P90 Pickups for Jazz

**amusiathread** · 02-15-2010, 03:19 PM

Hey everybody. Anyone have an opinion to share on the best P90's on the market for jazz? I have a handmade archtop with a P90 (neck position only), like a Gibson Es-125. I play solo jazz exclusively, I never use overdriven tones, I'm just after warm, smooth, clear, organic, with a little shimmer in the highs. And hopefully nothing too noisy. Any advice you'd like to share?

**Jake Hanlon** · 02-15-2010, 03:45 PM

i'll keep my vintage p90 on my 225 thank you very much.

Older the better imo. Best thing Gibson ever did was put P90's on some of those old boxes.

**SamBooka** · 02-15-2010, 05:44 PM

BIG p90 fan.. I have a Lollar right now that I am fond of.
By all means if you can find a gibson vintage (or like Randy.. had one on a drawer) go for it. I admit I have never tried the Fralin p90 because buying on the web is easier from Lollar. Great CS from Lollar too (but I have heard the same of Fralin)

**randyc** · 02-15-2010, 06:11 PM

I'm a fan too, especially after making the pickup noise measurements that I posted here a couple of days ago. I was surprised at how well the P-90 performed compared to some very good humbucking pickups. (As mentioned, it's possible to get a wider variation in tonal quality, opposed to the humbuckers.)

Someone here, a LONG time ago did a P-90 conversion to his L-4CES, replacing the existing Classic '57s, I think. It looked mighty fine and the owner was very pleased with the tonal quality.

Unfortunately I have no experience with aftermarket pickups, I've only owned Gibson P-90s. All of the guys here that have responded to your post are very experienced, technically and musically. I'd feel quite comfortable following their advice, personally.

**amusiathread** · 02-15-2010, 06:30 PM

Well, I appreciate the feedback from everyone. I've had much more experience with aftermarket humbuckers, and more in the rock context. I'm totally in love with P90's now, but I still have a lot to learn about them, and lots of them to try. I'm thinking I'll give Lollar a shot. But has anyone had first hand experience with Bareknuckles?

**mattymel** · 02-15-2010, 09:46 PM

the ES225s were typically a single p90 spaced right in the middle between the neck and bridge. had a different tailpiece as well. ES125TDC are much more like the early 60s epi sorrento, at least mine. i kind of want to find a frequensator tailpiece for it. i think that would be really cool looking and maybe give it a little more fullbodied bass.

but anyway, the lollars are awesome. have some 50s wound in my 1954 reissue les paul that are killin too. cant go wrong with the lollars.

**gary mitchell** · 02-20-2010, 06:38 PM

P90s are my favorite pickups, I have a Les Paul gold top with P90s. and the guitar I use 90% of the time, is a Godin LG all mahogany neck and body, that had seymour duncan SP3 P90s which were to hot for me. I replace them with some Gibson P90s from a early 60s Les Paul and I just love that guitar. I sold a Gibson ES 335 to a Professional Jazz guitarist here in Austin, and he played my Godin and tried to buy it instead of the 335 I just couldint part with it Iam just a P90 guy I guess.

**SamBooka** · 02-20-2010, 10:57 PM

I was going to buy a Lollar in the next few weeks until someone posted THIS
http://www.seymourduncan.com/product...0_dog_ear_hum/

**BigDaddyLoveHandles** · 02-20-2010, 11:28 PM

A dogear humbucker? Blasphemy!

**amusiathread** · 02-20-2010, 11:56 PM

Very interesting. Seymour Duncan has always been on the cutting edge of new pickup design. I wish I liked SD's for that reason, but I've never had good luck with them. I have a new P90 on the way from Vintage Vibe pickups, I'm pretty excited to try it out. It comes with an extra set of magnets which can be easily swapped out. And the customer support is absolutely top-notch.

**capofirstfret** · 03-02-2010, 06:39 PM

I've got an ES-135 that I use and I love the sounds I get out of the P90's on that box. I have Fralins installed.

**SamBooka** · 03-02-2010, 09:51 PM

I have to say .. the sound clip of the Lollar Charlie C pickup sounds wooonderful. As much as I like P90s I would be tempted to try one IF they werent 2X the price of a P90. Odd that..

**BigDaddyLoveHandles** · 03-02-2010, 11:29 PM

Well, the CC pickups are bigger, so maybe they charge by the pound.

**Tom Karol** · 03-02-2010, 11:35 PM

The Lollar P90's are very highly regarded. But you might want to also check out the VP90's at www.harmonicdesign.net.

**mattymel** · 03-03-2010, 02:48 AM

im very tempted to try one of lollars CC humbucker sized pickups in my sadowsky...maybe i should finish paying that off first though.

**Meggy** · 03-03-2010, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by zz5555

This is of interest to me as well. I'm planning on building a thinline tele with humbuckers (sort of a 72 thinline) and was thinking of using the prails. It'd sort of give me the ultimate semi-hollow, but I'm concerned that the prails will be a "jack of all trades, master of none" type of thing. I'd be interested to hear of any experiences people have had with it.

The ultimate semi - I have been thinking along more or less the exact same lines as this. I would want both pickups to give all 4 possible sounds - so with the combination possibilities that would be 24 different pickup settings, if you work it out. Add a phase switch to one pickup, and you would have no less than 40 combinations! Some of them might even be useful LOL! Plus I like guitars with lots of switches/options, it's just a thing I have...

But seriously, I imagine that the P90 sound would be pretty good, since this part of the pickup is built just like a P90. The compromise might be the humbucker sounds, both series and parallel. Although the website does talks about the parallel wiring giving the typical PAF upper mid bloom, with great articulation also, or something like that. Sounds nice, although of course they would say that wouldn't they?

**Archtop** · 04-21-2010, 02:56 AM

P-90's are a lovely thing but are incredibly noisy so this will interest everybody who finds hum intolerable on their P-90 guitars. I was desperate to hear pure silence when I wasn't playing a note so I took a chance and ordered a set of Kinman P-90 Hx after listening to their sound files and reading other players comments about the Kinman. I found many references to various noiseless P-90's in many forums that weren't exactly glowing. It seems very few have anything good to say about noiseless P-90's, that is until the Kinman P-90 Hx came onto the scene late in 2009.

I've seen lots of talk about it and no-one has anything bad to say, everyone is raving about how good the Kinman is. That’s the reason I felt reasonable confident it would deliver the right sound without the hum.

For myself I can say this is one pretty good pickup, it has the indisputable P-90 sound, big and luscious sound, piano mid tones, deep bass but with sweeter highs than my Gibson P-90 single coil which tend to offend a bit. It is also extremely responsive to touch, more so than my Gibson pickup.

One review I read the guy was comparing the noiseless Kinman to a noisy Lollar, with the Lollar ahead only by a hair and he was more than happy to take the Lollar out to make a permanent home for the Kinman and get rid of the hum. Read for yourself Kinman HXP90 Review - Hamer Fan Club Message Center

The Kinman is unique in many way and universally unique in the way it mounts under dog-ear covers as well as soapbar covers with a cunning bracket, which is available as an optional extra from Kinman. The bracket works very well and is easy to install.

In every way this is very good development for Archtop players, finally we can get rid of P-90 hum without sacrificing our P-90 sound. Check out the meaningful sound files here Kinman P-90 Hx I'm glad I did, and I’m soooo glad I took the plunge.

I’m in tone heaven ,,,,, without that annoying irritating hum.

Duane

**Robertkoa** · 12-11-2010, 11:29 PM

hey guys - i came onto this Forum in response to a link posted about the Kinman P 90s.

I am thinking of mixing one or two of these in a H-S-H Koa Strat type Instrument ( Carvin Bolt )- sort of like a Strat but much more acoustic resonance and more piano like bottom end.

If you guys can use these to play Jazz- I should be able to use them for my slightly more raw funkier Steely Dan inspired original stuff ( only I'm not a musical genius like Fagen/Becker ).

I've heard demos of the Kinmans - and they sound very promising - I'd like to hear them in a fatter sounding guitar...........

**stormin1155** · 02-10-2012, 02:58 PM

Is anyone using P-90s for jazz? I have a Hamer Echotone semi-hollow that I'm thinking of doing something different. As it is, it sounds pretty close to my 335, which isn't bad, but something a bit different would be better. I love the sparkle that P-90s have that you just don't get with a humbucker. Thinking of putting HB-sized P-90s in it.

Thoughts?

**mr. beaumont** · 02-10-2012, 03:03 PM

P90's are great jazz pickups.

Every body seems to forget that humbuckers weren't even widely available on jazz guitars until the late late 50's...go for it!

**oldane** · 02-10-2012, 03:14 PM

The humbucker was introduced in 1957. Before that, all guitar PUs were single coils. An overwhelming part of the jazz guitar records made before 1957 is made with P90s (very few established jazz guitarists used anything but Gibson guitars back then). For my part, I like the sound of single coil PUs better than humbuckers. The bass notes are clearer and more well defined than with many HBs and the individual notes of a chord stand out clearer.

**mattymel** · 02-10-2012, 03:54 PM

Love me some p90s. Interesting thread about Wes earlier and how he is heard ALOT using p90s. People mainly associate him with HB, but a good amount of his earlier work isnt.

As I've said a million times, Jim H's classic p90 tone is IT for me. Been listening to the Bill Evans duets alot and can't get over Jims sound on those records. Wish he would have stuck with it, not that it's ever been anything but great.

**Jazz_175** · 02-10-2012, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by mattymel

Love me some p90s. Interesting thread about Wes earlier and how he is heard ALOT using p90s. People mainly associate him with HB, but a good amount of his earlier work isnt.

As I've said a million times, Jim H's classic p90 tone is IT for me. Been listening to the Bill Evans duets alot and can't get over Jims sound on those records. Wish he would have stuck with it, not that it's ever been anything but great.

So in order to hear J. Hall playing with P90 should I look for the early recordings by him? Which one in particular?