1950s P-90 Player Recommendations?

[Roland1911]

I've discovered I really like the P-90 tone of Tal Farlow (The Tal Farlow Album), Johnny Smith (Moonlight in Vermont), Barney Kessel (Easy Like, Vol. 1), Billy Bauer (Plectrist), Jim Hall (Jazz Guitar/Pacific Jazz), from the 1950s.

What other players and recordings can you recommend with that tone/quality that I'm hearing in those?

Also, please correct me if the albums listed are indeed not P-90s. I don't know what it is, but there is a round, bright clarity to their tone that lets you hear every note. It's like each note is a perfectly rounded liquid drop. I really dig it.

Thanks in advance!

[Sigmund451]

Single coil goodness!

[John A.]

I've discovered I really like the P-90 tone of Tal Farlow (The Tal Farlow Album), Johnny Smith (Moonlight in Vermont), Barney Kessel (Easy Like, Vol. 1), Billy Bauer (Plectrist), Jim Hall (Jazz Guitar/Pacific Jazz), from the 1950s.

What other players and recordings can you recommend with that tone/quality that I'm hearing in those?

Also, please correct me if the albums listed are indeed not P-90s. I don't know what it is, but there is a round, bright clarity to their tone that lets you hear every note. It's like each note is a perfectly rounded liquid drop. I really dig it.

Thanks in advance!

I'm pretty sure the Tal Farlow and Barney Kessel albums you mention were done with Charlie Christian pickups, not P90s. MiV was recorded with a D'Angelico with floating DeArmond pickup, and I think that Billy Bauer album was too (at least that's what's pictured on the cover). But those are all single pickups and and are clearer sounding than humbuckers.

For similar sounds, maybe Kenny Burrell records up to around 1968 when he switched from a few different single coil guitars to a Super 400 with humbuckers? Les Paul on anything from 52-ish on up? Grant Green (he mostly played an ES-330 with P90s)? Charlie Christian, T-bone Walker, Tiny Grimes, Ray Crawford (with Ahmad Jamal),. Oscar Moore (with Nat King Cole). Hank Garland on Move! Herb Ellis pre-1958-ish (not sure when he swapped his P90 to a humbucker, but it had to be after '57). They all sound quite different from each other, but they all do have have single coils in common. Or more simply, any electric guitar record made before late 1957 is guaranteed to have single coil pickups because that's all there was.