It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:22 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ] 
Author Message
Post subject: BGW
Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 11:22 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:59 pm
Posts: 1152
Location: Surf City, USA
(Borrowed Guitar Week)

One of my friends is letting me check out his 1993 Gibson SG Junior reissue. He put a P-90 size humbucker in and is willing to give me a pretty good price on it if I want to buy it, so the cool thing is I get to play it for a week. Not really sure of the mini humbucker though.

Any thoughts?

Image
Image


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: BGW
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 12:04 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 4:41 pm
Posts: 764
Location: Sydney. Australia
How do you like the sound of the guitar?


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: BGW
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 12:14 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:59 pm
Posts: 1152
Location: Surf City, USA
Nikola Tesla wrote:
How do you like the sound of the guitar?

Plugging it in tomorrow and will let you know. (Everyone's asleep in the homestead as I type, but tomorrow it shall be cranked!)


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: BGW
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:10 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
Does he still have the original pickup?

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: BGW
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:44 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:59 pm
Posts: 1152
Location: Surf City, USA
63supro wrote:
Does he still have the original pickup?

Good question. I'll hit him up. Thanks.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: BGW
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:00 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
Highline, the reason why I asking is because they came with Gibson dogear style P-90's. The Gibson P-90 are amazing pups. I have them on my Gibson, LP Studio 60's Tribute and they are seriously nice. The pickup on there looks like it may be from Guitar Fetish.
http://www.guitarfetish.com/Soapbar-Hig ... c_280.html
They sound okay, I use them in my cigar box guitars, but it's not what an SG Jr is all about for sure and will never do it justice. That pickup goes for around $30-35.
IMO he seriously dropped the tone and the value of that guitar.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: BGW
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:30 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:59 pm
Posts: 1152
Location: Surf City, USA
Thanks Supro,
He's a big P-90 guy but was recording some songs that had a lot of stops and starts and the P-90 was feeding back so he wanted to put the humbucker in. He may or may not have the original P-90. My thing is I'm looking for something with a humbucker so this is kind of a compromise. Not sure if I'm going to like it but since he's giving me the chance to try it out for a week, I figure why not?
But yeah I see what you mean, if he could throw the original pickup in, that would make a big difference in the value. Still not sure if want to do this, but by the end of the week I should have a much better idea!
Brian


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: BGW
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:33 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:58 pm
Posts: 7714
Location: Planet Earth
If playing it makes you smile :D you no.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: BGW
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:46 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2014 9:43 am
Posts: 33
That guitar desperately needs a P-90!


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: BGW
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 11:58 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
G_Strange wrote:
That guitar desperately needs a P-90!


I love Gibson P-90's. Yeah they can be a little noisy, but you can get around that. Think Leslie West, and Pete Townshend, Calos Santana at Woodstock. The P-90 needs to be learned. Once you get it, they're totally amazing. I use my LP with no pedals and my 5e3 clone and that thing screams.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: BGW
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 2:55 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:59 pm
Posts: 1152
Location: Surf City, USA
Decided to do the Coke and Pepsi (and RC?) Humbucker Challenge with the SG Jr. vs. my HSS Strat vs. my Epiphone LP Jr. Here's the players:

1993 Gibson 60s Reissue SG Junior with aftermarket P-90 sized humbucker--I changed the strings on the SG last night and conditioned the fretboard (the rosewood was looking a little dry) so that helped it sound as good as it can.

2012 Fender American Standard HSS Stratocaster with Diamondback humbucker and maple neck.

2000-something Epiphone Les Paul Junior I got a garage sale with a Seymour-Duncan Seth Lover humbucker I installed.

I played them all through a Marshall JCM 800 head with matching cabinet and kept the settings the same for each one, with Preamp at 3 o'clock and Master Volume at 8 o'clock to hear how they sounded with distortion (yes it was loud). Then I dialed back the Preamp a little bit too (still comparing them using the same settings.

SG JR. -- Definitely the most crunchy and the most sustain. The genre the sound I got seemed to lean toward straight metal, which is to say a heavy distortion. But it was also the muddiest sounding and had the least amount of note articulation. Strings sounded good muted and the tailpiece facilitated muting really well due to its roundness.

STRAT HSS -- The warmest and richest sound. Good sustain though not near as much as the SG, but certainly a usable amount. Genre-wise, I'd compare it to classic rock, which is to say a good overdriven sound. The Diamondback had the best note articulation, but the strings didn't sound as good when muted (the Strat's only drawback IMO).

LP JR. -- Kind of a cross between the two above, it was richer sounding than the SG and more crunchy than the Strat. I'm thinking the Seth Lover humbucker has a higher output than the other two because this one fed back the most. It was better with the volume rolled down to about 8 (otherwise I kept the guitar volume on 10 for all of them for sake of comparison). It had good sustain but that ol' feedback kept trying to sneak in. The note articulation was OK (maybe a 5 if the Strat was a 10), and certainly better than the SG (maybe a 3). Genre-wise, I'm thinking 80s punk, which is to say a solid distortion sound but not too fuzzy.

So what did I learn? That I have all the humbuckers I need right now between my Strat and my LP Jr.

It might be worth it to try out my buddy's other SG that has the P-90 in it to see how that sounds, but I'm not sure I'm ready to experiment with a new pickup as I still have plenty to learn and play with using the single coils on my Strats and the humbuckers I already have. In the meantime, it'll be cool to mess around with the SG just to see how it plays and what I think of the neck.

Guitar-buying wise, I think my GAS is satiated for the moment. And rather than buy a mid-level guitar, I might be better served to keep saving my money for a real nice SG, or a Les Paul or even a Telecaster(!). Now if I can just find someone to loan me a Les Paul and a Telecaster for about one week each, I can start considering my next move...


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: