School me on P90s

[Boudoir Guitar]

Love My Lindy Fralin P-90's in my Godin Summit Classic CT P-90

I've read plenty of good stuff about the Fralin's, but I've gotta say, the noiseless aspect turns me off...I've never played a noiseless single coil that I didn't strongly dislike. EDIT: huh, I thought they only made a noiseless p90.

This might be a stupid question but what style of music do you play? One thing you notice about most people who gravitate towards P90s are they're usually old school, rootsy type blues/hard rockers. Their nasty growl when fully open works great for those tones. You're not going to find too many metal, prog, fusion, type players using 90s.

The first two and a half minutes or so of this is the humbucker in my Strat. What I'd love is something similar to this with a more open and glassy top end but without being as stringy as a tele, if that makes sense:

 

[Achilles]

One thing to note with a P90 is that they are easily the most sensitive pickup when it comes to volume/tone adjustments. On 10 it's going to roar and may be too much. With the volume at 8 it's going to really make a tonal/gain difference. Leslie West was the king of this. Listen to his really old live stuff. He coaxed a huge array of tones out of a single P90 - you'd swear he has a neck pickup a lot of them time!



FF to 16:20 next to hear him open everything up.

 

[Gearzilla]

David Gilmour also has some notable P90 usage.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

This is neck pickup. I'll give the order here. First clip is the SG. Second is Gretsch with everything wide open. Third is Gretsch with the master volume dialed back to about 9 out of 10. Final is my Strat just for reference.

The lows/low-mids in the Gretsch are so prevalent it makes it hard for me to judge anything else about its sound, but still doesn't really have that percussive top end I kind of expect. Same is true in the above Green Day riff -- it sounds fine as a grind power chord thing on its own but would have to cut massive amounts of low end to get it to work with a bass player or drummer. I guess that's my main beef -- it feels like the guitar is pre-tuned for "home tone" rather than "actual guitar tone" with a big beefy bottom that is too hard to control.

 

[Bruce]

Got my 1st P90 guitar about 2 years ago. Should have gotten one much much sooner.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I'd try a parametric EQ in front of the amp to simulate P90 top end. I've done this to make my humbuckers sound like Strat single-coils, so I'm thinking it would be just as easy to simulate P90s.

 

[Stone]

Fralin's, but I've gotta say, the noiseless aspect turns me off...I've never played a noiseless single coil that I didn't strongly dislike.

Well My Fralin's are Noiseless and they sound fantastic to me As I do require Noiseless in My environment

 

[Byrdman]

Rootsy blues/Americana.

Just throwing this out there, but have you messed with the PU height? I haven't played much on P90's but they seem to be higher than reg PU's on most I see. Maybe yours are too high or low

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Just throwing this out there, but have you messed with the PU height? I haven't played much on P90's but they seem to be higher than reg PU's on most I see. Maybe yours are too high or low

To the extent I can, yeah -- to get rid of boom, I tried lowering. The neck pickup (the boomier of the two) is already as low as it can go (and kinda overpowers the bridge). Lowering the bridge helped a liiiittle, but also made the imbalance between neck and bridge a little worse.

At this point I almost wonder if what I really want is a somewhat high output tele and just roll the tone knob down a click or two.

 

[Zodiac]

Gotta love a P90s loaded guitar.
This is my 2005 LP Faded DC.
Bridge pickup sounds like a Tele on steroids.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I found myself back in the city where I bought the Gretsch (nearly two hour drive each way from my fairly isolated small town) today and I returned it. Was one of th best looking guitars I'd had in my possession, but it just had way too many hurdles to become something I'd actually like to play.

Visited a mom-and-pop shop afterwards and bought perhaps the ugliest guitar I've ever had in my possession (and that includes my DIY weight relieved 335 atrocity). A used Harmony Juno in "Rose" which is basically pink champaign metallic. It's a terrible body shape and a terrible color (this coming from a man that wears a lot of pink, as noted in the Soundcloud profile pic). But it actually sounds like what I hoped P90s would sound (and plays/feels great). Upper midrange snarl. High-ish output. Doesn't sound Fendery at ALL -- none of the stringey-ness that a tele or Strat has -- but does still have a more open top end that makes it sound like a single coil, not a humbucker. Even with the upper midrange and snarly output, still also have some spank to them.

 

[la szum]

Congrats!!

Too bad those P90s in the Gretsch were not at least average. I agree it is a really nicely built guitar.
Probably smart to return and cool you found something you gel with a lot more quickly and easily.

 

[Gearzilla]

bought perhaps the ugliest guitar I've ever had in my possession (and that includes my DIY weight relieved 335 atrocity

A Juno looks fine.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

A Juno looks fine.

No, nor does my SG (which I also love both the tone and playability/feel of).

 

[Achilles]

Visited a mom-and-pop shop afterwards and bought perhaps the ugliest guitar I've ever had in my possession.

If it works, it works. Most famous case in point IMO.

 

[yeky83]

I found myself back in the city where I bought the Gretsch (nearly two hour drive each way from my fairly isolated small town) today and I returned it. Was one of th best looking guitars I'd had in my possession, but it just had way too many hurdles to become something I'd actually like to play.

Visited a mom-and-pop shop afterwards and bought perhaps the ugliest guitar I've ever had in my possession (and that includes my DIY weight relieved 335 atrocity). A used Harmony Juno in "Rose" which is basically pink champaign metallic. It's a terrible body shape and a terrible color (this coming from a man that wears a lot of pink, as noted in the Soundcloud profile pic). But it actually sounds like what I hoped P90s would sound (and plays/feels great). Upper midrange snarl. High-ish output. Doesn't sound Fendery at ALL -- none of the stringey-ness that a tele or Strat has -- but does still have a more open top end that makes it sound like a single coil, not a humbucker. Even with the upper midrange and snarly output, still also have some spank to them.

Pics or it didn't happen!

Just want to see the terrible color

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Pics or it didn't happen!

Just want to see the terrible color

It's a bit worse in person, but also maybe not QUITE as bad on day 2 as I felt it was on day 1? These are built by Heritage basically, and fretwork/setup shows it...plays quite nicely.

 

[yeky83]

It's a bit worse in person, but also maybe not QUITE as bad on day 2 as I felt it was on day 1? These are built by Heritage basically, and fretwork/setup shows it...plays quite nicely. View attachment 9973

Oh, doesn't look bad at all in photos... guessing it must be the case of "omg sparkles" close up in-person.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Oh, doesn't look bad at all in photos... guessing it must be the case of "omg sparkles" close up in-person.

I think sparkles plus more pink than red and just can't quite decide what color it is? Is it pink, light burgundy, red, salmon? All of which, imo, are better without sparkles on a guitar that already is a bit emasculating given its size

 

[Achilles]

a guitar that already is a bit emasculating given its size

Is there any chance of you posting a picture of it lying directly over the top of the telecaster? I can kind of judge its size is the above pic but a straight on shot would be great.