Cort 335 Source p90 Pickup recommendation

notanon

Hi All,

I purchased a Cort 335 Source p90 from @sweepy from here. Very very happy with the deal. I like the tone of the p90 pickups but those white soap picks suit very few guitars IMO. At some point I am thinking I may swap them out for silver or black ones. Any recommendations for upgrade/replacement. I'm looking for the P90 tone as I have other types of pickups sorted.

Feedback appreciated.

WezV

if you like the sound just buy a pair of black covers

Funkfingers

+1

According to the Cort website, your pickups should already have black *soapbar* covers. White or cream ones must be aftermarket items. 

Shiny metal soapbar covers might look flashy but they will also alter the tone of the pickups. 

notanon

@WezV , @Funkfingers ;

OK excellent thanks for that. Will google now unless you have recommendations where to pick some up (pun intended).

notanon

These?

http://www.northwestguitars.co.uk/p90-soapbar-plastic-pickup-cover/

Funkfingers

It will probably be worth your time and trouble to take a few measurements before altering anything.

1. The polepiece spacings on each pickup.
2. The distances between the E polepieces and the strings.

The former will ensure that you order the correctly sized replacement covers. (i.e. Asian, Metric.) The latter will allow you to get the pickups back to the correct height adjustments after the covers have been changed.

notanon

@Funkfingers ;

Cheers!

Given I may be doing some work on this and the fact that the guitar is pretty much a budget guitar what's your thoughts on upgrading pickups? I am quite happy with my purchase so I will copy @sweepy in to give any recommendation - he knows that guitar so in a good position to advise (all subjective of course).

Thanks again folks.

notanon

For example these for an upgrade?

Tonerider Rebel 90 Humbucker sized P90 Alnico II - Nickel

Jez6345789

I played one of these in a store a while back and did not think the fitted versions were the end of the world, pretty good for basic blues rock. 

I  would probably look at Oil City of this  Parish  for a better hand built P90.  Tonerider in my mind are fine but P90's are not like cheap strats with bar ceramic magnets glued across the polepieces. A lot of the cheapy one are OK as its a simple formula. 

I swapped a Wilkinson out of my Vintage brand junior a few years back stripped it down and it was two Alnico 5 magnets and probably 10k turns of wire. None of it was attempting to be like an old Gibson repro as the baseplate was brass and the bobbin was injeciton moulded plastic but the basic were there. I swapped it for a Fralin considered at the time to be one of the better p90's and besides being more detailed and better note separation it was not a million miles away from the cheap Vintage/wilkinson Korean. I would strip them down and see what Cort are using and just change the covers to start with. On their website Cort list them as Alnico 2, so you are in the ball park. 

Hope that guitar works out as I was eyeing it up as think that Cort are usually very good value. 

Regards Jez

Funkfingers

notanon said:

what's your thoughts on upgrading pickups?

In my opinion, it is probably a waste of money to invest in replacement pickups until you have upgraded the stock Cor-Tek control harness. 

Jez6345789 said:

... strip them down ... see what Cort are using ... just change the covers to start with. 

Cort often use Powersound and G&B pickups. I agree that these Korean offerings are in the right general ballpark but could lack fine sonic detail.

notanon said:
Tonerider Rebel 90 Humbucker sized P90 Alnico II - Nickel

Decent pickup, wrong size for the OP's guitar.


I tried Tonerider humbuckers on an Epiphone Lucille. They were an improvement over the stock waxbuckers but I did not keep the guitar much longer after that. Neither did the next owner. Harry something?

The nearest thing that I have to the Cort Source is a modified Hamer XT Echotone. This is made of similar materials, in the same Indonesian factory. The pickup that consistently sounds good on this is a Seymour Duncan SH-1N '59 humbucker with an Alnico 4 bar magnet. 

Jez6345789 said:

I would probably look at Oil City 

Bridge/Treble - Jin-Go or Firewatch A5
Neck/Rhythm - Jazzwatch A3, Jin-Go or Nightwatch A2

Also worthy of interest, the OCP Marlene and, for Chris Cornell fans, the Cow-Tron.

If you are one sick mutha, commission Ash to make a coil-tapped P90 with dual output options - one in the 8-9k Ohms range for vintage sounds, the other output should be of The Void proportions.* 

Other pickup makers frequent this forum. Check out their products too. Hopefully, somebody offers a P90 with Alnico 4 magnets and a vintage coil wind.




* Yes, I realise that this proposal would be a bugger of a job.