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Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 6:14 am
by Mages
try to look for the Kent Armstrong humbucker sized P-90. They make them with plastic covers and I've heard they're more like a real p-90 then the GFS.

Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 10:31 am
by Sloan
oh lawdy, i sold some stuff on the ebayses and now i'm looking around for a humbucker-sized P-90 to take my artcore to THE NEXT LEVEL OF X-TREME.
is the mighty mite- humbucker sized????1

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 4:56 am
by Mages
nah man, it's not. that's what I'm sayin, look for the kent armstrong.

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 6:39 am
by Sloan
mage wrote:nah man, it's not. that's what I'm sayin, look for the kent armstrong.
It's liek $70. :(

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 12:23 pm
by dots
Sloan wrote:oh lawdy, i sold some stuff on the ebayses and now i'm looking around for a humbucker-sized P-90 to take my artcore to THE NEXT LEVEL OF X-TREME.
do gfs mean 90.

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 1:48 pm
by aen
Call it, friendo.

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 4:00 pm
by dodgedartdave
aen wrote:Call it, friendo.
Call it: Friendo? That's a strange name for it.... :?

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 10:19 pm
by Sloan
dots wrote:
Sloan wrote:oh lawdy, i sold some stuff on the ebayses and now i'm looking around for a humbucker-sized P-90 to take my artcore to THE NEXT LEVEL OF X-TREME.
do gfs mean 90.
That's my top choice right now.
Anyone here has the experience the MEAN 90????

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:42 am
by Sloan
K.
Since i maed some monies in my paypal account on them ebays, I just ordered the MEAN 90.
Full report when it shows up. I'm gonna put it in the Artcore. Hope it's fucking awesome or I'll be pissed.

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 4:41 pm
by analogsystem
I put a GFS "Dream 90" in the neck of a tele and I could not take it out fast enough! It sounded so generic and mediocre. I sent it back to GFS and they sent me a "Dream 180" which has sat in the parts drawer ever since.

I have heard good things about Kent Armstrong for cheap pups, GFS is really hit or miss.

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 11:14 am
by Sloan
That's why I opted for the Mean 90, it's supposed to be more like a REAL P-90 or whatever. if it sucks, i'll be fuckin' pissed.

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:14 pm
by Chorlton
like sloan, i was wanting to give added mojo to an artcore. I was thinking along the lines ofone of the GFS retrotron series. Anyone any thoughts on this?
Sloan, it would be aces to know how your new pickups workout.

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 9:59 pm
by Mages
yea, sloan I'd really like to hear what you think of the of the mean 90. from what I've read people say the dream 90 is muddy and not that great and the mean 90 is even more so. I've read the kent armstrong one is more jangly like a real p90. but hey, I have not heard any of these pickups with my own ears, this is just what I've read. so It'll be great to get a opinion from a knowledgeable person such as yourself :)

btw, the kent armstrongs are on macdaddy music for $50
http://www.macdaddymusicstore.com/servl ... Categories

Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 9:13 am
by Sloan
All I really have for comparison is an Epiphone SG Jr that I played for almost a year. It was my friend's and I loved it. Tried to buy it off him, but he didn't want to get rid of it.

A lot of people were talking about the increased low-end that the GFS p-90 pickups have and that's really my only worry since my Artcore is already what I would call "muddy" or "undefined" or whatever. Going from the stock humbucker to a p-90 style pickup should be noticable change, but we'll see. I'm not sure what pot values are normally used with a p-90, but I suspect this may be one of the reasons people think it's muddy if they just change the pickup and not the pots etc...

Thanks for the link to that cheaper Kent Armstrong p-90. If I don't like the GFS, I may give that a shot if I have any monies...

Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 8:04 pm
by Sloan
Image

Just put the Mean 90 in the Artcore.
Here are some samples of Guitar > Epiphone Valve Jr > Layfayette cab with old 60's organ speakers.

Stock Humbucker:
http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/5 ... dgehum.mp3

Mean 90:
http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/52/gfs_mean90.mp3

Mean 90 with more drive:
http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/5 ... rdrive.mp3
^ I play an out of tune C chord to demonstrate how it cleans up with a light touch.


Click-clack for pictars of HOW IT'S DONE!!!
► Show Spoiler

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 12:34 am
by Sloan
I may have wired this out of phase, not sure. Sonds good though except middle position.

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 12:55 pm
by Chorlton
sounds WAY better. much brighter.

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 10:27 pm
by Mages
yea, that sounds pretty good. not nearly as bad as all those harmony central dimwits made it out to be. what is the output like? my epiphone dot has a retainer clip that holds the wires back too. you can reach in there and bend it open to pull the wires out to work on it and bend it back when you put them back.

I wonder how that pickup would sound without the metal cover...

Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 11:13 pm
by Reece
Pretty much smack bang on my experience with the mean 90. Muddy stock artcore pickup > replaced with mean 90 > much brighter and snappier > weird sounding middle.

I haven't tried anything with the middle position yet since I only ever use the bridge pickup on the artcore as the neck is knee deep in mud.

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:45 pm
by Sloan
Damn, I missed all these replies!
i've come to the conclusion that the Mean 90 just doesn't mix well with teh stock humbucker, so it may be worth changing both pups.

Whenever I get to try this out at loud volumes and stuff, I'll post more notes.