i posted a while back concerning putting a diiferent pickup (paf) in the humbucker position of my 09 mim hss strat. upon further review, what i meant was a p90

since i don't know a lot about pickups, i'll defer to more knowing personnel.

i love my friends l.p. with the p90's. since i don't use the humbucker in my strat, i wonder if putting the p90 in the bridge position would give me a more mellow sound.
the 'bucker just seems a little bright to me.

if anybody thinks this could work, can you name some good p90's?

or- if you think i'm a nutcase, let me know that too

I've seen a few Strat-styles with P90s in the bridge position; they were Suhr guitars so they were made with the P90 from the factory. I know they are both longer (left to right) and narrower (front to back) than a humbucker; depending on how wide the route is on your MIM Strat you might need to do a little routing. You will definitely need a custom pickguard. Also soapbars are pretty deep so you would want to check that dimension out as well.

I have only seen these on the web so I can't comment on the sound of a soapbar in a Strat with a pickguard and made of alder. I've only played the old Strat-o-sonics from earlier this decade - they sounded nice but they also had mahogany bodies (with tone chambers) and 24 3/4" scale necks. I like soapbars; in fact my main player is an LP Special-style guitar from Collings. They have their own sound; pretty hot but they retain a lot of single coil character.

Here's a photo of Pete Townsend playing an Eric Clapton signature Blackie with two P-90s.

If you think your humbucker is too bright on the Strat, lower the pickup until you find a tone that sounds good to your ears. Then experiment with your tone and volume knobs until you find the versatility you want. Don't forget that you can lower and raise one side of the humbucker or the other, but don't go too extreme and do a lot of experimenting with it.

I have the buckers on some of my guitars nice and low and I found what I was looking for. Give it a try. You'd be crazy to try swapping pickups before doing this.

P.S. If you want a sweet guitar with P-90's, Save up and get one of the Gibson Les Paul Studio 60's Tribute guitars ($849.00). You will find P-90 heaven. The SG Special 60's Tributes are fine too($799.00).

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