John Page Classic AJ
Where were we? Ah, yes. It’s been a little while since I wrote about my initial experiences with this guitar, but it’s been in constant use, primarily as a reference instrument for the day job: reviewing guitars! Writing about Fender’s latest American Professional series for this issue, as an example, has not only meant I’ve been in ‘Fender World’ for the past couple of weeks, but it also illustrates how this AJ side-steps the mainstream. It’s primarily down to the voicing of the reverse slant bridge pickup and the soapbar at the neck; yes, there’s Fender-like percussion aplenty but with a bigger, thicker and slightly darker undercurrent that leans into ‘Gibson world’ when you flick to the neck.
And this hybrid world is one that Jason Lollar inhabits. Alongside his numerous core designs, pickups such as his El Rayo humbuckers, for example – which I’ve been using for a while – evoke a much more ‘single coil’ sound from what look like vintage humbuckers. One of Lollar’s latest designs aims for the sound of the so-called ‘Alnico’ single-coil soapbar, as fitted on the Les Paul Custom, in neck position from 1954 to ’57, after which it and its bridge-placed P-90 were replaced by a trio of humbuckers. Lollar’s version does away with the original’s height adjustable polepiece feature but retains the rectangular shaped Alnico 5 magnetic poles – hence its Staple name – and winds it into a regular soapbar P-90 size. Lollar says its “tone is midway between that splashy harmonic-laden Fender tone and the more liquid and woody sounding Gibson P-90 tone” with “a punchier attack, with more clarity to the overtones than a typical P-90”. Hmm… with the AJ already mixing up the genres, I wondered what the Lollar Staple would bring to the sonic stew?
The AJ’s P-90 has a DC resistance of approximately 7.18 kilo-ohms and looks like a classic build, with the coil wound around a plastic bobbin. Under this are two bar magnets on top of a thin metal baseplate. The coil is approximately 16.42mm wide (measured from the side) and 7.66mm high. As ever, the poles (around 21.5mm in length) are slot-headed and protrude above the coil – as set, approx. 2.6 to 2.8mm – and pass all the way through the pickup protruding about 5mm underneath.
Outwardly, the Lollar Staple has the same shape and dimensions, but is made more like an original Fender single coil, with thicker 2.3mm fibre top and bottom plates. The coil is wound around the rectangular magnetic poles, which are approximately 8.24mm by 3.2mm and 20.9mm in depth.They protrude approximately 2.9mm above the top fibre plate and some 7.6mm underneath the bottom plate. The coil meanwhile appears wider and flatter – around 29.92mm by 6.38mm. DC resistance here is 8.98kohms.
Before I’d swapped the neck pickup, I recorded the original AJ in a simple track with both the neck and middle, and the neck pickup both clean and gained. Recording the Staple, duplicating the above, then listening back – A/B’ing between the two different pickups – you really hear a different character. It’s still the same guitar, the same strings, the same amp settings and the same player, but the Staple sounds slightly hotter (there’s a little more hum pickup, too, we noticed), more percussive and very slightly more focused, more Strat-like but somehow bigger.
The original P-90, in this context, had more ‘Gibson’ about it, a fabulous sound that I preferred in the mix position where the tonal contrast of the two creates a wonderful Curtis Mayfield/Hendrix-y texture on those rhythm fills. The Staple/bridge mix is a little too pushy perhaps – but voiced on its own, the Staple has a righteous and hugely dynamic bright-edged depth that’s ‘cleaner’ than the P-90 but still smooth and ultra responsive to pick, or fingers.
Pickup swap completed, recording achieved, it’s time to hit the stage! Reviewed 410 Price £1,299 On Test Since May 2016 Studio Session No! Gigged Not yet Mods Yes!