pickup lines
In the second part of our focus on P-90s, we deconstruct the mojo of Gibson’s legendary single-coil pickup with ThroBak’s boss of tone, Jon Gundry…
Not all P-90s were created equal. Since the unit’s introduction in 1946, the ongoing changes to Gibson’s manufacturing methods and supplies – coupled with the quirks and foibles of man, machine and materials – have bolstered the P-90’s enigmatic charm by rendering it with a multitude of tonal variances. Although we can easily hear the bigger picture, the partially random nature and complex interaction of wire tolerances, number of winds, coil tightness, Alnico magnet type, magnetic charge, carbon steel composition, baseplate materials and plastics have long shrouded the P-90 in vintage mystique/confusion. And so, hoping to impart a touch of P-90 wisdom to you by shedding light on how some of the nuances of its inner workings translate into sound, we caught up with Jon Gundry of P-90/PAF repro specialists ThroBak in Michigan.
“When people are trying to choose a P-90,” begins Jon, “I tell them to think of the lower-resistance pickups as having a crisper pick attack. They’re more articulate and dynamic and will clean up more readily. With a lower-resistance P-90, your amp is going to see more headroom and, therefore, is less apt to be driven into distortion with pick attack. The higher-resistance P-90s sound fatter and more aggressive. Although they have comparatively less headroom with the amp and are naturally more prone to distort, the upside is you have more usable room when rolling back the guitar volume. As the resistance goes up, you get a thicker tone with more midrange and the amp gets driven harder. But, at some point, you might sacrifice a bit of low-end clarity.
“Along with our DE MXV reproduction dog-ear P-90 bridge pickups [available with long Alnico IV magnets in a choice of 7.8k, 8.4k, 9.0kohms or custom-spec DCR] we have three basic models of the soap bar P-90 in our SB MXV range based on the variations I’ve seen during repairs and in original guitars. We have a ’52/’54 set, a ’55/’56 set and a set called the Special. The differences between those mainly relate to resistance and Alnico magnet choice [including long Alnico II and IV types].
“Since there are two Alnico magnets in a P-90, and because of the way they are positioned, there is a more pronounced effect on the inductance of the pickup than in a [single-magnet] PAF. In other words, you get a different EQ profile with the same Alnico type in a PAF. A P-90 tends to have a little less dynamic range and is more apt to compress with pick attack than a PAF, but that’s part of their character. When it’s distorted, it sounds a little squishier than a PAF – particularly with hotter, higher resistance P-90s – and, as far as low-end articulation goes, you seem to hit the end of the range far more quickly.
“Generally, the best approach for getting the optimum tone out of a P-90 is to get the entire pickup as close as you can to the strings and then fine-tune it with the pole screws. The treble response is more pleasing with vintage era, or vintage reproduction P-90s like ours, because the carbon content in the steel pole screws is lower. Part of the reason you can get a P-90 so close to the strings is because it doesn’t have as much magnetic pull as a Fenderstyle pickup, so you’re not going to get those weird oscillations [aka ‘Strat-itis’].
“If you want a more acoustic quality out of the guitar, there’s an advantage with a 50s- or 60s-style P-90 because you have the added benefit of good microphonics from it not being wax potted – they just have the same flat black paper tape as a PAF. Direct contact with the guitar body is also an advantage; the better the contact is with the body, the better the acoustic microphonics transmitting through the pickups will be. In that sense, there’s something to be said for a dog-ear P-90, although if you have a Les Paul Special or Les Paul Model, those [soap bar P-90] pickups do sit on the bottom of the cavity, so you’re still getting some of that.”
Guitarist would like to thank Jon Gundry at ThroBak (https://www.throbak.com)