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P90s r gud.

Filippo, what's the application? Are you looking for something jazzy or a vintage rock tone or what? I'm sure you've looked at Bare Knuckle Pickups and the Lollars, right? On a budget, Guitar Fetish has a number of solid options, or for something different, there's Bill Lawrence's L609, which I've heard good things about. But there's so much difference between the different P90 pickups, there are a lot of ways you can go.

I don't know if that's helpful or not. Just my two cents.

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David Morris

Don Lace PS 900 & PS 905.

They are totally silent humbuckers, with no single coil hum.
They are also pricey as hell.
I plan to use a pair on my next guitar project.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I'll vouch for P-90's being all over the map.

The best P-90's I ever heard were on an old Mosrite Joe Maphis semi-hollow I had in for a repair. After hearing this excellent growl come out of that guitar I checked impedance. Don't quote me...I have it written down outside in the shop...but I'm remembering they were 11.5K and 13.5K.

I'm thinking about a P-90 setup on one of my guitars. When it comes down to it I'll be doing some research to see if any boutique guys have done this pickup. Or else I'll call Ed Roman guitars...the main (maybe only) Mosrite dealer. If they sell sets of P-90's that approximate the ones I heard I'd heartily recommend them. But that's going to be the trick...getting someone who knows what was in that Joe Maphis model and will vouch for the newer ones being the same thing. I'd guess that guitar was late 60's or early 70's. Not sure though.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

I wound a set for my last build. (Tele style)

Volume, tone and blender controls.
If that guitar had not been built for a very good friend
it wouldn't have left my house.
One of those that just every little thing came together
and made one fantastic sounding and playing guitar.

I'm currently building me one and it'll have P-90's.
I hope it's like the other one.

My opinion?.....they're over priced so I fixed that problem.

The problem with matching old pickups is that they are old, and their particular tone MAY be attributed to their life experiences. Old pickups usually have at least some microphonic characteristics which contribute to their tone, and I believe these microphonic charateristics are acquired over the life of the pickup.
If that is true, a pickup made today with exactly the same specs as one made 50 years ago will not sound the same.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

That's a good point.

A point of logic I might add is that the Gretsch 6120 has been manufactured for quite some time and Gretsch seems pretty well affiliated with the TV Jones line of pickups. If I was going to defer to anyone's judgement it would probably be a manufacturer that has a lot of experience with P-90's and the type of guitars that commonly used them.

Take a look at the T-90 in their product line, Filippo.

http://tvjones.com/pickups/single-coil-pickups/t-90/

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

I like Jason Lollar's (a very fine luthier btw) regular P-90's best. While they do not sound like a 50's P-90 (nothing does to me), they are the closest. I have not tried the Throback's, I suspect they are excellent but quite pricey. Duncan Antiquity P-90's are very good as are Lindy Fralin's. I think Fralin makes a hum-less model now.

being a strat guy i don't know much about Gibson pickups, but i would think that any alnico-magnet, single coil pickup with a DC resistance between 7 and 10K ohms would be right in the ballpark...not sure how or if the metal pickup covers affect tone. i would be extremely curious to hear what "real" (pre-'57?) P-90s sounded like in a strat type build, ie bolt on maple neck, poplar body, rosewood fretboard. i bet it would sound like a hotter strat, and not anything like a Paul
i found this:
The P-90's reign as the Gibson standard pickup was short-lived, however, as a new design of pickup known as the double coil humbucker (occasionally named PAF) was introduced in 1957, and very quickly took over as the preferred choice for all Gibson models. The P-90 was then used on more budget models such as the ES-330, the Les Paul Junior and Special, and the SG Junior and Special, such as those used by Pete Townshend and Carlos Santana. This trend continued throughout the 1960s and particularly in the early 1970s, where the pickup all but disappeared from the entire Gibson range.

I am really liking the P-90 coil of the Duncan P-rails. It has been a long time since I had a p-90 guitar around so I can't say how authentic it is.....

The P-Rails are just nice. They're my favorite pickups right now. But the P90 sound (to me), isn't quite as nice as what you can get in some of the other options listed here.

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David Morris

Not ALL the way authentic....but the combination of dissimilar coils along with a standard three way and an on-off-on dpdt switch for each pickup give such a wide pallet of sounds to work with I can forgive it being a less than stellar P-90. It's not a terrible P-90 though....it's just that if you had your heart set on the classic growly P-90 sound I think the P-Rail would disappoint.

I've used the SHPR1 and the SHPR2. Seymour Duncan realized the bridge pickup in the SHPR1 set was weak so they buffed it up and now they call sets with the hotter bridge pickup the SHPR2. I don't even think you can get the SHPR1 anymore but if anyone wants P-Rails and actually finds a set of SHPR1's...don't buy those. Get the SHPR2's.

For what it is...I think the P-Rails on a warm semi-hollow is a GREAT choice. The wiring scheme described above allows for every conceivable combination of coils on the guitar to be used. The basic schematic I started with is http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... _2t_3w_2mt. Originally I used this scheme and left out the tone knobs...and just sent the grounds somewhere else. I thought two volumes would be cool but now use one volume and one tone and they are placed after the three way...which means this schematic could be confusing.

I think I'm trying to say I found a very cool way to wire the P-Rails but the schematic isn't published anywhere. I could provide one if it came down to it.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

I was surprised by the reading too.

Something about how they age that could increase resistance? I kind of doubt it but I don't know.

What kind of guitar are you thinking of using them on, Filippo? Your semi-hollow design?

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

The early day pickups were experimental too. they were winding with 42Awg, 43awg, and 44awg copper wire. the thinner the wire the the greater the resistance for a given amount of turns. on a humbucker bobbin with standard say 5000 turns 0f 42awg where you would get a reading of about 4Kohm with 44AWG you could wind the same bobbin with about 7500 turns and get about 10Kohm reading. I made a set of 21K humbuckers for a friend who was insistent that more ohm means more power ( not necessarily ) it's a slight indicator up to a point overall it is more related to the inductance, magnet type and strength with inductance being the best indicator of pickup strength.

But yeah the used to wind the snot out of their bobbins the would fill them to capacity without actually counting the turns. That's why some early ( vintage) pickups sound great and some, not so much. they would also not be to consistent with the magnets either , a big factor.

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That's my story & I'm stickin" to it.

Try
Bryan Gunsher - BG PUPS http://www.bg-pups.com. Great guy and quality PUPS . You can hear his neck P-90 on my Stingwing model www.roccoguitars.com.

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TR
Rocco Guitars

Sounds like I should get a hold of some good soap bars, but for now, the more I play the P-rails, the more I like them, at least in the soap bar, parallel humbucking, and series humbucking modes. Not quite as sold on the rail coils by themselves. Mine are the SHPR-1, and you are right, the bridge is weaker than the neck, but both much hotter that the Gibson t-top reference pickup. But if P-rails end up being "the one" I will be changing to a creme set and will make sure to get the newer model.

I know a guy in Oaklahoma that winds the old moserite style pups and does an excelent job. I my self have purchased 5-6 pair of these and have never been diapointed with his work. These are wound to 11.5k - 13.5k, but are singel coil not humbuckers, however they do ring like a bell.

I honestly read this as P90X

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

A friend recently installed Lindy Fralin Hum-Cancelling P-90's. Sound awesome. i want to try them in a build. They have a weird side by side mounted coils that are mounted sideways and not vertical. They come in dog ears or soapbar.

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

Not so weird. Some Don Lace pickups are done that way, and the old Gibson EB-1 (the big chrome square one) featured side by side coils.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Yeah I seen in Fralin's literature where he mentions he didn't create that idea.

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.