a Jazzmaster. It has alnico pole pieces like a Jazzmaster instead of the traditional P-90 bar magnet. They’re $69. We can wind hotter, if you like.

Cool! That’s good value well done
Do u have a link to your web shop / more details thanks

[Naillerz78]

Some sound clips of my p90 guitar.
I will not make apologies for my playing, timing or mixing or copious copying of licks /songs from certain famous guitarist just tone demo purposes using amp sims

Song “Mix”
https://voca.ro/1eBKFeJ3wqCh

Blues with P90s:
https://voca.ro/1ceWvDE0MoIv

Give me your opinions !

[Uncle E]

Cool! That’s good value well done
Do u have a link to your web shop / more details thanks

https://www.jrrshop.com/tone-bakery-tb- ... -90-pickup

[Naillerz78]

Cool! That’s good value well done
Do u have a link to your web shop / more details thanks

https://www.jrrshop.com/tone-bakery-tb- ... -90-pickup

is there sound clips/demo?