Niloy63
Senior Member
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2013
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Thanks to a few MLP members, I’ve been considering the idea of purchasing a P90 loaded guitar ( looking at a LP Classic Player Plus or an SG Special Faded). Until today, it's all been theoretical since I’ve never played them before. My buddy was kind of enough to lend me his ’98 Gibson Blues Hawk for a test run. I was able to jam with a drummer for a bit to really push it. It was fun to play, minus the whole tuning stability issues, but that's another story. I was hoping to ask if any of you thought that the P90 tone in the Blueshawk would be somewhat comparable to the P90 tone in a LP Classic Player Plus or even an SG Special Faded? Do different P90s vary as much as humbuckers do?
The P90s. I felt that they had a lot of character. On a scale of 0-10 (0 being single coils, and 10 being humbuckers), I feel they sat around 6ish. A humbucker with spanky overtones, if you will. The P90's output was noticeably quieter than my humbuckers when I A/B'd them back to back. For those experienced, is that normal for P90s, or is it a pickup height adjustment issue? The cleans were really immaculate. The guitar has one of those Varitone switches, which was fun, but rendered me with option paralysis until I just pulled out the tone pot and bypassed the varitone circuit. Where the guitar really shined for me was with low to mid level [classic] gain settings. The harmonic content was inspiring. So full! The volume pot was very responsive as well. But as I turned up the gain, I found myself wincing at the treble a bit. In hind sight, I just realized that I didn’t mess with the tone pot at all today.
I've been trying to be better about that, but I hardly ever use it unless I'm recording. And the humming didn’t help things either in the higher gain settings. I’m sure if I sat with the amp and properly adjusted it notch by notch, I could suppress some of the issues I had. But I didn’t have that much time to play. A question, if you fine folks wouldn't mind answering. Are you able to fluidly switch between your humbucker guitars and your P90s without changing amp settings?
I was tremendously happy with the clean tones up to the mid gain tones. But anything past that, I was unable to control my tone very well. I am still very interested in getting a P90s loaded axe. I think it will be a great addition to the tonal palette I'm trying to collect in my modest and humble collection.
Some Pics:
The P90s. I felt that they had a lot of character. On a scale of 0-10 (0 being single coils, and 10 being humbuckers), I feel they sat around 6ish. A humbucker with spanky overtones, if you will. The P90's output was noticeably quieter than my humbuckers when I A/B'd them back to back. For those experienced, is that normal for P90s, or is it a pickup height adjustment issue? The cleans were really immaculate. The guitar has one of those Varitone switches, which was fun, but rendered me with option paralysis until I just pulled out the tone pot and bypassed the varitone circuit. Where the guitar really shined for me was with low to mid level [classic] gain settings. The harmonic content was inspiring. So full! The volume pot was very responsive as well. But as I turned up the gain, I found myself wincing at the treble a bit. In hind sight, I just realized that I didn’t mess with the tone pot at all today.

I was tremendously happy with the clean tones up to the mid gain tones. But anything past that, I was unable to control my tone very well. I am still very interested in getting a P90s loaded axe. I think it will be a great addition to the tonal palette I'm trying to collect in my modest and humble collection.
Some Pics:




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