Optimum set up for bridge P90?

[Dave]

Anyone here got decent experience setting up a bridge P90 for the best sound? At the moment I have one which is all treble, fizz, and slight distortion on clean tones when I dig hard on the strings. It’s pretty honky sounding in comparison with the full and lovely sounding neck P90.

Has anyone had this same issue but tinkered with the pup height and the individual screw heights and found a way to coax something a bit nicer out of one?

[benecol]

Getting used to riding the tone and volume controls is the secret to learning to love bridge P90s, young padawan: instead of defaulting to 10 on everything, think of 7 as your default position (especially on the volume) and boost to 10 only when you need to.

And for goodness sake, don't change those pickups out just yet.

That's right, I saw your post in the dreams thread. Don't think I didn't.




</patronisingdad>

[Dave]

Whaaaa! crazy talk! not on 10? Will give it a shot though my brain might fry at the concept. I will fiddle with all the adjustments as well to see if I can find a decent configuration. No plans to swap anything as yet. If I were to I'd probably take a look at a catswhisker p90 with the slug magnets which might aparently opens up sound a bit. Weird though as most people seem to like p() bridge with a magnet slugs pup in the neck. Was wondering if my ears were gone wrong as the cleans are pretty migning on the bridge. Distortions are okay but lacking the trebly-but-full sound to be a truly pleasing bridge noise.

[Brandon W]

The only guitar i own with a p90 has one in the neck and a burstbucker in the bridge and the p90 sounds awesome. I just wish i liked the guitar more. It sounds amazing though.

[honeyiscool]

What kind of a pickup do you have? In both of my guitars with P90s, which have Gibson pickups, the bridge by itself is quite lovely for clean rhythm. In fact, I don't like them for distortion.

[benecol]

They're Seymour Duncan Vintage Soapbars, so not crazy hot by any means.

[paul_]

Use dem tone knobs.

[Doog]

Odd, even with those budget P90s I had in the Doogcaster 2 that you have now Dave, I don't remember any issues with an imbalance between the two positions..

What rating pots are you using?

[benecol]

HERE'S A WEIRD THING: I think some amps can be particularly odd with bridge pickups. Both my Minimat and the Top Boost channel of my AC15 have a hard time staying clean with even comparatively wuss bridge pickups (most of my guitars have quite underwound pickups, except the fucking ridiculous Firebird pickups) and could get very boxy. However, the normal channel of the AC15 sounds fine and clean.

Tweak the flippin' volume, David.

Conventional wisdom with Les Pauls and 335s is to set your amp to sound good with your neck pickup, then switch to the bridge and turn down the volume (and tone if necessary) on the guitar down until they balance up. Then you can hoik up the volume for a boost when you fancy.

[Dave]

Thanks for all the tips and feedback chaps. I think Benecol has it on the button that I need to get to know these pups. I’ve never actually owned or really played with P90s so maybe I’ve gone in with expectations formed around the behaviour of other guitars/pups. I’ve also gone in with my expectation built around how I normally play which is essentially all on 10 no matter what. I’ve read some really interesting articles over at Mylespaul.com (when not distracted by the constant adverts for services that purport to offer me romance with Filipino ladies, cougars, and Mature ladies looking for love) on how to set up your tone. It’s probably blues-solo-centric advice but then that’s kinda what I do on this guitar. This is a golden opportunity to plough new ground (guitars, not cougars) and maybe learn a new way of playing (WAIT …. THOSE KNOBS ACTUALLY TURN??)

I had a blast the other day and fiddled about and also compared to the Jim deacon Les Paul. In actuality the pup differences between bridge and neck weren’t a million miles between the two guitars, so I think I’m actually dealing with something particular to Les Pauls. Surprisingly the P90’s sound like they have more output than the JD buckers. They are certainly more detailed with a nice granular quality…in fact they may the ticket to recreating my beloved MANOWAR guitar tone. I’ll still fiddle with the pup and screw heights of course, as there’s always tweakin’ to be done. I may even try and get some video.

[Concretebadger]

I keep the tone knob of my JM at around 3 for the most part. Admittedly, that's with 1 meg pots, and JM pickups aren't quite the same as P90s. But still. Rolling off the tone knob is worth a try before changing anything else.

@Benecol: off-topic, how does the Minimat sound? I'm still mulling over getting a low-wattage Orange, but a Matamp might be an alternative since clean headroom won't be an issue with what I'll be using it for. The factory's not far from where I live, but demo vids and owners' opinions are hard to find.

[benecol]

I don't own it any more (Vincel does, although he was thinking of selling it too, so maybe give him a PM?) but I loved it. For the price of the equivalent Orange, you're getting a handmade amp.

[Gabriel]

I think learning to use the controls on the guitar is one of the most important things that we can learn as a guitarist. I never really bothered until I started playing jazz, and you know the typical jazz guitar sound involves turning the tone right down.

However as a carry over I've really learnt how to manipulate the controls to get the different sounds I want.

It's gone a whole step further with my G&Ls PTB circuit which I'm still getting to grips with.