
P-90 Pickups
P-90 pickups are of a different nature to humbuckers, despite their fairly similar-looking aesthetic . They only house the one pole piece, meaning P-90s are in essence, single coil pickups. They started out life used in classic Gibson guitars before the arrival of the humbucker in 1955.
Characterised by their gritty, dirty nature, P-90s make for something of a tonal bridge between single coils and humbuckers. They’re like the best of both worlds; the raspy raw sound of a single coil through a driven amp and the chunkier lower frequencies of a humbucker. This is down to a wider, yet shorter bobbin than the average single coil pickup.
P-90s came into their own during the punk movement. The aggressive sound perfectly suited the intense style of music. They found their way into prominent guitars of the time such as the Les Paul Junior. Although not as popular as humbuckers or single coil pickups, they are just as prominent in contemporary music as ever and make it into many modern spec’d guitars.
What is the Best Guitar Pickup?
Single coil pickups are best for bright, clear and crisp tones. They add bite to cleans and sound light and agile through gain. You really can use them for any type of music. And if you do ever fancy a drastic change of tone at any time, companies such as Seymour Duncan make humbucker pickups the size of a single coil so you can fit it into your guitar without cutting chunks out your precious instrument.
If there were a direct opposite to single coil pickups, humbuckers are it. They sound warm on both clean and overdriven settings and provide a punchier frequency selection. These handle distortion the best of the three detailed here. They’re not ideal for your ambient jangly clean tones, but work well for rock and metal in particular.
P-90s play a role as the balancing act. They have the grit of single coils with the blend of humbuckers. P-90s do a great job of bedding in with a rhythm section of a band, as well as leading the charge on hot solo tones.
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