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Should I stick P90's in a Fender Stratocaster?
Yes. It will sound ace for what you're planning to do with it. 36%  36%  [ 4 ]
Maybe, it wouldn't sound bad but in order to get the full effect you'd be better off putting them in a guitar with a set neck and mahogany body. 18%  18%  [ 2 ]
No. Why would you ruin a work of art? Remove your visage from my presence and cleanse thyself. 45%  45%  [ 5 ]
Total votes : 11
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Post subject: Thinking about putting P90's in my Mexican Strat...
Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 8:59 pm
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Well I finally bought an electric guitar after years of being focused soley on acoustic. I paid $250 for a used cream colored MiM Strat in perfect condition. Setup and intonation is perfect. After spending about a day a week in Guitar Center for about a month and a half I decided that I like the feel of the Stratocaster the best. I decided to buy used because you can't find a Mexican Stratocaster brand new that doesn't need a serious going over by a guitar tech as they are mired with setup problems. It works out well because I don't plan to keep everything on it stock for very long. I like how it feels but I don't particularly care for how clinical it sounds.

I'm not one to play face melting solos. I'm a huge fan of power pop and the guitar tone it's associated with (the biggest example being Alex Chilton of Big Star. To get the glassy, jangley, power pop chime I love I'm torn between a few different configurations, all of them involve Gibson P90 single coil soapbars.

1. Getting the guitar routed out for 3 soapbars and having a luthier install a seperate selector switch alongside the standard 5-way that allows me to keep the neck/bridge pup on or off. This will make it so I can have total control over each pickup. If I want the bridge and neck pup turned on but the middle turned off I can do that. If I want all 3 pickups on at once I can do that. I'd remove a tone pot and move the volume pot in it's place in order to make room for the wider P90 pickup at the bridge. I'd use a stacked knob to control the tone so that I wouldn't need another hole routed into the guitar.

There's one problem... in order to 'buck' the hum when switched between the mid-neck/bridge-mid ala the standard strat setup, would the P90 in the mid position have to be wound in reverse? OR would I just be able to turn the pickup around?

2. Same thing I just described except instead of a P90 in the middle I'd have a standard strat single coil I can turn on/off. I might as well do this if I'm going to consider only installing 3 soapbars.

3. Two soapbars. One in the bridge one in the neck. 3 way switch like a Les Paul or SG.

I love how the Strat feels, I love how the SG classic sounds. I hate how he SG classic feels, I'm not entirely crazy about how the stock MiM stratocaster sounds. I've heard mixed things from different people but hopefully you guys will be able to help me come to a final decision. Perhaps I shouldn't even do this at all. I'd like to know what you think. Thanks!


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:04 pm
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Welcome to the Forum.

Instead of having to go through modding the body, check the single coil pups by Pete: http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/pickup_sc.html

Pete does excellent work and I recommend him.

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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:06 pm
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No matter how you end up doing it, I'm sure the P90's will sound great. You might want to look at these guys, they make a strat sized p90 called the s90.

www.bg-pups.com.

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Or is that a sears poncho?
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:08 pm
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cryingstrat wrote:
No matter how you end up doing it, I'm sure the P90's will sound great. You might want to look at these guys, they make a strat sized p90 called the s90.

www.bg-pups.com.



I have heard good things about Bryan too!

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:10 pm
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Hello Omg_otters,

Sounds like you on your way,
I would go for the 2 pick up option.

Keep in mind that the strat has a
longer scale length.

Best of luck on the hot rod.

Cheers.


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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:13 pm
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Yeah, thanks. I've done a ton of research on this and after reading reviews and talking to people who use them I've concluded that it's best to just go with the real thing. Since my MIM is already routed H-S-H I was thinking about popping in GFS Mean 90's or Phat Cats at the bridge and neck and just swapping out the pickguard and using a selector switch to select between the neck and bridge pups.

I've heard the humbucker sized P90s range from okay to really decent. None of them have been described as being as good as the real thing.

As for standard strat sized P90's... I've heard they're awful. I've never spoken to anyone who liked them. Maybe I should do a bit more research but this is what I've settled on. Either one of these three configurations or none of them.

:3

At this point my main areas of concern are "Should I do it?"

And if the answer is yes... "How should I go about doing it?"


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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:16 pm
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omg_otters wrote:
Yeah, thanks. I've done a ton of research on this and after reading reviews and talking to people who use them I've concluded that it's best to just go with the real thing. Since my MIM is already routed H-S-H I was thinking about popping in GFS Mean 90's or Phat Cats at the bridge and neck and just swapping out the pickguard and using a selector switch to select between the neck and bridge pups.

I've heard the humbucker sized P90s range from okay to really decent. None of them have been described as being as good as the real thing.

As for standard strat sized P90's... I've heard they're awful. I've never spoken to anyone who liked them. Maybe I should do a bit more research but this is what I've settled on. Either one of these three configurations or none of them.

:3


I put Phat Cats in my Epi 335. Great rockin pups. I love em. I was lookin at my burstbucker pro equipped LP and thought I should put em in that too!

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Is that a mexican poncho
Or is that a sears poncho?
Hmmm...no foolin ...." FZ


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:17 pm
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The pickups I have in my 1986 Fender MIJ '72 RI Strat are single coil sized P-90 wound pickups. They sound fabulous. Unfortunately he doesn't like to do single coils pups anymore.

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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:18 pm
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Here's an example of the kind of sound I want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNKSs1J38EA


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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:23 pm
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omg_otters wrote:
Here's an example of the kind of sound I want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNKSs1J38EA


Give me a few minutes and I'll see if I can get my Phat Cats to duplicate that tone.

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"is that a real poncho...i mean
Is that a mexican poncho
Or is that a sears poncho?
Hmmm...no foolin ...." FZ


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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:25 pm
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In the mean time here are a few songs I made for you to critique. :3 I guitar, friend sings, I record and mix.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6106533
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6403460
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6425383

:D

But yes, back to the topic at hand...


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:28 pm
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Nailed it no problem. You'll still need a compressor and really squash the signal, but the Phat Cats work for that.

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"is that a real poncho...i mean
Is that a mexican poncho
Or is that a sears poncho?
Hmmm...no foolin ...." FZ


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:39 pm
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Coolies. I'm still getting the regular P90's since I'm picking them up so cheap. $40 a piece.

So... I'm also looking for an amp that will serve me well in recording/practicing. I don't want something that gets super loud... just something that sounds very good at relatively low volumes. All signs point me in the direction of Champ, Vibrochamp XD, and Super Champ. I'm thinking vibro champ XD but I know how notoriously horrible the stock speaker is. What do you think. Could a replicate a sound like that with a Vibro Champ?


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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:43 pm
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Sure, a Vibro would work just fine. All you'd need to do is cut out most of the mids and bass, raise the treble, compress the hell out of it and there you are. I used an AC30 setting on my CyberTwin to get that tone you asked for.

P.S.

I was thinking Vibroverb, not VibroChamp. I'm not that familiar with it. I'd be willing to bet it'll do it though. It's just a very bright, very compressed sound your after.

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"is that a real poncho...i mean
Is that a mexican poncho
Or is that a sears poncho?
Hmmm...no foolin ...." FZ


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 6:07 am
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I didn't vote b/c Fender produced a guitar like that a few years back. I think it was the stratosonic I and II.


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