Les Paul special pickup advice needed

Teyeplayer

Damn we are on that bloody helix again!

Bridgehouse

Teyeplayer said:

Damn we are on that bloody helix again!

Sorry!! 

Alegree

Teyeplayer said:

I've not had a mini in the bridge, tele neck -it's been great. Had p90s in several guitars, Casino (years ago), Dan Armstrong reissue, among others. Some have worked some haven't, but I usually have found a p90 in the bridge of a solid guitar has never been quite what I wanted -I am open to being proven wrong of course, hence my interest in @Alegree murky horizons. But that means a whole new set rather than just the one. Damn I had almost made up my mind!

I sell them individually, if that's what you mean.

Teyeplayer

As you'll notice from earlier in the discussion Alex I'm trying to work out if I want to mix p100 and p90, change everything or go for an unuasual pick-up choice. I just can't make my mind up.

impmann

ICBM said:

impmann said:

Embrace the hum!

All good until you play a venue where there is so much - actually usually buzz rather than hum, but still electromagnetic - that you can't use any gain at all, and even on a clean sound you have to stand at a specific awkward angle on stage to prevent the hum/buzz being as loud as the guitar signal.

There's a venue in Edinburgh which really is this bad - Moe_Zambeek has played there too and will back this up - a single-coil guitar without at least one RWRP setting is effectively unusable there. Since discovering that I've always insisted on having at least one hum-cancelling setting on any guitar I may gig with.

I guess I've just been lucky in that case - in the last band, the P90s in the Les Paul (or the Les Paul Special before it) used to get a large dollop of gain courtesy of the Okko Diablo or the RAT, but I never had a scenario where it was 'unusable'. Likewise the Tele has never been a problem, nor the Strat. The Jazzmaster does pickup up a bit more hum than the others - I need to investigate that, its probably user error in assembling it - but the noise isn't overbearing.

Yes, you learn to ride the volume control between numbers at certain venues but I've not had a problem as such.

Each to their own and all that. :-)

ICBM

I'm guessing you've never played the small room at the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh…

Truly horrific from a noise point of view. I think some bright spark put the lighting controllers right over the stage, not just the lights. Riding the volume control doesn't really help because the noise is audible right over what you're trying to play.

Alegree

Teyeplayer said:

As you'll notice from earlier in the discussion Alex I'm trying to work out if I want to mix p100 and p90, change everything or go for an unuasual pick-up choice. I just can't make my mind up.

Ah I see. 

You've also got the option of going p90 + dummy coil if noise or tonal difference is a concern. I've stuck in dummy coils in LP style cavities with good success - but it trims off some of the treble from the P90 (so you're in the p100 tone ballpark). Wire it up to a push/pull and you've got P90 and P100 bridge tones at your fingertips.

Teyeplayer

So does the dummy cool sit under the p90 and maintain the same dimensions (please forgive my ignorance about the nuances of pickups)? Would this type of design be possible on a hotter bridge pickup as you've designed for your murky horizon bridge? -because the problem you are aiming to solve with that kit is exactly the problem I am having, hence my thought process leading to mini humbuckers or a whole new set.

normula1

Or go for a Kinman P90 hx

Alegree

Teyeplayer said:

So does the dummy cool sit under the p90 and maintain the same dimensions (please forgive my ignorance about the nuances of pickups)? Would this type of design be possible on a hotter bridge pickup as you've designed for your murky horizon bridge? -because the problem you are aiming to solve with that kit is exactly the problem I am having, hence my thought process leading to mini humbuckers or a whole new set.

If my link has worked correctly, it should show one of my dummy coils sitting in an LP cavity. Absolutely no modification necessary to existing pickups, meaning you can switch between real P90 tone (as opposed to a stacked one which is always weedy when split), and hum cancelling. With a bit of double sided tape it sits there nicely doing it's thing.

Teyeplayer

I wasn't expecting that! When you said a dummy coil I didn't envisage it that way. Oh man now I'm feeling really indecisive (if it could possibly have got worse).

Teyeplayer

Well just taken advantage of that awesome special offer email you just sent out @Alegree and have commited to a murky horizon bridge. Would have taken a full set off your hands if you'd had some end of line ones available, such an awesome price -was desperately trying to work out if i needed any other pickups!

Will have to swap over to a black cover when I get it and will then give it a fair shot before I decide on whether it needs a dummy coil or not.

Can't wait to try it out! 

Alegree

Teyeplayer said:

Well just taken advantage of that awesome special offer email you just sent out @Alegree and have commited to a murky horizon bridge. Would have taken a full set off your hands if you'd had some end of line ones available, such an awesome price -was desperately trying to work out if i needed any other pickups!

Will have to swap over to a black cover when I get it and will then give it a fair shot before I decide on whether it needs a dummy coil or not.

Can't wait to try it out! 

Ah good stuff! I can swap it over to a black cover for you, that's not a problem. It's pretty fat, so you may be okay with it as it is - I think one of my users called it 'fatter but still with the P90 bite'. 

Teyeplayer

That'd be wicked dude, black cover would be perfect -need me to ppg you the cost of the different cover?

Yeah I'm hoping this solves it, will definitely be interesting to try. 
...now I'm just wondering if my tele needs a new set too...

Alegree

Teyeplayer said:

That'd be wicked dude, black cover would be perfect -need me to ppg you the cost of the different cover?

Yeah I'm hoping this solves it, will definitely be interesting to try. 
...now I'm just wondering if my tele needs a new set too...

No, I don't charge for different covers.
The only Tele set I have left is the B stock Typhoons with a slanted stagger - the perfect set went yesterday. Loads of Tele necks though.

Teyeplayer

Well it's the tele neck pickup I need. What would you recommend, I'm intrigued by the various alnico 2 options you've got?

Alegree

Teyeplayer said:

Well it's the tele neck pickup I need. What would you recommend, I'm intrigued by the various alnico 2 options you've got?

Depends entirely upon what you're after, and what you're matching it with.
And remember that the uncovered ones are significantly more punchy and bright than covered ones.

Cirrostratus is your hot vintage style (no vintage wire here though, so it's comparably brighter)
Texan Dustdevil is an entirely new creation I designed to match with Esquire bridges.
Hurricane is basically my take on a quarter pounder.

The others are long magnets with Strat winds on (like those fender twisted ones) each one is named after one of my strat winds - info on each is here http://www.alegree.co.uk/stratocaster--1.html