"I'm going to play a small section of the Bad Religion song 'American Jesus' straight into a 50-watt 1987X Marshall Plexi with no boost" might be the best sentence ever spoken on UA-cam.
Absolutely. I pretty much played humbucker equipped guitars for most of my life When I was 39 I got my first Tele and really dug it for punk a lot more than I ever thought I would when I was younger, I thought they were only the Country guitar. Then I thought if the Tele is this awesome then I bet a Gibson with P90s will be even better,. I bought a Gibson Les Paul Special Tribute and it was fantastic. I can't believe I had shrugged off P90 equipped Les Pauls and SGs my whole life. I liked it so much that I recently bought an LP Classic with P90s.
I recently acquired a Novo Serus J with Fralin P90s and it it literally the perfect blend of single coils and humbuckers. I can play everything from Funk to Prog Metal and it all sounds so good. They just kick butt.
I have a Dimarzio Bluesbucker that I absolutely love. Its basically a noise cancelling P90 in a humbucker size. Its crisp without ice pick, clear and full, I hear all the definition and it chugs. I have it installed in a Hagstrom Pat Smear signature. Love that guitar!
Thx for the breakdown and the diagrams of the pickup s themselves. That was helpful. My latest purchase was the EPIPHONE Worn Cherry SG with P 90s. I have 4 other guitars all with varying Humbucker pickup s. I love them all , but my biggest surprise came from how well rounded and diversified the P 90s can be. Thx for the insight.
@@thepostapocalyptictrio4762I read an article in Guitar Player magazine with the luthier that installed that pickup for John Lennon. He said it took a lot of routing to install it.
Best P90/HB comparison video I've seen. Most hold their opinion back, but we can't be in the room with them. So I like how you give your honest opinion.
Great review.. thanks for posting. The P90 defo takes it for me. I have 2 SG's, one is standard with Gibson hum-buckers the other one has a Bare knuckles bla bla P90 in the treble and my side by side comparison threw up the same results with the P90 being a lot clearer/sharper so I'm hearing (in my head) all 6 strings. :)
Part of it is also the potentiometers they puck in the 60's standard (300K pots usually), putting in 500K pots does help add to the top end, which is nice on covered humbuckers which naturally have a little less top end than uncovered pickups
Love me some P90s! I primarily play humbucker-equipped guitars, but I have one guitar that has "gold foil" pickups, which have similar sonic characteristics to a P90. It's such a ridiculously fun guitar, especially paired with something like a Les Paul or a PRS.
@asdfghjkl; ‘Need’ is a strong word, but they sound different based on body style just as any pickup would. LP special vs SG classic w P90s sound completely different. The LP sounds more ‘Garage’ but the SG is more versatile and aggressive w better sustain
I would recommend looking at Epiphone, Sire, and Gibson. Epiphone has a lot of options that are pretty affordable, LP Jr, SG and LP Special, LP Standard with P90s, and several hollow and semi hollows. They range from about $400-$650. Good all around. Sire is around $700. They feel very good with a little more time spent on the fretboard than Epiphone, though I don't care for Sire pickups that much they're not bad, just not my favorite The Gibson LP Special Tribute is $999 new, though you can find them used for less. The Gibson pickups are fantastic, the same ones that you would find in a $3000 guitar. It's definitely a more stripped down guitar, nothing fancy. Whatever one is best for you just depends on what things are important to you. There are other options under $1000 but I wouldn't recommend any of them if you're looking for the classic P90 sound.
I don’t like LPs but that HH LP would sit really nicely in a mix and I’m a huge fan of p90s. Great video man! I was curious to see how you would compare them and it wasn’t long at all. Keep it up homie!
I love p90s! TV Jones Powertrons also! Great high gain tones with these. I would even record metal with em for something different. I use your amped roots with my lp special and it honestly does this Knocked Loose sounding tone with it REALLY well. I mostly play like alt rock/grungy crap tho and p90s do 90s guitar great
Im more of a "P90 in bridge and HB in neck" guy. Love the sound of a distorted single coil in the bridge, but sometimes Im all for a rounded-muddy clean tone and thats when the HB in the neck comes in handy
JMO, maybe a longer dive into the P90 at some point. Like when you roll the tone back a hair and hear the pickup bloom into the monster of rock it really is. Thx!
I have so many questions now! It's fairly common when you compear a regular PAF loaded Les Paul to a standard Strat even (with Teles it's even more pronounced) that the single coil guitar tends to be much hotter and punchier than a humbucker loaded one. Propably the wiring (250k pots on a fender-style guitar vs. 500k pots on a gibson-style) has a lot to do with it, which leads me: How and with what pots is the Junior wired with? As we can presume that the Standard was indeed wired as a common LP, perhaps with coil split as added functionality. Other questions can wait, cheers mate!
IMO P90s would be much, much more common if the noise floor was lower because they can do basically everything and not in "Jack of all trades, master of none" way, in a "Jack of all trades, master of most" way, even though Fender never used them back in the day
The guitar I use the most is an Epi Special I with dual P90s. I think it was $180 bucks in 2012 or so. It's not Gibson P90s ( I don't know exactly what they are ) . It's a cheap way to get P90s and the one I have has a fantastic, very shallow neck. It is not the most stable neck - you can neck whammy it without even thinking - but you learn not to lean on it. I've never done a thing to it besides set the truss rod, intonation and action.
Would love to know how you can identify what pick up you might have in your guitar for newbies. Or if you buy a pickup from someone and they might not know what type it is.
Typically if it's a skinny pickup it's a single coil, and if it's chonky it's a humbucker. P90s are comparatively rare, and if someone is selling a guitar with a P90 pickup they will let you know 😂
A P-90 is a single coil pickup. So is a Jazzmaster. If you’re saying it’s not a single coil pickup then you mean it’s not a Strat pickup. The very first pickup was the Rickenbacker horseshoe... also a single coil pickup. As is the toaster. And Rowe-DeArmond “gold foils” which are also single coil pickups. As are Burns TriSonics. And Lace Sensors. It’s unfortunate that guitarists and companies made a few pickup types generic. That’s why most guitars have copies of Gibson or Fender designs. There a whole world of other pickups out there.
Because I always been broke, so a cheap guitar is my go too, but that doesn't mean that I have a hearing problem. I know guys that have all kinds of expansive gears. guitars, amps pedals....Me,.. a Epihpone Les Paul Junior with a P90 and a Peavey Bandit 80w yes the silver stripe, thats all. I get the clean, the not so clean bluesy , the snawrl, and the heavy metal territory, and everrything in between. Those guys with expensive gears always have a speachless moment, right after hearing my tones I get with my gear.... FOR DIRT CHEAP ! I JUST LOVE IT !!
I have always hated the thin twangy sound of single coils for the type of stuff I play, always thought humbuckers were the way to go without question..... and then I played an SG with p90s. I own 5 guitars currently and that SG is pretty much the only one that gets played seriously anymore.
P90's not only have more winds than regular single coils, but instead of having the polepieces also be the magnets like on a strat, tele, jazzmaster... there are actually two magnets below the coil to magnetise it. Since output is not only the amount of windings but that in relation to the power of the magnets P90's actually really pack a punch.
Magnets don't actually change the output. You can switch the magnets and the actually output readings won't change. Magnets don't change output they change the attack so if you switch from an A2 to A5 you will hear a precieved increase in power but the output does not actually change. The A5 just gives it a now immediate attack if switch from A5 to A2 you will get a slower more blooming attack that sounds less powerful but the output is still the same
@@adamwatson6916 The strength of the magnets absolutely has an effect on the voltage output of the pickup. Talking crudely, according to Faraday's laws of induction, to get the volts a pickup produces you get the number of turns in the pickup and multiply it by the amount of magnetic flux inducing current in the coil. You can alter the output of a pickup by either upping the number of turns in the coil or by upping the magnetic flux inducing it. You clearly don't know what you're talking about.
I've read that when Seth Lover was tasked to develop the Humbucking Pickup one of his design goals was to have the Humbucker sound as close to a P90 as possible. Both pickups are amazing, I find it amazing that Seth Lover designed the Humbucker for Gibson and then went on to work for Fender to develop the WRHB pickup. An amazing Man for sure.
There wasn’t one type of P-90. My mid 60s ES-330TD had chrome dogear P-90s that measured around 8k. Later P-90s were much hotter. Seth just decided that an average P-90 was 10,000 turns. So he made each coil in the humbucker 5,000 turns. Gibson was not so concerned about how the pickups sounded. They chose parts based on availability and cost. As long as the pickup worked it was good enough. Seth wanted a closed stainless steel cover on the humbucker with no adjustable poles. The Gibson marketing department wanted adjustable poles because Fender didn’t have them, and the bean counters said no to the stainless steel covers.
@@DavidRavenMoon Thanks for the clarification Raven, much appreciated. Yeah, I had read about the stainless steel covers getting the axe due to cost, Marketing Dept. was King (an still is). A guitar with the WRHB is on my bucket list, thank goodness Fender was able to source CuNiFe magnets again.
I always loved the way a P90 sounds in a 59 Goldtop Les Laul. The 60's band Canned Heat is a great example of their creaminess. They almost sound like a cross between a humbucker and a single coil.
Fluff, you call it stringiness but I always thought of it as snarl. You get to have both aggression and clarity. Plus p90s are so flexible with the volume knob. Love me some p90s. The G&L mdf singles are close and sound killer too.
Thankyou Fluff I think a lot of people needed to hear this. Some people seem to think there is no tonal difference, which seems crazy to me! ...Cough....Glen Fricker.....cough cough.
2:26 "the P90 is going to be 'stringier' than the humbucker..." Yes! That's it! I've always liked P90s, but for decades could never describe exactly why. You summed it up in one word.
I have five P90 guitars and only one Gibson semi with H’buckers and a jazz box that is too much guitar for me. I even have a fender (made in Indonesia) electric mandolin that I installed a P-90 in. I’m 70, and have had a lifelong P90 passion.
Dream Guitars of mine.. One is the SG Special in Burgundy Metallic with p90. Otherwise I'm still boning over the old Special p90 Epiphone Les Paul.. Them $99 deals used to ve everywhere
The bass in the second mix it gets more definition with the hambucker and also seems to be more space for a voice or an overdub ...for me its better the hambucker . THX!
I was literally just commenting in another video asking for this comparison because I couldn't seem to find it anywhere!! Ps noice beard bro, been growing mine out a little over a year. On paper I've been curious about the gold top p90 vs junior but however unorthodox it may be I was also curious about the junior/standard ie David and Goliath lol the junior being the underdog. Ha! Someone should totally do a video series of what if (insert famous LP Standard player here) _played a junior I'm dying to hear the Free- all right now solo on one 😂 that would be so wicked
I always thought the P in P-90 stood for punk. These are the ultimate out of control punk rock pickups to me. I wonder what it would sound like if you wired two together in the bridge position?
Gibson has a pickup that does that! It's for the Billie Joe signature LPJ and i think it's called an H90. It's use 2 p-90's stacked on top of each other and to my ear it adds a slight bit of fullness that an humbucker would have but still has that p-90 snarl and bite. No hum either!
I have a FrankenTele with p-90 bridge and p-100 neck and middle- I can go series or parallel with the back two. Short answer to your question :a massive snarl with a touch of Strat.
Nice side by side. Yes, the P90 is brighter, but it's the midrange tones and the way it picks up harmonics (probably thanks to the solid mahogany as well) that sold me on the P90 decades ago. Thanks for both of these videos. I don't think American Jesus would rock quite as hard with a Tele!! 😜
Got my first P90 guitar in ‘89 when everyone else was playing fluorescent pointy shred machines. A 1977 double cut Les Paul Special. It was pretty awesome back then, no one wanted them. They were cheap and plentiful.
Have a Reverend double agent with a p 90 and a humbucker. It’s awesome roll the p90 or both coils for cleans. P90 for thick rhythms and the bucker wide open for cutting leads. I’m not a huge fan of humbuckers but there’s no denying its prowess when getting on a the overdrive .
I have a 50s Standard with P90s and I love those pickups. So much that my next guitar is gonna be an SG Special just so I can have more of those amazing pickups
Great vid and highlights what makes P90’s awesome. I got a Gretsch with P90’s a couple years ago and it does everything awesome, blues, punk, PNW, whatever.
I did a weekly podcast where we did a new song every week. I have probably 30 guitars. Some custom shop Les Pauls and SGs etc. I would switch out the humbucker guitars each week on one of the channels. But EVERY single week, I would always play a mid 90s Les Paul Special with a P90 in the other channel. It just sounded that good.
"I'm going to play a small section of the Bad Religion song 'American Jesus' straight into a 50-watt 1987X Marshall Plexi with no boost" might be the best sentence ever spoken on UA-cam.
I am with you brother
All punk dudes over 40 now have teles and Gibsons with P-90’s. It’s a thing, it’s ok and it’s awesome.
No,no we don't. But I got a harley benton I modded up with p90s. 😁
@@shawnawesome7770 fair enough. And same thing 🤣
Absolutely. I pretty much played humbucker equipped guitars for most of my life When I was 39 I got my first Tele and really dug it for punk a lot more than I ever thought I would when I was younger, I thought they were only the Country guitar. Then I thought if the Tele is this awesome then I bet a Gibson with P90s will be even better,. I bought a Gibson Les Paul Special Tribute and it was fantastic. I can't believe I had shrugged off P90 equipped Les Pauls and SGs my whole life. I liked it so much that I recently bought an LP Classic with P90s.
Pretty true my p90 guitar is a reverend. I don't have a tele but only because I have too many guitars already. But I do damn want one!
Guilty as charged
Been playing single coils and Humbuckers for decades but only started using P90's for a few years - Love the differences!
Check out Lollars P90s absolutely astounding.
@@dennisapplegate7553 I will look into that, thanks for the tip!
This is the best P90 VS humbucker shootout video I’ve ever seen.
I use P 90s and P-94s in all. My Gibsons and Epiphones..LOVE THEM!!!!
Thank you for this. The side-by-side comparison was very informative.
I recently acquired a Novo Serus J with Fralin P90s and it it literally the perfect blend of single coils and humbuckers. I can play everything from Funk to Prog Metal and it all sounds so good. They just kick butt.
My favorite part of this video is the Mammoth hat. Really happy to see that company take off.
I have a Dimarzio Bluesbucker that I absolutely love. Its basically a noise cancelling P90 in a humbucker size. Its crisp without ice pick, clear and full, I hear all the definition and it chugs. I have it installed in a Hagstrom Pat Smear signature. Love that guitar!
P90s are underrated gems. Having a p90 loaded guitar in your collection is a solid investment.
Thx for the breakdown and the diagrams of the pickup s themselves. That was helpful. My latest purchase was the EPIPHONE Worn Cherry SG with P 90s. I have 4 other guitars all with varying Humbucker pickup s. I love them all , but my biggest surprise came from how well rounded and diversified the P 90s can be. Thx for the insight.
How did I miss this?!? Oh it’s because I’m looking at p90 Collings guitars right now. ;)
The P90 isn't Gibson's oldest pickup, but it's the oldest one still in production by them.
Yeah I was expecting more mention of the Charlie Christian in the comments, lol.
Reminds me of the John Lennon’s Les Paul JR with a Charlie Christian pickup in it.
@@thepostapocalyptictrio4762I read an article in Guitar Player magazine with the luthier that installed that pickup for John Lennon. He said it took a lot of routing to install it.
@@JefferyHagen yeah. That’s the main reason I haven’t jumped on buying a Charlie Christian style pickup like I really wanted to.
I have an SG standard with P-90s I got years ago and it’s amazing.
Can't wait for that clean tone
Best P90/HB comparison video I've seen. Most hold their opinion back, but we can't be in the room with them. So I like how you give your honest opinion.
Great review.. thanks for posting. The P90 defo takes it for me. I have 2 SG's, one is standard with Gibson hum-buckers the other one has a Bare knuckles bla bla P90 in the treble and my side by side comparison threw up the same results with the P90 being a lot clearer/sharper so I'm hearing (in my head) all 6 strings. :)
I 'liked' my own post 👆🏽 😂
i wonder how a p90 neck would sound in that junior in bridge position
Part of it is also the potentiometers they puck in the 60's standard (300K pots usually), putting in 500K pots does help add to the top end, which is nice on covered humbuckers which naturally have a little less top end than uncovered pickups
Helpful video. An R9 Burst and a 56 Goldtop RI would make the perfect shootout someday.
P90s have always been my favorite, especially at the neck. When I first saw a '56 Gold Top it pretty set the standard for me.
the side by side was perfect, thanks.
Such a timely video. I’ve been debating this all week for a project guitar I got going on. Older 7ender MiM cyclone, 24.75” scale.
Love me some P90s! I primarily play humbucker-equipped guitars, but I have one guitar that has "gold foil" pickups, which have similar sonic characteristics to a P90. It's such a ridiculously fun guitar, especially paired with something like a Les Paul or a PRS.
My SG Special and the PRS HDRX is amazing.
Just added a few P90 guitars after playing only hum buckets for years… Definitely lives up to the hype!
@asdfghjkl; ‘Need’ is a strong word, but they sound different based on body style just as any pickup would. LP special vs SG classic w P90s sound completely different. The LP sounds more ‘Garage’ but the SG is more versatile and aggressive w better sustain
Been looking for a P90 guitar for a while now. Taking a hard look at those Sire L7Vs
My KMA Pylon noise gate handles my p90 hum amazingly. I prefer 90’s to most of my hbs and would definitely recommend checking them out.
I would recommend looking at Epiphone, Sire, and Gibson. Epiphone has a lot of options that are pretty affordable, LP Jr, SG and LP Special, LP Standard with P90s, and several hollow and semi hollows. They range from about $400-$650. Good all around. Sire is around $700. They feel very good with a little more time spent on the fretboard than Epiphone, though I don't care for Sire pickups that much they're not bad, just not my favorite The Gibson LP Special Tribute is $999 new, though you can find them used for less. The Gibson pickups are fantastic, the same ones that you would find in a $3000 guitar. It's definitely a more stripped down guitar, nothing fancy. Whatever one is best for you just depends on what things are important to you. There are other options under $1000 but I wouldn't recommend any of them if you're looking for the classic P90 sound.
I always thought I prefer the HB, but when I tried a P90 all changed for me
Me too
Junior all the way❤️
Super helpful
I don’t like LPs but that HH LP would sit really nicely in a mix and I’m a huge fan of p90s. Great video man! I was curious to see how you would compare them and it wasn’t long at all. Keep it up homie!
I love p90s! TV Jones Powertrons also! Great high gain tones with these. I would even record metal with em for something different. I use your amped roots with my lp special and it honestly does this Knocked Loose sounding tone with it REALLY well. I mostly play like alt rock/grungy crap tho and p90s do 90s guitar great
best comparison vid I've seen
Humbucket bridge and a P90 neck is the best way to go. Very cool middle position tone its alot less wooly then 2 humbuckers .
Duesenberg!
Im more of a "P90 in bridge and HB in neck" guy. Love the sound of a distorted single coil in the bridge, but sometimes Im all for a rounded-muddy clean tone and thats when the HB in the neck comes in handy
P90 and that Plexi...whoa!!
JMO, maybe a longer dive into the P90 at some point. Like when you roll the tone back a hair and hear the pickup bloom into the monster of rock it really is. Thx!
p90s are just made! For punk, its perfection♥
Great video, now explain how Gibson burstbuckers fit into this....my 2011 LP Studio came with Burstbucker pro pickups...
Fantastic video! This is forcing me to buy a Jr. Love the sound of the P-90.
I have so many questions now!
It's fairly common when you compear a regular PAF loaded Les Paul to a standard Strat even (with Teles it's even more pronounced) that the single coil guitar tends to be much hotter and punchier than a humbucker loaded one. Propably the wiring (250k pots on a fender-style guitar vs. 500k pots on a gibson-style) has a lot to do with it, which leads me: How and with what pots is the Junior wired with? As we can presume that the Standard was indeed wired as a common LP, perhaps with coil split as added functionality.
Other questions can wait, cheers mate!
How is that giveaway going?
Which one is right one for play Blues and pop
This is crazy you just put out this video cuz I literally just bought a p90 les paul 2 days ago
Interesting. Good stuff.
This video's been so useful for me ;)
Have a gretsch with p90s. Seems to be able to cover a huge range. Finding it hard to choose next pickup choice😂
IMO P90s would be much, much more common if the noise floor was lower because they can do basically everything and not in "Jack of all trades, master of none" way, in a "Jack of all trades, master of most" way, even though Fender never used them back in the day
The guitar I use the most is an Epi Special I with dual P90s. I think it was $180 bucks in 2012 or so. It's not Gibson P90s ( I don't know exactly what they are ) . It's a cheap way to get P90s and the one I have has a fantastic, very shallow neck. It is not the most stable neck - you can neck whammy it without even thinking - but you learn not to lean on it. I've never done a thing to it besides set the truss rod, intonation and action.
Love both, the p90 noise ruins it for me though
What a fantastic video have a good weekend
I love p90s, yes I am over 40 and yes I do own a p90 loaded guitar
Would love to know how you can identify what pick up you might have in your guitar for newbies. Or if you buy a pickup from someone and they might not know what type it is.
Typically if it's a skinny pickup it's a single coil, and if it's chonky it's a humbucker. P90s are comparatively rare, and if someone is selling a guitar with a P90 pickup they will let you know 😂
For comparison, better to use at least the same guitar specs, same bridge as start point, and position of pickup.
A P-90 is a single coil pickup. So is a Jazzmaster. If you’re saying it’s not a single coil pickup then you mean it’s not a Strat pickup.
The very first pickup was the Rickenbacker horseshoe... also a single coil pickup. As is the toaster. And Rowe-DeArmond “gold foils” which are also single coil pickups. As are Burns TriSonics. And Lace Sensors.
It’s unfortunate that guitarists and companies made a few pickup types generic. That’s why most guitars have copies of Gibson or Fender designs. There a whole world of other pickups out there.
I’m not cut from the same mold? I don’t read from the same old story? Nice
Because I always been broke, so a cheap guitar is my go too, but that doesn't mean that I have a hearing problem. I know guys that have all kinds of expansive gears. guitars, amps pedals....Me,.. a Epihpone Les Paul Junior with a P90 and a Peavey Bandit 80w yes the silver stripe, thats all. I get the clean, the not so clean bluesy , the snawrl, and the heavy metal territory, and everrything in between. Those guys with expensive gears always have a speachless moment, right after hearing my tones I get with my gear.... FOR DIRT CHEAP ! I JUST LOVE IT !!
P90s are OG. They got it right the first time IMO
I have always hated the thin twangy sound of single coils for the type of stuff I play, always thought humbuckers were the way to go without question..... and then I played an SG with p90s. I own 5 guitars currently and that SG is pretty much the only one that gets played seriously anymore.
and the P90 vs X2N or similars
P90 for the win !
"Theres actually a pickup in between a single coil and a humbucker..."
I was so hoping you would say, "It's a Firebird Pickup"
buen punk rockerrrr
I want a p 90. Damnit fluff. The last thing I needed was more gear to buy. But fr tho I do need more gear.
I've been playing since 1963. There is no comparison. Apples and Oranges
P90 reminds me of the super size me american ethos. But more is not necessarily better.
I spent my whole musical career using humbuckers. I've since added two guitars with P-90s, and can't believe how incredible they are.
P90's not only have more winds than regular single coils, but instead of having the polepieces also be the magnets like on a strat, tele, jazzmaster... there are actually two magnets below the coil to magnetise it. Since output is not only the amount of windings but that in relation to the power of the magnets P90's actually really pack a punch.
idk why I read "windings" as "wing dings"
@@Killadelphia_ I read windings as win dings and wing dings as chicken wings
You're hungry 👍
Magnets don't actually change the output. You can switch the magnets and the actually output readings won't change. Magnets don't change output they change the attack so if you switch from an A2 to A5 you will hear a precieved increase in power but the output does not actually change. The A5 just gives it a now immediate attack if switch from A5 to A2 you will get a slower more blooming attack that sounds less powerful but the output is still the same
@@adamwatson6916 The strength of the magnets absolutely has an effect on the voltage output of the pickup. Talking crudely, according to Faraday's laws of induction, to get the volts a pickup produces you get the number of turns in the pickup and multiply it by the amount of magnetic flux inducing current in the coil. You can alter the output of a pickup by either upping the number of turns in the coil or by upping the magnetic flux inducing it. You clearly don't know what you're talking about.
I've read that when Seth Lover was tasked to develop the Humbucking Pickup one of his design goals was to have the Humbucker sound as close to a P90 as possible.
Both pickups are amazing, I find it amazing that Seth Lover designed the Humbucker for Gibson and then went on to work for Fender to develop the WRHB pickup. An amazing Man for sure.
Thanks for the information HK.
@@sgt.grinch3299 😉 I'm a multi-topic Nerd, this week it is guitars!
There wasn’t one type of P-90. My mid 60s ES-330TD had chrome dogear P-90s that measured around 8k. Later P-90s were much hotter.
Seth just decided that an average P-90 was 10,000 turns. So he made each coil in the humbucker 5,000 turns. Gibson was not so concerned about how the pickups sounded. They chose parts based on availability and cost. As long as the pickup worked it was good enough. Seth wanted a closed stainless steel cover on the humbucker with no adjustable poles. The Gibson marketing department wanted adjustable poles because Fender didn’t have them, and the bean counters said no to the stainless steel covers.
@@DavidRavenMoon Thanks for the clarification Raven, much appreciated. Yeah, I had read about the stainless steel covers getting the axe due to cost, Marketing Dept. was King (an still is).
A guitar with the WRHB is on my bucket list, thank goodness Fender was able to source CuNiFe magnets again.
I have been a p90 guy for 20 years. Came back to humbuckers a year ago and I’m already back to p90’s. Love the sound!
I always loved the way a P90 sounds in a 59 Goldtop Les Laul. The 60's band Canned Heat is a great example of their creaminess. They almost sound like a cross between a humbucker and a single coil.
lol, Goldtops with P-90s are from 1952-1956.1959 was humbucker and burst color only.
We've got the American Jesus
See him on the interstate
We've got the American Jesus
He helped build the president's estate
On camera your Bourbon Burst looks a lot more red than my LP 60s Bourbon Burst.
Leslie West was the guy that made the Les Paul Jr sound amazing
I agree with you for studio / home use. Love my p90s. For the road it's more difficult to justify.
There are a lot of hum-cancelling P90's on the market, if that's the concern.
@@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t They all loose something from those I've heard but that is a big part of it.
Fluff, you call it stringiness but I always thought of it as snarl. You get to have both aggression and clarity. Plus p90s are so flexible with the volume knob. Love me some p90s. The G&L mdf singles are close and sound killer too.
I still love Humbuckers
I think Brain Baker would approve of this video 👍
P-90s are my favorite pups. I’m an old Grinch so I have experience. Beautiful guitars bye the way.
very nice discussion and demonstration. So what's the difference between Dynasonics and Filter'Trons?
Thankyou Fluff I think a lot of people needed to hear this. Some people seem to think there is no tonal difference, which seems crazy to me! ...Cough....Glen Fricker.....cough cough.
2:26 "the P90 is going to be 'stringier' than the humbucker..."
Yes! That's it! I've always liked P90s, but for decades could never describe exactly why. You summed it up in one word.
P-90s have long been my preferred pickup.
I have five P90 guitars and only one Gibson semi with H’buckers and a jazz box that is too much guitar for me. I even have a fender (made in Indonesia) electric mandolin that I installed a P-90 in. I’m 70, and have had a lifelong P90 passion.
Pushing 50 and I've all but retired my Les Paul. It seems to get heavier every year! My back! PRS SE for the pain relief.
Dream Guitars of mine.. One is the SG Special in Burgundy Metallic with p90. Otherwise I'm still boning over the old Special p90 Epiphone Les Paul.. Them $99 deals used to ve everywhere
How was the intonation on the last Paul Junior? Great video thank you.
The bass in the second mix it gets more definition with the hambucker and also seems to be more space for a voice or an overdub ...for me its better the hambucker . THX!
I was literally just commenting in another video asking for this comparison because I couldn't seem to find it anywhere!! Ps noice beard bro, been growing mine out a little over a year. On paper I've been curious about the gold top p90 vs junior but however unorthodox it may be I was also curious about the junior/standard ie David and Goliath lol the junior being the underdog. Ha! Someone should totally do a video series of what if (insert famous LP Standard player here) _played a junior I'm dying to hear the Free- all right now solo on one 😂 that would be so wicked
I always thought the P in P-90 stood for punk. These are the ultimate out of control punk rock pickups to me. I wonder what it would sound like if you wired two together in the bridge position?
Curtis Novak has a jazz master bridge that's 2 p90s and is splitable
Gibson has a pickup that does that! It's for the Billie Joe signature LPJ and i think it's called an H90. It's use 2 p-90's stacked on top of each other and to my ear it adds a slight bit of fullness that an humbucker would have but still has that p-90 snarl and bite. No hum either!
I have a FrankenTele with p-90 bridge and p-100 neck and middle- I can go series or parallel with the back two. Short answer to your question :a massive snarl with a touch of Strat.
Nice side by side. Yes, the P90 is brighter, but it's the midrange tones and the way it picks up harmonics (probably thanks to the solid mahogany as well) that sold me on the P90 decades ago. Thanks for both of these videos. I don't think American Jesus would rock quite as hard with a Tele!! 😜
Got my first P90 guitar in ‘89 when everyone else was playing fluorescent pointy shred machines. A 1977 double cut Les Paul Special. It was pretty awesome back then, no one wanted them. They were cheap and plentiful.
Shout out for playing a bad religion song! Hells yeah!
i have this same junior and i love it. completely different guitars but i like playing it more than my 335 rhat costed pretty much double
Great video. No frills comparison between the 2 pick up types. Perfect!
Have a Reverend double agent with a p 90 and a humbucker. It’s awesome roll the p90 or both coils for cleans. P90 for thick rhythms and the bucker wide open for cutting leads. I’m not a huge fan of humbuckers but there’s no denying its prowess when getting on a the overdrive .
I have a 50s Standard with P90s and I love those pickups. So much that my next guitar is gonna be an SG Special just so I can have more of those amazing pickups
Great vid and highlights what makes P90’s awesome. I got a Gretsch with P90’s a couple years ago and it does everything awesome, blues, punk, PNW, whatever.
Love my aerodyne telecaster with a Fralin p90
I loved this video. I learned a lot today. Thanx.
I did a weekly podcast where we did a new song every week. I have probably 30 guitars. Some custom shop Les Pauls and SGs etc. I would switch out the humbucker guitars each week on one of the channels.
But EVERY single week, I would always play a mid 90s Les Paul Special with a P90 in the other channel. It just sounded that good.