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Post subject: I'm seirously thinking about a pup change.
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:50 am
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Only for the bride pickup, and I'm thinking of putting a P-90 soapbar in there. Just a few questions though; is the cavity in the Strat big enough? Or would it require routing? Could I not fit this in a humbucker-style pickguard? And what kind of P-90 would be best preferable? Any answers are appreciated. :D


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Post subject: Re: I'm seirously thinking about a pup change.
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:21 am
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Rocker_Gamma wrote:
Only for the bride pickup, and I'm thinking of putting a P-90 soapbar in there. Just a few questions though; is the cavity in the Strat big enough? Or would it require routing? Could I not fit this in a humbucker-style pickguard? And what kind of P-90 would be best preferable? Any answers are appreciated. :D


It depends by which Strat you have: the American Standards from '86 to late '90s had a swimming pool route therefore they can accept anything, surely you have to re-route the pickguard...the P-90 is not as large as a standard humbucker, but like a mini-humbucker therefore the job had to be done with its peculiar dimension in mind...

Or you may choose to find a P-90 sounding single coil, like the old Dimarzio SDS-1.


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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:37 am
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A traditional P-90 is considerably larger than a standard humbucker, they are about the same height wise )but not exact) but are considerably longer. The SD phat cat is a P-90ish pickup in a traditional humbucker shape, as is the gibson p-94. Even with the swimming pool route, you'll likely need to do some more wood cutting to make a tradianal 90 fit, as for the pickguard, that would be fairly simple to cut.

From the trusty wiki

Humbucker Casing Since P-90's come in a unique shape, wider than a single coil but narrower than a humbucker, and longer than both. If one wanted to install a p-90 in a humbucker routed guitar (a Les Paul Standard for example), routing would need to be done to the body to make the pickup fit.Because of this, it is common to see P-90's in a humbucker-sized casing. Seymour Duncan makes about 5 models, called the Phat Cat, Gibson makes the P-94, Bare Knuckle makes the Mississippi Queen and GFS makes The Dream and Mean 90.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-90


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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:09 pm
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And then there's the issue of the polepieces lining up with the strings. Unless you got a thing for a P-90 shaped pickup in your Stratocaster, you'd be better off going with a Stratocaster styled pickup, designed to mimmick the attributes of a P-90. There are plenty to choose from out there.

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Post subject: Re: I'm seirously thinking about a pup change.
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 2:01 pm
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cuthbert wrote:
Or you may choose to find a P-90 sounding single coil, like the old Dimarzio SDS-1.


Really? I have a half dozen SDS-1 pickups in my "parts drawers." I pulled them out of two Strats in the mid-'90s. I installed them back in the late '70s in order to have a more heavy metal sound. When I stopped playing heavy metal, I found those pickups were NOT good for any cleanish funky strat sounds.

I'm not really very familiar with the P-90 sound, so I can't make that comparison. And maybe the newer SDS-1s aren't like the ones they made 30 years ago.

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Post subject: Re: I'm seirously thinking about a pup change.
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 2:17 pm
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orvilleowner wrote:
cuthbert wrote:
Or you may choose to find a P-90 sounding single coil, like the old Dimarzio SDS-1.


Really? I have a half dozen SDS-1 pickups in my "parts drawers." I pulled them out of two Strats in the mid-'90s. I installed them back in the late '70s in order to have a more heavy metal sound. When I stopped playing heavy metal, I found those pickups were NOT good for any cleanish funky strat sounds.

I'm not really very familiar with the P-90 sound, so I can't make that comparison. And maybe the newer SDS-1s aren't like the ones they made 30 years ago.


The SDS-1s are/were way more powerful than your average P-90. They were simply designed to be, "over the top" single coil Stratocaster pickups where as you've observed, no way would one be able to get any kind of traditional Stratocaster sounds out of them. They also hum excessively too.

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Post subject: Re: I'm seirously thinking about a pup change.
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 2:21 pm
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Martian wrote:
orvilleowner wrote:
cuthbert wrote:
Or you may choose to find a P-90 sounding single coil, like the old Dimarzio SDS-1.


Really? I have a half dozen SDS-1 pickups in my "parts drawers." I pulled them out of two Strats in the mid-'90s. I installed them back in the late '70s in order to have a more heavy metal sound. When I stopped playing heavy metal, I found those pickups were NOT good for any cleanish funky strat sounds.

I'm not really very familiar with the P-90 sound, so I can't make that comparison. And maybe the newer SDS-1s aren't like the ones they made 30 years ago.


The SDS-1s are/were way more powerful than your average P-90. They were simply designed to be, "over the top" single coil Stratocaster pickups where as you've observed, no way would one be able to get any kind of traditional Stratocaster sounds out of them. They also hum excessively too.


That is correct, I removed mine because of the hum, but it sounded beautifully. The output should be around 200 mV therefore alike the P-90. To my ear, they have similarities, although the SDS-1 is, in fact, half of a super distortion.


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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:47 pm
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String spacing could be an issue with an actual P90 (Gibson and Fender use different string spacings). Just something to be aware of. Pickups whose pole pieces are spaced for Fender are frequently referred to as "F spaced".

As far as dropping into your body without routing, lift up your pickguard and see if your guitar is "swimming pool", HSS or SSS routed.

There are lots of good humbuckers out there for strats. Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio both make good pickups that mimic the P90's sonic characteristics. For a full sized humbucker I use the DiMarzio Tone Zone (very tasty). My single coil sized 'buckers are both DiMarzio Pro Tracks.


Here's my 06 MIA Triple Fat Strat :D

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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 3:56 pm
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How do those two single coil sized humbuckers sound? .. :)


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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:21 pm
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They sound very "PAF-ish" to my ear. Warm but growly. Output is 275 so they are hot enough to do whatever you want, but not so over the top that you don't have options. They are DiMarzio DP188 Pro Tracks.

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