Greg Hilden – Humbucker vs P90

[GnLguy]

Not only some great playing but the question was raised in another post about personal preference between
P90s and humbuckers. These video showcase 2 high end Gibson’s and the tonal difference is readily seen.

Which do I prefer? Yes! Both!

I could only choose one, it would the P90

2002 Gibson Custom Shop ES-335 Andy Summers 1960 Limited Edition (14 of 50) Part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-58ZggeDgc&feature=g-all-u

2002 Gibson Custom Shop ES-335 Andy Summers 1960 Limited Edition (14 of 50) Part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_FMbyTlX0g&feature=plcp

Gibson ES-335 P-90 Modell LTD Ed. plus Fender Vibrolux Blackface Okko Diablo Overdrive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=fvwp&v=PADWjj7v1-M

Gibson ES-335 P-90 Modell LTD Ed. plus Fender Vibrolux Blackface Okko Diablo Overdrive Part 2

[Rickey]

What is the opinion of removing the stock p-90’s from my Epi Casino and installing Humbuckers??
I have a SG with Humbuckers and play Blues luv it big time no noise unless I choose to put it there. My Casin has the single coil pickups it came with P90’s with techs looking at it and all other troubleshooting exhausted I can seem to get rid of the occasional popping that comes thru the Casino. I am understanding that Humbuckers cancel out all the crap where it is quite normal for single coil pickups to catch all the crap. I want to maintain the hollow body blues sound but get rid of the crap what about humbuckers to do that???

[GnLguy]

As far as the popping noise is concerned, its hard to say what is causing that. Humbuckers get their name from ‘bucking the hum’ of the 60 cycle AC that we use here in the US. |Older amps with 2 conductor cords were very susceptible to that and you would have to turn the plug 180 deg in the receptacle. My concern would be if there is a problem in your wiring harness, I doubt that changing to humbuckers would cure it.

Also, I think that you may run into some mounting problems in trying to change it over.

I am only going on what I can see with pics of the Casino but the P90s that are on that guitar are called dog-ear P90s and they have mounting screws on each end. I don’t know if you could mount a typical humbucker in that without routing the body more. Depending on your skill set, you may have to have that done by a tech and it would run into some money.

If the guitar has actual holes cut in the body, mini-humbuckers like you would see on a Firebird look like they might fit.

I would contact the friendly folks at either Guitar Fetish (www.guitarfetish.com) or Stewart-McDonald (www.stewmac.com) and ask for a recommendation. I’ve used Golden Age pickups from StewMac in a Washburn hollowbody and they sound really good. GFS pickups from Guitar Fetish get favorable reviews too

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