Here is another pickup comparison video you may like. (Humbucker, Single Coil, Active Single Coil, Hot Rails, P90) ua-cam.com/video/GvPeumxRP7Q/v-deo.html
Great Video, Nice comparison. I think I prefer your P90 guitar tone. I am glad you did this, I have been shopping for a P90 guitar and this helped. I liked your playing too! Thanks!
I built a Jazzmaster style guitar with P90’s in it. I love P90’s. Those HB pickups sound muddy. The P90’s cut through and the clarity is far superior than the HB’s.
Love the sound of the P90s. Better clarity and definition all around, especially for the 2 and 4 position quacky Strat tones. I'm not sure why the middle Strat PUP only sounds different too, though in each of those guitars, considering you didn't change anything. I also don't hear any 60 cycle hum out of the P90s here either. I think I'll be swapping out the PUPs in my LGX-SA for P90s too. Thanks.
Definitely more bite from the P90's but the middle pups are a lot different too , even though they're supposed to be the same ? Seems to me that there might be a wiring problem in the "humbucker" guitar. Even the middle pickup sounds dull compared to the P90 guitar. They should sound pretty much the same ?????? The humbucker guitar has no teeth. It ain't right. Thumbs up on the video.
Yes, the P90s sound more brightly than the humbuckers, but the identical single-coils also sounded more brightly on the modified guitar (as someone else has already mentioned). There may be another explanation, and I noticed someone pointing at the different distances to the strings. Using the distortion, I found both guitars sound equally muddily. And more so than I prefer. Me, I have a Godin LGX-SA, and I have an xtSA on order. I was blown away by the piezo sound of the xtSA in ua-cam.com/video/ReWgqDjCfm4/v-deo.html, and I could not replicate it on the LGX-SA. As you may know by now, the 13-pin output doesn't in itself do something synthetic. It merely transmits the audio signals of the individual strings separately, in order to ease pitch recognition by the receiving device (like a GR-55).
The big differences beyond output level which has a lot to do with the distance from the polls to the strings being different between the different guitars, is going to be caused by the location of the pickup coils/bars themselves. In the P90;s, your coil is in the middle of the pickup, and in your humbucker you have two coils on the outside of the pickup area, well just inside it.. Im sure you see what I am talking about. Don't get me wrong, the two different types of coils will sound different, but the location of the coils and bars, which are reacting to the strings to produce the sounds we are hearing through our amps, well that is going to cause a huge difference in the tone we get out of the pickups. And even a small difference in where exactly along the scale the pickups are, is going to make a pretty obvious difference in the tone. In fact, I was thinking about away to test what I am talking about, and I think I have figured a way out. Providing you have the ability to do it, if you used a single coil in a guitar that had routs for humbuckers, and you set it up so that you can move the coil back to front via a screw or something, you would be able to move the coil back and forth in order to show the differences caused by nothing more than the location of the bars or rods in the pickups. It might be a little tricky, but I wonder if I can find a UA-camr who will devise a way to test this, I am almost willing to bet there would be a huge difference in the tone with nothing more than a quarter of a inch of movement from the neck to the bridge on a guitar. ... Ill have to put more thought into how to make it work, maybe some form of a bracket that fits the routing for a humbucker, with two screws to adjust the pickup from front to back, so that you can even try the coil at a angle... hmm. Dang it, I started this comment thinking I would explain a large part of why the pickups actually sound so different, and now I am devising a way of testing what I already know.... As if anyone is going to test this stuff lol.
The middle pickups are the same, right ? They sound different too. What were the exact pickup heights (across all pickups) ? But one would need bench tests to check if their stock frequency response is different, eg due to manufacturing variance in winds/magnets etc. Or if the loading from the pots in each guitar is variable due to tolerance extremes.
P90's sound great! Though I'm usually a single coil fan, p90's give a fatter tone, without all the muddiness you can get with some humbuckers. But l like Gibson 57classic/57+ pickups. Good shootout video, Kennis! Love your channel.
I didn't have any guitars with P-90's, so I decided to build one. I'm looking forward to hearing the P-90's in person and can't wait till the build is done. I definitely liked them the better in your video than the humbuckers. Have you ever tried the single size "twin rail" type humbuckers? I installed one in a Strat style guitar (bridge position) and I love it. It's brighter and not muddy like the regular humbuckers. Thanks for the comparison!👍😎🎸🎶
My Godin has two SD. A custom and a jazz on the neck. And I actually have a drive specific for the neck a little brighter and an OCD kinda dark for the bridge. U ever had that??
Hey Kennis! I have almost the same guitar. A Godin LGX SA i think. I love the sound of the P90 but playing at church right next to the lights create too much hum. How do u deal with that? Thanks. Great vid
Definitely like a hot wound p90 over most humbuckers. I love humbuckers in Les Paul's, and ES335s, but I have Fralin steel pole 43's, (P90s that fit into Teles, or Strats), and real p90s in my SG Special, and love them!! Actually only have 1 humbucker guitar right now, an Ibanez 335 copy, but have 2 Epi's on order. I love this type of comparison video. Peace, Keith
If you know how to use a soldering iron, it's not hard. This guitar was a bit hard because it has complicated wiring, but a normal guitar is pretty simple.
Kennis Russell Speaking of soldering ... I have to learn to do it anyways, because I am trying to fix a student’s Bass that’s making weird sounds when you jiggle the cable at the input.
@@kennisrussell I have a Godin LGX3 that has duckbuckers in them. So when I strike the string, with an overdrive pedal I should hear it slowly lose volume but, with these duckbuckers they just fizzle out and it sounds awful. Curious on how you wired this. Since my Lgx3 has the piezo in it as well.
I have a Summit that came stock with SD’s but I have a SDxt too with the Godin humbuckers and a single coil. Sounds super muddy but the SDxt is wired so that position 4 or 2 are both the humbucker and the single coil without coil splitting. Really adds some depth when they get combined and is the only reason I haven’t swapped out the pickups. I thought about getting a 3 way switch and then just eliminating position 1 and 5 lol that’s about the only use I’ve found for the stock Godin pickups. I have a few other Godins too but that’s the only one with them in it still lol
The P90s were MUCH better! You should consider swapping out the other humbuckers too, as they were dull and lifeless! Try another brand of humbucker, perhaps Gibson burstbuckers or Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates. I enjoy your videos, keep it up!
It's a shame you didn't play high gain. Humbuckers that sound dark with low gain tend to sound smoother and less edgy when it comes to high gain and I suspect this could be the case here, so cover all bases next time.
Thanks but this comparison is not valid. If the whole setup is the same, the middle Pickups should have sound the same. I assume there were also some modulation inside the guitar.
So these particular P90s sound better than these particular humbuckers.... but I don’t think you can really draw any conclusions between P90s and humbuckers overall 🤪
Here is another pickup comparison video you may like. (Humbucker, Single Coil, Active Single Coil, Hot Rails, P90)
ua-cam.com/video/GvPeumxRP7Q/v-deo.html
Why is the volume so different for both guitars?
Is it actually from just the pickups?
Excellent comparison ! And thank you for playing clean.
Always love side by sides. Really shows the difference.
Great Video, Nice comparison. I think I prefer your P90 guitar tone. I am glad you did this, I have been shopping for a P90 guitar and this helped. I liked your playing too! Thanks!
I built a Jazzmaster style guitar with P90’s in it. I love P90’s. Those HB pickups sound muddy. The P90’s cut through and the clarity is far superior than the HB’s.
Absolutely agreed. P90s are more meaty than traditional single coils but can also cut through the mix in a way humbuckers can't.
Love the sound of the P90s. Better clarity and definition all around, especially for the 2 and 4 position quacky Strat tones. I'm not sure why the middle Strat PUP only sounds different too, though in each of those guitars, considering you didn't change anything. I also don't hear any 60 cycle hum out of the P90s here either. I think I'll be swapping out the PUPs in my LGX-SA for P90s too. Thanks.
I'd take the P90 equipped 1! Stoked you got your channel back man!
Definitely more bite from the P90's but the middle pups are a lot different too , even though they're supposed to be the same ? Seems to me that there might be a wiring problem in the "humbucker" guitar. Even the middle pickup sounds dull compared to the P90 guitar.
They should sound pretty much the same ?????? The humbucker guitar has no teeth. It ain't right. Thumbs up on the video.
Could just be different pots and/or wrong pots for the application.
Yes, the P90s sound more brightly than the humbuckers, but the identical single-coils also sounded more brightly on the modified guitar (as someone else has already mentioned). There may be another explanation, and I noticed someone pointing at the different distances to the strings.
Using the distortion, I found both guitars sound equally muddily. And more so than I prefer.
Me, I have a Godin LGX-SA, and I have an xtSA on order. I was blown away by the piezo sound of the xtSA in ua-cam.com/video/ReWgqDjCfm4/v-deo.html, and I could not replicate it on the LGX-SA.
As you may know by now, the 13-pin output doesn't in itself do something synthetic. It merely transmits the audio signals of the individual strings separately, in order to ease pitch recognition by the receiving device (like a GR-55).
The big differences beyond output level which has a lot to do with the distance from the polls to the strings being different between the different guitars, is going to be caused by the location of the pickup coils/bars themselves. In the P90;s, your coil is in the middle of the pickup, and in your humbucker you have two coils on the outside of the pickup area, well just inside it.. Im sure you see what I am talking about. Don't get me wrong, the two different types of coils will sound different, but the location of the coils and bars, which are reacting to the strings to produce the sounds we are hearing through our amps, well that is going to cause a huge difference in the tone we get out of the pickups. And even a small difference in where exactly along the scale the pickups are, is going to make a pretty obvious difference in the tone.
In fact, I was thinking about away to test what I am talking about, and I think I have figured a way out. Providing you have the ability to do it, if you used a single coil in a guitar that had routs for humbuckers, and you set it up so that you can move the coil back to front via a screw or something, you would be able to move the coil back and forth in order to show the differences caused by nothing more than the location of the bars or rods in the pickups. It might be a little tricky, but I wonder if I can find a UA-camr who will devise a way to test this, I am almost willing to bet there would be a huge difference in the tone with nothing more than a quarter of a inch of movement from the neck to the bridge on a guitar. ... Ill have to put more thought into how to make it work, maybe some form of a bracket that fits the routing for a humbucker, with two screws to adjust the pickup from front to back, so that you can even try the coil at a angle... hmm.
Dang it, I started this comment thinking I would explain a large part of why the pickups actually sound so different, and now I am devising a way of testing what I already know.... As if anyone is going to test this stuff lol.
I noticed the tobacco sunburst had more brightness even in then middle single coil settings!
The middle pickups are the same, right ? They sound different too. What were the exact pickup heights (across all pickups) ? But one would need bench tests to check if their stock frequency response is different, eg due to manufacturing variance in winds/magnets etc. Or if the loading from the pots in each guitar is variable due to tolerance extremes.
My thoughts exactly when I heard middle pups
Good video. I myself only play the bridge pickup. Always have but that's just me for the clarity with higher gain.
Did you change the middle pickup? I swear they sound different, but it should be the same thing, shouldn't it?
I did not change it, but I noticed it different too.
@@kennisrussell There really is a significant difference. Different height? Different strings? Different spread in the electronics?
Could be different pots and cap values. That has a huge impact on tone.
P90's sound great! Though I'm usually a single coil fan, p90's give a fatter tone, without all the muddiness you can get with some humbuckers. But l like Gibson 57classic/57+ pickups. Good shootout video, Kennis! Love your channel.
Some setups I prefer the HBs, as I like a muddy rock n roll tone, but on other setups I love the p90s as they are more defined and sound good
Do you have the specs of the pickups? Alnico 2 or 5? or something else. Thank you. I enjoy your videos. 😀👍
Much prefer the P90’s in this video, they sound brighter and more dynamic, nice Kennis, cheers
I didn't have any guitars with P-90's, so I decided to build one. I'm looking forward to hearing the P-90's in person and can't wait till the build is done. I definitely liked them the better in your video than the humbuckers. Have you ever tried the single size "twin rail" type humbuckers? I installed one in a Strat style guitar (bridge position) and I love it. It's brighter and not muddy like the regular humbuckers. Thanks for the comparison!👍😎🎸🎶
My Godin has two SD. A custom and a jazz on the neck. And I actually have a drive specific for the neck a little brighter and an OCD kinda dark for the bridge. U ever had that??
So I'm hearing I like the humbucker for bridge and p90 at the neck
Good ear. The bridge humbucker was ok, but neck was so muddy.
How hard was the pickup swap? Did you consider changing the volume pot too?
I have a LGXT love the guitar but the Duncan PUP’s sound really muddy might have to swap it up with p90 or a brighter lower output humbuckers
Were they Artec branded, ceramic P90s? I have the same set if so, they really surprised me for the money (I paid about £30 too)
They were not branded. But they may have been.
That middle pickup is where it is at.
Hey Kennis! I have almost the same guitar. A Godin LGX SA i think. I love the sound of the P90 but playing at church right next to the lights create too much hum. How do u deal with that? Thanks. Great vid
Definitely like a hot wound p90 over most humbuckers. I love humbuckers in Les Paul's, and ES335s, but I have Fralin steel pole 43's, (P90s that fit into Teles, or Strats), and real p90s in my SG Special, and love them!! Actually only have 1 humbucker guitar right now, an Ibanez 335 copy, but have 2 Epi's on order. I love this type of comparison video.
Peace, Keith
Wow , what a difference . Keep the p90s. Distorted they sound similar. But clean the p90s are really bright
The P90s Chime.
So are you going to swap out the stock HB's? They are really muddy and anemic sounding. With what?
I have a spare set of Seymour Duncan’s. I may swap with those. Also, I may just sell that guitar.
Seymour Duncan Phat Cats are my favorite h sized p-90
@@kennisrussell hi, do you remember the brand of your p90s? Thanks
helloo bro i need left handed godin
I can't find it
Which one will sound good for Fingerpicking and soloing only over a track
Of the two... p90 or a brighter set of humbuckers.
@@kennisrussell thanks
They sound different and I like them both. How difficult was it to change the pickups? Hope you have a wonderful weekend 🙋♂️
If you know how to use a soldering iron, it's not hard. This guitar was a bit hard because it has complicated wiring, but a normal guitar is pretty simple.
Kennis Russell Speaking of soldering ... I have to learn to do it anyways, because I am trying to fix a student’s Bass that’s making weird sounds when you jiggle the cable at the input.
An input Jack is a good first solder project. It’s pretty easy.
Kennis Russell I will certainly try and let you know how it comes out 🙋♂️
@@kennisrussell I have a Godin LGX3 that has duckbuckers in them. So when I strike the string, with an overdrive pedal I should hear it slowly lose volume but, with these duckbuckers they just fizzle out and it sounds awful. Curious on how you wired this. Since my Lgx3 has the piezo in it as well.
Yep, those stock pickups needed to go. I like Godin's but their HB pickups have never been to my taste. I do like their P90s though.
Yes. The HB are just too muddy.
@@kennisrussellyep definitely lacking clarity and output. But pup upgrades are relatively cheap!
I have a Summit that came stock with SD’s but I have a SDxt too with the Godin humbuckers and a single coil. Sounds super muddy but the SDxt is wired so that position 4 or 2 are both the humbucker and the single coil without coil splitting. Really adds some depth when they get combined and is the only reason I haven’t swapped out the pickups. I thought about getting a 3 way switch and then just eliminating position 1 and 5 lol that’s about the only use I’ve found for the stock Godin pickups. I have a few other Godins too but that’s the only one with them in it still lol
Great comparison, in this particular case the P90's are far and away the better all round pick ups. 😎🎸✅
Agreed
The p90s definitely sound better to my ears on this particular comparison. Had a Godin about 20 years ago, I wasn’t overly impressed!
I much preferred the p90s over the Humbuckers in most applications
I like them both clean. I dislike them both distorted.
Kewl Video
TFS enjoyed!😁
Thanks.
The P90s were MUCH better! You should consider swapping out the other humbuckers too, as they were dull and lifeless! Try another brand of humbucker, perhaps Gibson burstbuckers or Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates. I enjoy your videos, keep it up!
It's a shame you didn't play high gain. Humbuckers that sound dark with low gain tend to sound smoother and less edgy when it comes to high gain and I suspect this could be the case here, so cover all bases next time.
Thanks for the input.
HE SAID IT RIGHT!!!!
It’s about time right?
P90 it's cool.
Thanks but this comparison is not valid. If the whole setup is the same, the middle Pickups should have sound the same. I assume there were also some modulation inside the guitar.
You are correct. Perhaps the pickup height was different.
So these particular P90s sound better than these particular humbuckers.... but I don’t think you can really draw any conclusions between P90s and humbuckers overall 🤪
P90 all the way at least against this set of humbuckers. They didn’t do anything for me.
I agree. I can't stand those particular humbuckers. Especially the one in the neck. The p90s check all the boxes for me.
The correct answer is P90s 😉
True story!
P90s
Why shootout? No pickup is good or bad or better or worse in itself. Depends on what you use it for.
Those humbuckers sounded weak and muddy. Liked those p90s.
From eBay good.
Godan, whithout the "n"....
p90
Sell the guitar. Get something better