SD Phat Cats or similar

[AJK1]

Anyone used humbucker sized P90 style pickups ?
I'm thinking of putting a set in one of my LP
Are they like P90's ?
Seymour Duncan, Bare Knuckle ?
Feedback welcome

 

[ReWind James]

Are you after an authentic vintage P-90 sound or just a cool single coil sound that fits in a humbucker route?

The first one would limit your choices pretty severely. The second has a whole world of options.

 

[BKS]

I have a set phat cats in my hagstrom viking. I really Love them, is a es 335 style guitar tho. Would also like to try a p94 in the neck of a les paul once....

 

[AJK1]

Are you after an authentic vintage P-90 sound or just a cool single coil sound that fits in a humbucker route?

The first one would limit your choices pretty severely. The second has a whole world of options.

Could you expand on that ?

 

[ARandall]

Phat cats were never designed to sound like a p90. They have their own vibe
In reality most owners have made them sound 'better' with another magnet than the A2's that they come with.

Some winders do better jobs with humbucker sized p90's.
My only set like that are from Zhangbucker. They are close for sure, but the full sparkle is hard to do.

 

[Zoobiedood]

You might also consider P-Rails, which include a P-90-sized pickup along with a smaller rail in a humbucker size.

 

[ReWind James]

Could you expand on that ?

There are many single coil designs that can fit in a humbucker route/cover. The Phat Cats are one of them.

A real true P-90 coil is almost impossible to fit in a humbucker cover. It can just barely fit, and there are no off-the-shelf aftermarket parts to do it, nor any big box manufacturers doing it. I only know of a couple other guys that put real P-90 coils inside a humbucker size cover. One has a turn count limit, or uses thinner than vintage-correct wire to compensate for that, and the other has proprietary mounting hardware (integrated rings) made to do it.

Most aftermarket "humbucker size P-90s" use bobbins that are about twice as tall as a real P-90 and narrower, often with thinner AWG 43 wire, as well. This allows a quick and easy way to build a single coil with two bar magnets into a humbucker size chassis but, without the wide and flat coil of a true P-90 design, it doesn't sound like a real P-90.

That's not to say that these other compromised or inspired-by designs don't sound good or have a cool single coil voice. That's all personal preference. They just don't sound like actual P-90s. That's why I was asking if you were after a true vintage P-90 voice or just a general single coil sound that fits in a humbucker ring. If you want a vintage-correct P-90, in that size, I think there's only a couple of us making that happen, right now, because of the difficulty and lack of available parts.

 

[lunchbox]

I really like a Phat Cat in the neck position.

 

[Caretaker]

I love Phat Cats.
Not exactly P90s. But you get in the territory.
I really like the cleans for jazz and blues.

IF I ever get another humbucker guitar, I`m pretty sure I will be putting another set of Phat Cats in it.

 

[tolm]

Bare Knuckle is the closest I know of from a “mainstream” manufacturer. They do various HSP90 pickups - including a HB sized version of my favourite “normal” P90, the Nantucket - but the original one they did is the Mississippi Queen:
https://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/pickup/hsp90/mississippi-queen

THE MISSISSIPPI QUEEN IS A TRUE P90 SINGLE COIL MOUNTED ONTO A HUMBUCKER CHASSIS. IT WAS OUR FIRST HUMBUCKER-SIZE P90 AND HAS BECOME THE BENCHMARK FOR ALL HSP90 TONE.

Had some in an Epi Dot and a PRS McCarty and they sounded great to me. But I went “proper” for my SG and put some soapbar Nantucket’s in.

 

[ThroBak]

I make a humbucker sized P-90 that you should look at if you are after a vintage P90 tone.
https://www.throbak.com/p90-pickups-humbucker-sized-throbak-pro-90.html

If you want a vintage P90 tone you first need parts of the same dimensions, materials and mechanics of a vintage P90. The only way I know to do that is to make my own parts.

Beyond the parts the challenge is how do you get the resistance you want from a P90 in a humbucker sized cover and still keep the vintage bobbin coil former size and internal start lead? I do it by winding the correct 42AWG plain enamel on the inside of the coil and a smaller gauge of wire on the outside. Which wire chosen and how and when to splice the wire is the trick to keeping an authentic P90 tone.

This method works because the inner coil windings have an exponentially larger impact on the tone of a P90 than the outermost windings. Stretching wire or using taller bobbin shifts the tone too far from a vintage P90 IMO.

 

[Belvedere]

I have a SD phat cat in the neck position of my tele and I love it, but it has definitely not a P90 sound, it's just an incredible good pickup with a nature of his own.

 

[BlueCajun]

I have a SD phat cat in the neck position of my tele and I love it, but it has definitely not a P90 sound, it's just an incredible good pickup with a nature of his own.

My experience as well. Had a set. Really liked them. But they fell short of sounding like real P90s.

 

[mdubya]

I have a Phat Cat in the neck of my 1991 SG Special. It is paired with a magickal early 90's '57 Classic +. The Phat Cat is OK on its own, but is too low output to match well with the '57+. I have the Phat Cat wound up as high as it can go without touching the strings (something I don't like to do, usually) and it is still a noticeable volume and output drop compared to the fairly neutral (volume, output, height) 57+.

Like I said, on its own it has cool vintage sounding tone, is killer with fuzz, does great rockabilly type tones. Really cool. Just a bad match for my very neutral and killer sounding '57+ (<-- which is never coming out of this SG, I would rather it be the only pick up than change it out of any reason).

 

[AJK1]

Thanks for all your feedback, i will stick with the hummies for the timebeing, prob buy a LP with true P90's in it, prob a Goldtop,
cheers