what strings to use with p90

[Richie123]

hi theres so much talk on what strings to use with this pick up people say only nickel wound will work .with pick up and acoustic strings wont. well i found a few demos on youtube of many players using acoustic strings with the pick up and the sound im hearing sound good to my ears

im not wanting to sound identical to the beatles . but id like to the pick up on my guitar will work fine both eith phospor bronze strings as well as nickel wound. and from the looks of these videos on youtube it will

[capmaster]

The ferromagnetism of phosphor bronze wound strings is limited to the core wire. So the volume of wound strings will be reduced, and this will further depend on the core/wound diameter ratio. You may give them a try, but the result will be unpredictable.

 

For getting closer to the Beatles tone, I would try flatwound strings with a wound G3rd.

 

In general, P90s will sound nice with any sort of good strings as any good pickup will. Nickel wound, nickel plated steel wound, stainless steel wound, try out and find out what you may prefer in the end.

 

Hope this helps.

[Red 333]

Whether "acoustic" strings will work or not depends on the composition of the strings and the strength of the pickup. Until Epiphone assumed responsibility for making the majority of their product in their own factories during the last ten years or so, The EJ-160E was made for Epiphone (not by them) by several different manufacturers over the years. It's likely these different manufacturers sourced parts from several other manufacturers, all of whom are trying to maximize profit. To do this, they may have shipped a few parts that, let's say, have a wider variance in performance or tolerance as some of the others. So yeah, they work, but not always the same way under the same circumstances.

 

I have a friend who has an older EJ-160E that was made by Peerless. It has an absolutely huge paddle headstock. It's also constructed with apparently first class woods, at least cosmetically (and as I will write of later, acoustically). My more recent Indonesian made EJ-160E looks much cheaper and plasticy by comparison. Now, my EJ plays fine through an amplifier with phosphor bronze strings. His absolutely does not. He has to use nickel strings to get any usuable output from the pickup. Fortunately, his EJ also sounds fantastic acoustically with them. I actually prefer the sound of his with the nickel to mine with the PB. It was a revelation to me, because I have heard other EJ's strung with nickel that were lacking acoustically.

 

Some acoustic guitars (like my friends EJ), sound good no matter what strings they have. A perfect storm of great wood and careful construction produce a wonderfully responsive and resonant instrument. More often, though, acoustic guitars will sound noticeably better or worse to you with the type of string you use, so you should experiment. But to complicate things, there is the pesky matter of the pickup, which, as many threads on this forum history has shown us, does not always perform as we believe it should (or perhaps with some amps). So the trick with some EJ's is to find a string that performs well both ways.

 

Of course, it would be far simpler to just make sure the pickup worked before one buys an EJ-160E, but that's not always easy when so many guitars are purchased via the internet without auditioning the guitar. But really, that's the least frustrating and time-consuming option.

 

Red 333

[Richie123]

thanks for the replys. well all i know is the videos ive seen and heard sounded spot on to me. i will try my strings out and see how i feel thanks

[Red 333]

By the way, the pick up in the EJ-160E is a P-100 stacked humbucker. The Gibson J-160E does have an actual P-90.

 

Red 333