SD stacked humbucker P-90

[kottkewannabe]

My goal is a quiet P-90 (as if anyone WANTS the noise). Kinman hopes to have something out within a year, but I need something between now and then. The guitar is a white limba Tele body, maple/rosewood neck and I'm looking for a pickup that's more substantial than a typical single coil yet a little more articulate than a humbucker...which has landed me on the P-90.

Does anyone have any experience with SD's humbucking P-90?

and...

Does anyone have any other suggestions as to how I can find a meaty-yet-articulate P-90 looking pickup?

[Red Tele]

I bought apair of the stacked Duncans and was very disappointed with them. I was hoping for a P90 tone sans the noise.

The Duncans were quiet but to my ear sounded very round, thick and tubby, nothing at all like a real P90 IMO.

Have you thought about a mini-humbucker?

[kottkewannabe]

I just got off the phone with SD's custom shop supervisor..."MJ". We had some incredible communication issues. She doesn't play guitar and doesn't speak English very well. This is by no means any kind of issue with her value as a human, but sheesh...talking tonal specifics didn't go too well. Then, the sales supervisor from Gibson's strings and accessories beeped in and talked to me a bit about the P-100 which is apparently a direct competitor to SD's Stacked P-90. I've found more information, but I'm still not sure what to get.

How would you compare it to a similar alnico humbucker? When you say things like "round, thick, and tubby", do you mean "more so than a standard P-90 yet still less than a humbucker" or do you mean to say that these charateristics go overboard in an objectively excessively way? And with that, were you disappointed because of it's falling short of a true P-90 tonal reference alone, or because it was just flat-out disappointing?

[BlackRose]

I don't think any of the stackd P-90's give a true single coil tone, including the P-100's.

If you are interested in trying out a Duncan stacked P-90 I have a new neck pickup I could send you to try out. E-mail if you are interested ....

[Watto]

Hi kottkewannabe,
I have just recieved a custom set of AP-90s from an Aussie pickup manufacturer called MASTERTONE.I tried seymour duncans,dimazios and even an original Gibson one but nothing comes close to these AP-90's.The A stands for active but don't be frightened as they are the best sounding P-90's I've ever heard.They don't sound active just silent.My friend played them and ordered 2 sets,One for his Les paul Goldtop and the other for his vintage SG.
I've put mine into a Japanese Strat and it sounds amazing.
Check out their website at www.mastertone.com

All the best

Watto

[kottkewannabe]

...as a side note, the Mastertone link doesn't work. I will have to say that I'm afraid of active pickups as the tend to sound sterile. I WILL definitely look into those...thanks again for the help.

[Watto]

Sorry about that, try this www.mastertonepickups.com

I was the same as you in that I think Active is sterile too.That's why I use kinmans....but to my amazement at an Aussie trade show I heard the ap-90's and found it hard to believe they were Active.They have all the crunch and bite of p-90's but no noise.I've even a/b'd them in my local Guitar shop with a real p-90 les paul and the majority opinion was they sounded better.I had trouble convincing the guys they were active until I showed them the battery.

I think Mastertone could be the next generation if they go the way they're going(IMHO)

Let me know what you decide on

Watto

[Butch Snyder]

I have a set of Duncan P-90 Stacks. I put them in my Les Paul Deluxe. Man, were they fat...

I took them out and put the mini buckers back. I like the P-90 Stacks as they're far better than Gibson's crappy P-100's. I just need to find a decent guitar to put them in. FWIW, if you use the series/parallel wiring and play in parallel mode. You get the vintage P-90 tone with these pickups.

[kottkewannabe]

Phase has for some reason been elusive to my full understanding, so if you talk to me like I'm 5 on this, I'll actually appreciate it. When you speak of parallel tones, do you mean in relation to two pickups at once or with a single pickup with respect to the two coils each pickup has? Tell me more, tell me more (...did you get very far/...like did he have a car). Okay, that's a bit much...

[FullDrive2]

He is talking about wiring the 2 coils of the pup in parallel vs the standard series wiring normally used in those pups. I haven't tried it with the stacked P90's but I have tried it with the Strat sized humbuckers SD offers and it makes a world of difference.

[kottkewannabe]

I'm new to this forum and relatively new to the internet posting world in general. I'm not sure if this should be a separate post or what (any "ground rules" or what have you would be appreciated), but this is just a general invitation for anyone and everyone to talk a bit about phase. I know what I know, more so about woods and tone in general, but the technical aspects of the electric components are what I know the least of. It's more of a situation where I understand tonal terminology, but I don't know as much as I'd like to about WHY things produce the result they do (phase, capacitor values, and bridge materials are on my "to learn about" list). Be it links or more of an elablorate dissertation, I would think that many here would appreciate having that region of guiar-dom under their belt. I feel sheepish admitting that I don't fully grasp this area, but I think I would feel even more so if I said that my pride made me keep it that way.

Thanks in advance.

[kottkewannabe]

Even when you use these in parallel to produce an apparently more single-coil tone, I'm assuming one would still use a 500K pot on this. Is this right, as it's still officially still a humbucker or does the single-coil performance warrant a 250K?

Thanks again.