B
braintheory
Well-known member
So I own a wide variety of guitars such as Les Paul, SG’s, Tele, Strat, Gretsch Hollowbody, 7 & 8 string, super strats, but never actually had any P90 equipped guitars. I partly shied away from them because I always felt they looked cheap and not aesthetically pleasing compared to humbuckers, but I’ve lately been trying a bunch of p90 guitars and honestly I just don’t get the appeal. I’ve tried some Gibson SG, Les Paul double cutaway, and Mosrite hollowbody all with p90‘s. I can get good sounds from them, but can’t see any situation in which I’d choose to play p90’s over humbucker, strat or tele type pickups. I know some say it has more bite and snarl compaered to humbuckers, but I didn’t find that to be the case. If anything that would be where the tele pu’s shine above to all others.
Of all varieties of pickups I’ve tried, I found p90’s to be the least articulate, I did not care for the cleans of any of them, none of them sounded as tight, clear, or chunky on palm mutes when AB’ed with good humbucker guitars. For powerchords I guess they have somewhat of a unique sound and growl, but for the most part they just sound like a thinner, less controlled humbucker to me and I’d say the same about how they sound for leads and single note riffs compared to humbuckers. They don’t have the glassiness, attack, or clarity of strat pickups, but I guess I still do hear some single coil characteristics to them. To me they seem like an awkward middle ground of humbuckers and other single coils but without my favorite qualities of either.
What are your guys thoughts? What it is about p90’s that you like that you can’t get out of the other styles of pickups? Am I just not trying the right p90’s? Is there something I’m not getting? Like I said, my experience with p90’s is limited but I’m always interested in exploring such things. Again, they don’t sound bad to me, but I just don’t see a use for them given the other varieties of pickups like strat, tele, and humbuckers (and some of my humbucker guitars can be coil split). To me they seem obsolete and visually ugly, but prove me wrong if you think I am.
Of all varieties of pickups I’ve tried, I found p90’s to be the least articulate, I did not care for the cleans of any of them, none of them sounded as tight, clear, or chunky on palm mutes when AB’ed with good humbucker guitars. For powerchords I guess they have somewhat of a unique sound and growl, but for the most part they just sound like a thinner, less controlled humbucker to me and I’d say the same about how they sound for leads and single note riffs compared to humbuckers. They don’t have the glassiness, attack, or clarity of strat pickups, but I guess I still do hear some single coil characteristics to them. To me they seem like an awkward middle ground of humbuckers and other single coils but without my favorite qualities of either.
What are your guys thoughts? What it is about p90’s that you like that you can’t get out of the other styles of pickups? Am I just not trying the right p90’s? Is there something I’m not getting? Like I said, my experience with p90’s is limited but I’m always interested in exploring such things. Again, they don’t sound bad to me, but I just don’t see a use for them given the other varieties of pickups like strat, tele, and humbuckers (and some of my humbucker guitars can be coil split). To me they seem obsolete and visually ugly, but prove me wrong if you think I am.
