Best P-90 Pickups?

[waltdogg]

I'm going to try a humbucker in my Junior but if that takes too much of the magic away I'm going to go back to a P-90. That being said I've mainly only used modern Gibson P-90s which are aight but not great. I'm looking for the tastiest and balanced sounding P-90 possible. Gonna be playing punk and hardcore so I don't want too much midrange that high output P-90s seem to have but I also don't wanna be a dark fuzzy mushy mess with distortion. Too bright and it would be worse than Gibson's P-90 imo.

[Blackened Soul]

I have a tv Jones powertron in my jr… it’s different but not hugely for some odd reason..
as for nonbucker p90s I really like the bare knuckle supermassive 90

[dubkitty]

I like the "Franz" P-90s which are available as parts from Guild. they're a bit more delicate and pretty than Gibson P-90s, which i also like.

[waltdogg]

I don't think I'ever tried a real TV Jones or Filtertron just the knock offs in modern Gretsches and the like at guitar Centers so hmm. Bare Knuckles are real nice and the Supermassive has some pretty ideal looking specs...

Unfortunately the Franz doesn't come with legs for a dogear mount.

[Blackened Soul]

You just need a dog ear mounting bottom plate. All you have to do is unscrew the 2 screws on bottom of a p90, line the plate up with the holes and put the screws back in through the dog ear plate

[waltdogg]

:O I'll keep that in mind the next time someone brings me the "wrong" kind of pickups to mod their guitar with.

[niftyprose]

Another vote for Franz here, but with a caveat: Guild originally wound these pickups as a knockoff of the Gibson design, but put less wire on them, which accounts for their distinct tonal quality, variously described as darker, treblier, more open, less compressed etc etc. The kicker is that the 50s ones that get people excited are rather variable -- the ones that were destined for jazz guitars were usually wound a good bit less hot than the ones that ended up in solidbodies. If you're after a specific Franz sound, it might be worth talking to Curtis Novak, who builds clones to order (inc. dogears): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 501&type=3

If you like the sound of a P90 but not a modern Gibson P90, surely the Bareknuckle would be even worse? No offence to the company whom I like but given what you said before I think you'd be better off not taking the high-output route. A number of makers do 'vintage' P90s using older kinds of Alnico eg: https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-pr ... 90-dog-ear -- worth a listen.

Other, wider-ranging suggestions (P90 obsessive -- forgive jazz tendencies):
https://www.rautiaguitars.net/ccbar.html
https://www.creamery-pickups.co.uk/baby ... sized.html
NB either of these would be quite a departure...

NP.

[waltdogg]

Thanks for the reply.

So the Franz is an essentially an underwound Gibson P-90 then? no surprise the vintage ones are inconsistent though. Old Gibsons are too. I've never tried a Franz so I don't even know if I'd like it yet.

It's not that I don't like the Gibson P-90s, they're alright but not amazing, I swapped a Gibson P-90 out of a friend's Jr for a Lollar P-90. It sounded almost identical but maybe a bit more airy perhaps? I just need more bass, not even more treble, mids, or gain really. Though I do want to retain clarity that the Lollar had over the Gibson.

The widerange humbucker in the P-90 dog ear cover is interesting. If I can't find a P-90 I like I will ultimately just put a humbucker I know I like in a cut out and drilled dog ear cover I have that can mount humbuckers to P-90 routs.

[niftyprose]

>So the Franz is an essentially an underwound Gibson P-90 then? no surprise the vintage ones are inconsistent though.
Yup, you have totally understood the Franz magic. (This reductive account doesn't stop these being brilliant pickups.)
The thing about the P90 is that they've been around long enough to develop variations, like a successful species splitting into subspecies to make the most of the available habitat. Each of the historical Gibson-produced variants has its adherents and cloners, and even weird neo-P90s like the Franz are getting cloned now. I'd recommend finding an example P90 tone you like -- a particular player on a particular record -- and then researching the detail. It's a lot easier to go to a maker and say 'can you make it sound like...' than it is to try their wares and then say 'Nah'.
The Lollars are great, btw.

[waltdogg]

Well in that case. Maybe I should just switch to a humbucker then. As much as i want to retain the magic of a Jr. by continuing to use a P-90 I know the guitar tone I'm going for is not a P-90 equipped guitar.

I do appreciate the input though. Helps me as tech when people ask me these seemingly pointless questions.

[waltdogg]

I think I'm gonna restart this search. I can't actually fit a humbucker in my junior without changing the routing which I refuse to do.

[Gone Fission]

I think a Wilde (Bill (R.I.P.) & Becky Lawrence) (X)L-500 should fit an P-90 route, though the pickup ring may fall outside. I might ask them about mounting directly into a P-90 route if that’s your thing (that is, screw it right to the wood.

Duncan, Dimarzio, T.V. Jones, and I’m sure a metric shit ton of others do ‘buckers in a P-90 sized packages. Also, there are traditional soap bar sized-rings that’ll fit a mini humbucker or firebird pickup like went in the LP Deluxe.

[waltdogg]

I was going to use a QA Dogbucker pickup ring. It's just a dogear cover with the center cut out to fit a humbucker. The problem was right where one of the pickup's height adjustment legs would go just wasn't routed. I've seen other Gibson Juniors, non-Historic/factory ones at that, where the narrow lower channel of the pickup rout traveled the whole width of the main rout. On mine it stops half an inch shy of the bass side. Leaving no room for the height adjustment screw.

[waltdogg]

I just put some bare knuckle P-90s into a Jazzmaster parts caster for my friend. I really do not like them at all.

[ChannelingHemingway]

Have you looked into Harmonic Design? I haven't ordered from them but they've been on my radar for a while, they offer dogear p90s as a standard option, and they seem like a small enough outfit that they could wind to what you're looking for. My only other suggestion would be SD antiquities.