P90 Electronics Questions

[bigoldron]

I'm getting the itch to modify my new toy (Washburn Idol with P90s). I've checked inside the control cavity and it has 2 A500k minipots (volume) and 2 B500k minipots (tone) and no shielding.

I've never played anything with P90's and it sounds OK, but is a little harsh. Is this just nature of the beast or would I be better off swapping the pots to 250k ones? Wouldn't this mellow/smooth the sound just a bit? I like a bright sound, but this is almost too sharp.

Also what rating caps would I use? The ones in it are green and I can't really read them without gutting the guitar, but I'm probably going to replace them as well.

Being a single coil, I do have some hum and feedback, so I'm thinking that I definitely want to shield the control cavity, which should help that problem.

After doing these mods, I'll probably replace the stock factory pickups with GFS P90's. I've gotten pretty good responses from you guys in the Pickups forum on this.

Thanks for all your help, guys and gals! :dude:

 

[marnold]

My .02 is that if it's just a little sharp for you, play with the tones and/or volume rolled back slightly. That'll take care of the sharpness but give you the option of cranking it if you're playing with a lot of distortion or fuzz.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

Sounds like you're just not used to the way P90s sound. Do what marnold said and also remember to dial in your tone knobs on your amp differently too. It's ok to roll back on treble, presense and gain to compensate. P90s are some of my favorite pickups.

 

[bigoldron]

Sounds like you're just not used to the way P90s sound. Do what marnold said and also remember to dial in your tone knobs on your amp differently too. It's ok to roll back on treble, presense and gain to compensate. P90s are some of my favorite pickups.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to tweak my amp settings a little. I tend to run the high's pretty much wide open and the bass pretty high (5-6) and the mids about 3-4 for the other guitar (Idol 64 with GFS Humbuckers).

I'm still going to work on shielding the control cavity, though. It can't hurt.

 

[Ro3b]

It's ok to roll back on treble, presense and gain to compensate. P90s are some of my favorite pickups.

Heh. For a fraction of a second there I was reading "It's ok to roll back on treble, pretense and gain to compensate." Yeah! Roll back on the pretense! No songs about wizards or hobbits when you're playing P90s! No spandex either!

 

[bigoldron]

Heh. For a fraction of a second there I was reading "It's ok to roll back on treble, pretense and gain to compensate." Yeah! Roll back on the pretense! No songs about wizards or hobbits when you're playing P90s! No spandex either!

I'm full of pretense! It makes me believe that I can actually play. 5 Minutes of listening to me will bear the truth, though! And trust me, you wouldn't want to see me in Spandex. It wouldn't be a pretty sight. uke:

 

[Tone2TheBone]

Heh. For a fraction of a second there I was reading "It's ok to roll back on treble, pretense and gain to compensate." Yeah! Roll back on the pretense! No songs about wizards or hobbits when you're playing P90s! No spandex either!

LMAO....:rotflmao: Someone should have told Spock about pretense with his hobbit song that Spud posted the other day eh!

 

[Bloozcat]

bigoldron,

Are the current pickups alnico magnets or ceramic? This could effect the tone for starters. Ceramic magnet single coils tend to be a little brighter/harsher in general, while alnicos are warmer in general. I used the emphasis on "in general" because there are always exceptions to the generalities. I suspect that they're ceramic with the 500k pots, but with the guitar being a prototype, I could be wrong on that. You never know what's in a prototype really, until you take it apart.

Depending on the particular pickup, the size of the pot can make a big difference. I've found through personal experience that I like pots that are between the 250k and the 500k. I find the 250k's to be a little dark to very dark with many P-90's, and the 500k to be very bright to harsh with many P-90's. The only other off the shelf choice that's closer to the middle, would be 300k pots. This can be problematic depending on the particular guitar, though. Does the body of the guitar you're working on require long shaft pots, or can you get away with a standard length? Check that first, and then I'll suggest some options.

The next thing to do is to replace the caps. Two reasonably priced (cheap, actually) pots that sound really good in a guitar circuit, are Sprague Orange Drops, and Mallory 150's. I personally prefer to use the Orange Drops for single coils and the Mallory's for humbuckers, but that's no hard and fast rule. Especially with P-90's, that although being single coil pickups, are quite different in tone than std. Fender type single coils. I'm using Orange Drop 715P-200V, .022mf caps with my Vintage Vibe alnico P-90's, and I really love the tone. Smooth and mellow when I want that, and really ballsy and punchy when I push the amp into OD. They're never harsh sounding.

There are two other things I'd do as well, but they're purely for reliability and solid function. Replace the switch with a good Switchcraft toggle, and the input jack, also with a Switchcraft.

Try doing a rewiring before changing the pickups. You never know, with the new pots and caps, you might actually like the stock pickups. But, far be it from me to discourage anyone from experimanting with new pickups...