Best Humbucker Sized P90s?

DavusPG

Since getting my Feline Lion a year ago, my Gibson Les Paul Axcess has been sidlined. I'd toyed with the idea of selling it, but having finally had time to sit down and properly play my guitars this week, I've been reminded what a cracking guitar it is, and that it's one I want to keep hold of. 

As much as possible I try to have guitars which do different things whether it be different woods, trem, fixed bridge, pickup configuration etc. Whilst this is blatantly an attempt to justify buying way more guitars than I need, I do feel that having 2 Les Pauls is a bit of a wasted opportunity, so my plan is to put a pair of humbucker sized P90s in the Gibson.

Any thoughts and recommendations on which ones to go for would be greatly appreciated. I'll be taking it to Jonathan at Feline to have them installed along with a full setup, so he'll more than likely have some suggestions of his own, but I'd still like to know which ones people on here have had good experiences with

Cheers,  David

Andy79

Alergree old timers sound pretty great to my ears 

Rowby1

Oil City Mighty 90s sound cracking in my Les Paul......to my ears anyway.

abw1989

Iron Gear Alcehmist 90's punch far above their price point in my opinion. I have them in a sapele bodied Jazzmaster style guitar and they sound massive.

Dave_Vader

Rowby1 said:

Oil City Mighty 90s sound cracking in my Les Paul......to my ears anyway.

+1 to this - I've got the smooth versions in my SG (alnico 2) and they're lovely

gazrichards

Duesenberg domino

Jalapeno

Bareknuckle Mississippi Queen - they do a few different ones.

I would have said Mojo in the past being a fanboi, but I think he's stopped making them other than a Staple one.

DavusPG

Thank you for the suggestions, apart from Mississippi Queens I hadn't considered any of the others. Time to seek out some demos!

Loobs

I much preferred the Mississippi Queens to the Mighty 90 I had in my Tele, which I found quite muddy. 

TTBZ

I've only used Bare Knuckles. The Mississippi Queen is my favourite neck pickup I've tried in my SG and was also awesome in a Les Paul. It does a big fat singlecoil tone better than anything else I've heard - great for heavy blues/stoner rock stuff and nice cleans too. I need to try a bridge one to go with it really. I've had a Pig 90 bridge which sounded huge in a Les Paul. I wish I'd kept it for my SG! 

I also want to try the Oil City ones. They probably sound a bit more "authentic" (whatever that is) than the BKPs as they don't have the metal cover over the bobbin/poles. I imagine they're naturally a bit brighter because of that?

markv

I've got an Oil City Smooth-Ninety (neck) and a Mighty-Ninety (bridge) in my Gordon Smith GS2/60 and they sound great. I haven't compared with any others but Ash was very nice to chat to - the combination was his recommendation.

richman6100

Kinman do a 'P90-Bucker' -  Not tried them, but I do have a few different sets of noiseless Kinman pickups and I've always been impressed.

ToneControl

I had BK Mississippi Queens, sounded lovely, but much more noise than normal strat pickups

If you care about hum noise, I'd look at the Kinmans

Rabs

Seymour Duncan Phat Cats.

Rabs

If you want more economical.. Cant go wrong with these Vanson P90s.. Used them on several builds and they have always been great.
NEW Vanson AlNiCo V P90 SET, 'Humbucker size' Single Coil Pickups, HB90 CR N&B 5060479554935 | eBay

Keefy

I have Mississippi Queens in my Gibson CS336, fitted by a previous owner. I can’t offer any comparison with other HB-size P90s because I haven’t tried any, but this guitar was love at first play. Sweet cleans, fruity drives.

You will always get noise with P90s but I’ve rarely found it a problem - I’ve played the 336 through stacked overdrives in a gig situation and the thing just sang. If everyone had stopped playing at once I’m sure the hum would have been plainly audible. But we didn’t and it wasn’t.

TTBZ

Never had any extra noise issues with mine at gigs either, then again I was always playing through my Laney which was a bit noisy even with humbuckers.

dogload

abw1989 said:

Iron Gear Alcehmist 90's punch far above their price point in my opinion. I have them in a sapele bodied Jazzmaster style guitar and they sound massive.

I agree - I have one of these in my SG and one in a Hofner Verythin and they are really good sounding pickups. I'm trying to avoid saying 'for the price' but they are excellent value IMHO

jaymenon

Tonerider make some lovely P90s with nickel silver base plates.

But I would go with the Kinman recommendation - beautiful, beautiful pickups.

DavusPG

Thank you again everyone, I'm not overly bothered by hum, but the noiseless Kinmans do sound superb on Brett Kingman's demo, although I'm aware he could make anything sound great!

DavusPG

But the Oil City Mighty Ninety also sound amazing on the demo I found, and as noted by @Keefy, in a gig situation (when we finally get to do so again) it's extremely rare that things are quiet enough to hear any hum