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Hot P90s

goldtop0

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Aug 19, 2003
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Hi you guys, got a pair of '52 P90s delivered yesterday. They measure 8.33 neck and 10.01 bridge(our summertime over here so maybe late 7s and late 9s in normal temperatures).
I've not used or had a pup that has read in the 9s..........what can I expect, in your experience.
 

goldtop0

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Aug 19, 2003
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So none of you have early '50s P90 guitars or pups..........that's surprising.
 

renderit

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Jan 19, 2009
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10,951
All the old ones I have I have never measured.

Actually the best sounding P90 I have is on my 62.

I SUSPECT it is the hottest one I have.

I will try to get it measured soon as I am replacing the cap with a correct vintage one anyways.

I will check my 59 at the same time.

I have had several wound by Jon at Thrōbak that are hotter than usual.

They are in the 7.8 to 8.8 range. But I measured them a little hotter (8.5 and 9.4).

But it was a hot summer day...

My 58 Special I need to look at as well, so hopefully soon I will have a chance to measure...
 

WytLytnyn

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Feb 20, 2002
Messages
88
I have some Lindy fralin P90s in my Les Paul special. I believe that the neck is 7.2, bridge is 8.2.

I would suspect that you're going to have a lot more grind and less clarity with a higher output pickup, but that may a good thing in your mind. I know work two different players and probably I have different tastes.

I would suggest also consider putting in good high value 500k -550k pots. There may be situations where you want to back off the volume and tone and they want more clarity then whatever pots are in the guitar now can render.
 

thin sissy

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Jan 2, 2006
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2,691
I have a 55 GT with (of course) 2 P-90's and a 57 Jr with 1. I don't know if they are comparable to yours. I'll give my impressions anyways :) .

I've only measured them through the output jack. Here are the readings:

1955: Neck - 7,73 kOhm : Bridge - 7,48 kOhm

1957: 7,71 kOhm

On the 1955 the bridge is very "stringy" and bright. Super clear and not very powerful. The neck is smooth and powerful, it distorts my amps earlier.

On the 1957 it is very "meaty". Very thick. Also clear (like P-90's are).

Since these two guitars are different (position to bridge and maple cap vs. no maple cap) I don't know if these readings mean that much. My personal belief is that resistance isn't really a good way to tell what a pickup will sound like. My Jr feels extremely powerful, more so than many high resistance pickup guitars I've played. But it's more clear than most. So who knows :) .

Let us know when you try your pickups!
 

goldtop0

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Aug 19, 2003
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Thanks for the replies fellas.
I've thought about the pots in my '13 R6 and will see what they measure when I get it back from my guitar tech this week with the '52s installed. He'll be routing out the pup cavities a little to accomodate the '52s with their different wiring setup on the back.
However the stock gibby neck P90 that's in there currently is a great pup(measures 7.89) with good clarity and definitely a crisper sound/tone than the neck Custombucker in my R8.
 

ScumbackSpeakers

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Dec 20, 2016
Messages
247
My 59 Junior reads at 9.75k through the pots and a guitar cable measured with a meter. Jim Wagner and I figured that I lost about .5k due to that, so he estimated my bridge P90 to be around 10.25k.

It sounded so good that Jim makes P90 sets with an 8k neck, and a 10k bridge now called the G90's. I've bought 2 more sets of them to install in my 61 SG Special and my Pete Townsend SG, and they sound just as good in those guitars as my 59 Jr.

Jim got that wind down pretty well.
 

PaulD

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Jun 25, 2007
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My 59 Junior reads at 9.75k through the pots and a guitar cable measured with a meter. Jim Wagner and I figured that I lost about .5k due to that, so he estimated my bridge P90 to be around 10.25k.

A reading of 9.75K in circuit equates to 9.94K with a 500K volume pot or 10.15K with a 250K volume pot, not sure what a 59 Junior has? (volume pot should be turned full up when taking measurement).
 

ScumbackSpeakers

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Dec 20, 2016
Messages
247
A reading of 9.75K in circuit equates to 9.94K with a 500K volume pot or 10.15K with a 250K volume pot, not sure what a 59 Junior has? (volume pot should be turned full up when taking measurement).

Pretty sure it was a 300k DiMarzio pot when we took the reading. It's been swapped to a 500k pot and a .022 Sprague Bumble Bee since.
 

PaulD

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Jun 25, 2007
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Pretty sure it was a 300k DiMarzio pot when we took the reading. It's been swapped to a 500k pot and a .022 Sprague Bumble Bee since.

A 300K volume pot would make it bang on 10K. The capacitor and tone pot value are irrelevant when measuring DC resistance, capacitors block DC so it plays no part when measuring the DC resistance in circuit.
 

goldtop0

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Aug 19, 2003
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Got my '13 R6 back the other day with the '52s installed.
My guitar tech told me that he had to route the cavities by about 1/4" or so(5mm) in the neck cavity and a little less than that in the bridge as the '52s are taller, plus route(as I expected) for the different wiring configuration.
He added Fender springs(which are much less in length than the normal humbucker springs, and cone shaped) so that the pups could be adjusted up and down in future.
The R6 now has a much better response(more volume and tone) in the bridge position than before and is like a Tele on steroids as they say. The neck pup is very much as before, sounding crisper and clearer than a neck humbucker.
Will do the readings of the pots and pups in the next few days.
 

goldtop0

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Aug 19, 2003
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Pups read at 8.05 neck and 9.63 in the LP............can't be bothered doing the pots but I expect they'd be in the 530-420 range as per my '13 R8.
 
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