Warman Soapy Joe P90 s any good ??

mark123

I've seen these on e bay ,£24.99 a pair .
Are these an upgrade on the wilkinsons in my vintage jhs gold top ?? I was also looking at irongear p90's ,anybody have any dealings with these ? the wilkinsons are ok, i'm just wondering if there is better for around £50 ??

Alegree

They're rebranded ceramic Chinese pickups.

p90fool

I had a couple of guitars with Warman P90s and they're ok, especially for the £18 a pair I paid, but I wouldn't think they'd be an upgrade over what you have. 

They're by no means bad pickups, and fantastic for the price. I put one in a pine bodied Flying V and it was perfect for that guitar, they also worked well in hollowbodies for rockabilly but I'd be less keen in a Les Paul tbh. 

rossi

try a Tonerider  .Great price quality and sound .choice of hot or cold ..OK rock or bluesy  jazzy

Henrytwang

They’re simple Chinese P90 copies with ceramic magnets. They don’t sound like traditional P90s as they are too bright, some might say brittle. Tone is a subjective thing however so they can’t be dismissed out of hand, I imagine that Warman have sold loads of them over the years they’ve been listing them on eBay so somebody must like them.

mark123

thanks for the replys,anyone use irongear p90s ??

Corvus

I have an Irongear in a cheapo slide weapon, its OK with fuzz but not a great P90 in itself. Bit harsh, too hot, might be down to that model maybe. I had a pisspoor attempted buying experience with Warman before that , maybe unlucky, they sell enough of them.

mark123

Corvus said:i

I have an Irongear in a cheapo slide weapon, its OK with fuzz but not a great P90 in itself. Bit harsh, too hot, might be down to that model maybe. I had a pisspoor attempted buying experience with Warman before that , maybe unlucky, they sell enough of them.

looks like i will go tonerider..but dont know wether to get the hot or normal set ?i like classic single coil p90 bite so i think the hot would be too thick sounding if that makes sense ???

Alegree

Tonerider and Irongear are the next step up, and pretty much exactly the same. They're mass produced Asian stuff using US designs. 

Corvus

Tonerider say they don't outsource. Haven't had their P90s but it's a preference thing on how hot, price-wise they're close to some of the UK hand-winders, Fletcher and Catswhisker for two, might be worth a look around. A shout in the classifieds might turn up some quality ones s/h as well.

HAL9000

Honestly, I’d be taking a look at some of the pickup manufacturers here on this forum such as @Alegree or @TheGuitarWeasel ;

OilCityPickups

Corvus said:

Tonerider say they don't outsource. Haven't had their P90s but it's a preference thing on how hot, price-wise they're close to some of the UK hand-winders, Fletcher and Catswhisker for two, might be worth a look around. A shout in the classifieds might turn up some quality ones s/h as well.

To be very clear, although Tonerider say they don't outsource, their manufacturing plant is in Shenzhen, China, and although their Canterbury address is the 'Rear Workshop' ... they admit that's a sales office only.

Corvus

Fair enough, I didn't mean to imply they were UK hand made or anything of that sort.

OilCityPickups

Corvus said:

Fair enough, I didn't mean to imply they were UK hand made or anything of that sort.

I simply find it odd that a company, who in essence sends specifications to a factory in China to make it's products, claims that it doesn't outsource! Surely getting your products made for you in a foreign country is outsourcing. I have nothing against Tonerider's pickups, in fact they are up with the best mass produced pickups on the market. Far better value than some similarly mass produced US flagship brands in fact.

Funkfingers

TheGuitarWeasel said:
a company, who in essence sends specifications to a factory in China to make its products

This is also the modus operandi of Wilkinson pickups and hardware. 

mark123 said:

the wilkinsons are ok

According to the JHS web catalogue, all Wilkinson P90 variants use ceramic bar magnets. The ones on the V100GT are the stacked coil type. This probably explains why their tone is always slightly unsatisfying. (I shall spare you the long, boring explanation.)

If the Wilkinson pickups have four conductor + shield output cable, it might be possible to tweak their tone for the better using a smartarse wiring mod. (Essentially, a partial coil split through capacitor/resistor network.)

mark123 said:

I'm just wondering if there is better for around £50?

Yes. Pre-owned professional quality pickups.

It is difficult to make constructive suggestions without first knowing the depth of the V100GT pickup cavity routs and what fastenings lie on the cavity floors. 

Corvus

I guess the difference might be they have their own unit, as opposed to using the mass-pile-'em-high producers who make the super-cheapies for anyone to sell as their own. I have liked the ones I've had or installed well enough, def more than the misc cheaper ones, but the new price is up where it's as well to look to UK hand-made. Decent s/h score if on a tight budget though.

Henrytwang

As I’ve mentioned before tone is a very subjective thing but  what it’s worth I’ve got a couple of Gibson Guitars, one made in 2006 and the other in 2013.both have their original Gibson P90 pickups in them and sound great.  I’m currently thinking of replacing the horrible P100 pickups in my Gibson 135, I shall almost certainly replace them with genuine Gibson pickups . I’ve tried aftermarket P90 pickups made by a couple of UK custom makers and Tonerider in the past but actually prefer the tone of the Gibson ones. of course I haven’t tried every P90 available but as I stated earlier tone is subjective, if it sounds good to you it’s the right pickup for you.