P90's in a Gibson Firebird V...Opinions please!

Hey guys,

I'm going to be purchasing a Firebird V in white here real soon and I want to drop some P90's in it. Basically, I can't decide to go Lollar, Bare Knuckle (supermassive, nantucket, 'Pig 90), Motor City (motormouth), etc...

I play hard rock through a Marshall JVM and a Bogner 4x12.

Can anybody offer any advice? Other pups to consider as well?

Thanks!

I like Seymour Duncan hot p90 and custom p90 although Gibson makes a nice p90 from time to time.

Bump

I've gone thru quite a few P90s, so I'll give my input.

General notes:
• In general, P90's are a naturally midrange heavy pickup. Overwinding them gets you more output, but they can get honky. Anything over 9.0K starts to sound kinda crappy, if you're using vintage guage wire.
• P90's are also one of the noisiest types of pickups. Expect High-output P90's to have more noise.
• 8K is the Gibson-standard output. I prefer a slightly hotter bridge, and a pretty underwound neck at about 7-7.2. Underwinding the neck P90 gets you more clarity on top, less mids, and less bass boom. I prefer cooler neck P90s.
• In my experience, P90's need a decent amount of output difference (calibration) in order to balance in the neck and bridge. Gibson's standard setup is two 8.0K output P90s. They don't make calibrated neck and bridge positions. While you can balance them with height alone, one position will always suffer.

Different brands:
Duncan: The Vintage P90 set is a super bang for your buck set. Nice warm vintage tones, but still plenty of kick in the bridge. The Hot and Custom are also nice, but very thick sounding. I currently have a Duncan set in my LP SPecial that is 7.2K in the neck and around 8.8K in the bridge, and it's perfect.
Gibson: the Gibson P90 is a great pickup. More "clang" then some others. the only problem is calibrating. See above. I have one of these in my single pickup LP Jr. Rocks hard, sounds raw, and since there's only one, no need to calibrate.
Lollars: Lollar is one of the only manufacturers who uses a difference construction technique. He forgoes the baseplate. That combined with his special wind and magnets yields a P90 that has more clarity than others, while still sounding raw and vintage. I had a set, and regret selling them. Not quite as "barky" as some of the others listed; a little string-y-er on top, in a good way.
Fralin: Fralin's design and construction is very true to the original Gibson design, and he will calibrate them to your taste. Great tone out of those. I had one that was I believe -10% in the neck and +5% in the bridge and it was awesome.

I have a SD Custom in the bridge and the stock Gibson P90 in the neck of my LP Special. They balance well and I have no plans to change or upgrade to more expensive pickups. I always thought about replace the stock Gibson, but then I play it and decide not to. I did however replace the pots with 300K ohm CTS and Hovland caps which made a difference over the stock guts.

Thanks for the info guys! I am looking for raunch and punch. Just a bad*** hard rock tone. Any more direction for a P90 virgin?

I've had boatloads of old P90 loaded Gibsons...one of my favorite pickups. Nothing gets that sound better than the Fralins and the fact that you can have them custom wound to taste makes them the ideal choice IMO. The newer Gibsons aren't bad...a bit more nasal sounding but still cool. The regular Duncans are pretty good but the two hotter models don't really sound like P90s.

Gibson P90s are actually quite nice.

I love P-90's. I have 6 gibson's , 5 with the P90's and one with Humbuckers.
I use old fender amps and they are a good match.
I thinks they are a good choice for a firebird.

So which best retains clarity when overdriven? I'm looking big nasty overdrive tones but need string definition too...

Bump

+1 for the BK Pig90s. Had them in a Tele & they sounded great. With a treble bleed circuit on the volume knob, they cleaned up very well.

I still have them as the buyer wanted humbuckers in the Tele. PM me if you decide you're interested to go that route.

84Strat":vrkeei6g said:

+1 for the BK Pig90s. Had them in a Tele & they sounded great. With a treble bleed circuit on the volume knob, they cleaned up very well.

I still have them as the buyer wanted humbuckers in the Tele. PM me if you decide you're interested to go that route.

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Thanks man, but I don't think I'm going go with Pig 90's. If I go with Bare Knuckle, it'll be either the Nantuckets or Supermassives.

If you are using a lot of gain you may want to consider Kinman p90's. They are on my short list for next acquisition along with Lollar's and Fralin's. Kinman's are advertised to be as quiet as humbuckers yet retain all of the p90 character. Check out old man river bringing the heat.

I havent heard all those listed, but I loved the Lollars, tons of string in the tone and very clear overdriven
Those Kinmans in that vid sound great too
I always thought the Gibsons were very unbalanced

Mr. Burton":2e7crhjq said:

If you are using a lot of gain you may want to consider Kinman p90's. They are on my short list for next acquisition along with Lollar's and Fralin's. Kinman's are advertised to be as quiet as humbuckers yet retain all of the p90 character. Check out old man river bringing the heat.

Click to expand...

That guy can play! Those sound great too.

JTyson":2forjf6o said:

I havent heard all those listed, but I loved the Lollars, tons of string in the tone and very clear overdriven
Those Kinmans in that vid sound great too
I always thought the Gibsons were very unbalanced

Click to expand...

Cool...can you give me a little more rundown on the Gibson's?

Well, I've only had 1 Gibson that had them, but as was said before, the neck was WAY louder than the bridge pickup. I suspect it was the spacing to the strings as was stated. They sounded great, but were very noisy, and the bridge pup sounds weak compared to the neck. If I was gonna buy a set of P90's, it would not be those.
Only because there are more balanced, slightly hotter (which I like) examples out there that have been mentioned above. The only P90 I've heard that was aftermarket that I really didint care for was a Tom Anderson P90 that actually sounded weaker than the Gibson it replaced. That was probably fifteen years ago, I believe they are different now.
That Kinman vid has got me gassing for a set of those, or another set of Lollars, which absolutely blew my doors off

Well, after much research and emails to bunches of different pickup companies...I have decided that I'm going to go with Wolfetone P90's. He seems like an excellent guy to deal with and his approach to P90's is exactly what I'm looking for...mean and raunchy! I will be getting the Mean/Meaner set. Alnico II magnets. Bridge is around 9K and the neck is around 8K.

Here is the response I got from Wolfe when asking about which route to go for hard rock nastiness and the difference between Alnico II and V magnets:

I'd go with a Meaner in the bridge. Some nice midrange raunch and a
tone that's not too harsh on the top end.

If both pickups were otherwise the same, Alnico 2 is going to be a bit
smoother and sweeter, with a bit more lower midrange. Alnico 5 will have a
bit more upper mids with a slight low-mid scoop, more top end bite and
snap, and a more crunchy low end.

Alnico 2 will compress a bit more, and blooms better than Alnico 5.
For me, when it comes to P-90's, I'm absolutely an Alnico 2 guy. The
Alnico 5 just doesn't quite have it....

Wolfe

all I know is white & P90's