Tell me about P90s

Rowby1

I've never owned a guitar with P90s. I feel like I'm probably missing out so my question is in two parts.

Firstly what the best guitar to have P90s in to get the best from the pups? SG, LP jr, 33x type, or even some Fendery type thing? 

Secondly, not all P90s are created equal. What's the most popular make of P90 out there at the moment? 

stimpsonslostson

An SG with P90s is a brilliant thing in general. An SG Jr with P90s is amazing (though harder to come by).
Mojo and OilCity are widely lauded on this forum for their pickups, rightly so.

impmann

I've had many guitars with P90s - my faves were the Les Paul Special (double cut) that I sold and the Les Paul Goldtop that I kept.

Amazing pickups - clarity of a single with the mids of a bucker. Great tone.

Gibson P90s are OK - the Mojo unit I have with an A3 magnet in my lapsteel is heavenly.

ennspek

P90s are great. They hum like single coils bit they are so versatile. I love them.
There are the obvious American brands but I have some with Mojo's in which are stellar. I'm sure Ash would be able to do something amazing as well.
They work in any shape I think. Middle position P90 neck, Humbucker bridge can be awesome.

merlin

I've tried Wilkinson, Lindy Fralin, Lollar and Gordon Smith's. 

The Gordon Smith's don't do it for me at all. I bought a GS guitar with a pair and ditched them. They were just way too noisy, and although you can expect a certain amount of hum, they were unacceptable. I dropped in a pair of Lollar P90s which are WAY better by comparison, not just noise but everything else you need/want from a P90. However the Lindy Fralin on my LP junior style Arbiter is amazing and has less growl and a slightly lower output than the Lollars but seems to have a little more "flavour". Difficult to describe. Both Lollars and Fralins are excellent. I hear that Fralins are closer to the original design...

Having spurted all that, I really want to try an Oil City Firewatch.  

Rowby1

Thanks for the comments/advice folks.

So noise wise, can I expect it to be worse in that respect in comparison with say a standard Tele?

My number 1 & 2 gigging guitars are a Tele and a Les Paul. I'm thinking something with P90s might sit nicely in between those?

I already have a couple of sets of Oil City's in other guitars so I'd probably lean that way but I'd be interested to hear people's opinions on other manufactures.

impmann

No worse in real terms than a Tele, IMHO.

To sit between those two, I'd suggest either an SG Special (P90s - a la Tommy era Townsend) or a Les Paul Special. The double cut away has a strange placement of the neck pickup which some people don't like but the single cut is in the 'normal' place. Either sounds amazing!!

impmann

Just to show you how amazing an SG can sound...

Rowby1

@impmann Glorious noise!

TTBZ

I love p90 in the right guitar. A lot of people rate them in SG style but I found it a bit too thin in the bridge. Could just be my guitar though, seems to favour powerful bridge humbuckers. Neck p90s are my favourite neck pickup though.

As described they pretty much have the clarity of a singlecoil with the fuller tone of a humbucker. 

BGG

Well last week I picked up a used Music Man Axis Super Sport MM90 with Rosewood neck off eBay for a good price.
Had two gigs last week, Thursday and Saturday and it sounded fantastic, warmer than single coils, loads of clarity and plenty of folk commented on what a lovely tone I had.
So I'm deffo a P90 convert.

Voxman

I've played an SG with P90's - sounded very nice and, as you'd expect, a little different to humbuckers ie darker than strat single coils but brighter than humbuckers.  They are very 'musical' sounding and I suppose are best thought of as a 'hybrid' tone between h/b and single-coils - however, although perhaps not quite as bad as standard strat single coils, they do pick up noise.  I can definitely see the 'P90' attraction though and was thinking of getting myself a P90 guitar.  

Rocker

I swapped the stock P90s for a pair of Jason Lollars on my PRS SE. The change turned a good guitar into a very nice sounding one. And I play it more often these days too. Good combination IMHO.

p90fool

Don't do it!!!

I ended up nailing them to everything in the house!

http://i66.tinypic.com/2zp85g2.jpg

http://i63.tinypic.com/bf5ea1.jpg

http://i59.tinypic.com/2irszs9.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/2m3py8l.jpg

Danielsguitars

This is a t style with p90's in limba
Mojo pickups 

Rowby1

@p90fool So P90 bridge and 'bucker at the neck, not the other way round? I've heard your guitar on your vids and it does sound great btw. Just that configuration seems to be contrary to the "higher output bridge, lower output neck" idea. How do they balance out? 

I know that's what the guitar controls are for of course 

Rowby1

Anyone any thoughts on P90s in a hollow or semi btw?

Rowby1

@customkits  Noice 

p90fool

I'm actually cheating slightly, the Les Paul has a Mojo Gold foil under a humbucker cover in the neck position, and the V has a coil split humbucker with a spin-to-split which brings in the other coil out of phase, so the P90 is the warmer and more powerful pickup in both guitars. 

Rowby1

@p90fool Ah, yes that makes sense then. Thanks for clarifying.

Danielsguitars

The goldtop I'm just making has p90's in it and sounds excellent too

Can't go wrong with mojo's imo