This is the fourth in a series of blog posts on guitar pickups. The intent is to present the info in a way that's informative to someone who might not know anything about pickups, but is still interesting to those more familiar with them.

In this post we'll look more closely at P-90 pickups. As a quick note of clarification, you may see this type of pickup referred to as a "P90." The technical and correct term for this particular pickup is "P-90" with a hyphen. Both P90 and P-90 are referring to the same pickup.

P-90's originally were used by Gibson for around a decade before the invention of the humbucker. They've remained a popular option through the decades due to their unique tone.

If you're knowledgeable about pickup design you might say "aren't P-90's a single coil pickup?" And the short answer to your question is, yes! That said they're also unique enough in their size, design and tone from typical single coils (Strat or Tele styles) that they warrant their own blog post.

Differences Between a Single Coil and a P-90 Pickup

There are three notable differences between a single coil and a P-90 pickup are as follows:

Magnets:

Single coils use rod magnets (ie the pole pieces are the magnets) while P-90's use bar magnets (ie magnets that run the width of the pickup on the underside with pole pieces transferring the magnetism up through the pickup).

Components:

While the basic components more or less overlap in both models, the P-90 has more parts involved in their build which inevitably change the tone.

Size: 

P-90's are roughly double the physical size of most single coil pickups.  Again - this impacts the variety in tonal differences.

(images courtesy of Seymour Duncan)

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What does the P-90 pickup sound like?

So what does the P-90 sound like compared to single coil (or even a humbucker)?  The P-90 falls somewhere in the middle of the two tonally.  Generally louder and full than the single coil and quieter and a bit brighter than the humbucker.  It provides great punch and clarity compared to a humbucker and a nice gritty edge to it that simply can't be found with a single coil.

Here is a demo video of Seymour Duncan P90 Vintage set and P90 Hot set of pickups:

For comparison purposes, here are some demos of Seymour Duncan humbucker pickups:

If you are looking for more demos, check out this video.

Sizes of P-90 pickups

Now that we've covered the differences between single coils and P-90's, let's look at the three main sizes of P-90's.

Soapbar P-90

As its name implies, this is the shape of a...wait for it...bar of soap!  This is the most widely used size of P-90.  The mounting screws and springs go through the body of the pickup.

Suhr S90 Soapbar P90 Bridge Pickup

Dogear P-90

These have the same base shape as a soapbar model, but with dogear shaped mounting ears which allow for a different mounting option.

Seymour Duncan Antiquity Retrospec'd Dogear P90

Humbucker sized P-90

In recent years many pickup manufacturers have released P-90's in a humbucker sized housing which allows guitarists to swap out their humbucker equipped guitars with a P-90 without any modification to their guitar. 

These retain the essential design structure of a traditional P-90.  Models such as the Tonerider Rebel 90 and the, Seymour Duncan Phat Cat are great examples of these at different price points.

It's worth mentioning that there are some hum-cancelling P-90 models on the market.  These essentially stack two single coil P-90's under one housing with one being reverse wound/reverse polarity for hum cancelling operation.

Are P90s better than humbuckers?

If you are looking for a brighter tone and don't mind some hum, a P90 pickup is a good choice for you. If you are wanting a warmer tone with no hum, look into a humbucker. The "best" pickup is the one that gives you the tone you want - and fits your guitar!

Be sure to head over to our storefront to check out all of our  P90 pickups! 

If you are looking for more information about pickups, be sure to check out our brief overview of the history of guitar pickups as well as an in depth look at single coils and humbuckers.