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Casino pickup suggestions?

rmcfee

By rmcfee
in Epiphone Electrics

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cabeza

cabeza

Posted
Posted

I love the stock pu's on my Korean Casino, so I'm not planning on replacing them anytime soon. I've heard good things about Kent Armstrong p90's, as well as Lindy Fralins. Haven't heard 'em, though.

 

I just copped some GFS dogear p90's to replace the stock ones on my Epi Sorrento, which is very similar to a Casino (full hollow bodied archtop). I'm taking it to my setup guy this weekend to get it fully rewired and pu's changed. I'll let you know how it sounds.

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TWANG

TWANG

Posted
Posted

I've put Kent A. p90s in my sheraton.. and they're staying in! I've sold a few sets of Kent A Casino P90s.. and all were happy with the improvement.

Lindy has some P90s that are noiseless and I'll be ordering a set coming up.. for a custom tele build.. but I haven't heard them yet.

 

the Kent A.s come in vintage output and hotter output.. I use the hotter model..

 

In my epi LP I use a Kent A humbuck at the bridge and a hot p90 at the neck.. the p90 is a little too hot for the 'best' balance.. so I have to lower it a bit in the mounting ring to get that right..so I may swap that one out for a lower output later on.

(I'm gonna put this one in the bridge of a tele.. p90 bridge.. and strat at the neck for that guitar)

 

a humbuck .. vintage type.. is usually around 8K.. the hot p90s are 9K.. the end result in mixing them is that the neck pup tends to be too loud

with the bridge humbuck set for the sweetest tone and response.. this means I sacrifice a bit to get the balance correct.. I think the vintage output p90 will give me back the true full sound of the the p90 and balanced output for the humbuck.

 

but.. all that is kind of too much information.. because the casino takes dog ears..(I'm using humbuck size p90s in both my sheraton and the lp, of course)

Kent A.s casino replacements are 7.8K... vintage style output and tone to the max..

 

All the Kent A.s I've sold were satisfactory to the buyers. I've heard good things about GFS, too.. and of course there are quite a few manus of those style pups.

 

You asked for casino owners to rate the stock pups.. and all I can say is... people seem to be quite satisfied or not!

So a big part of it is whether or not they are pleasing to your ear.. but certainly upgrades.. or even simple swaps done for a particular tone, not faulting the stock pup at all, is something people look at.

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byrds1965

byrds1965

Posted
Posted

Unless you are looking for a different sound the stock P90s sound good. I had 3 Casinos and now have 2. I played one of my MIKs with a Revolution and an Elitist and there was just not a lot of difference plugged in.

 

Both my Casinos are MIK and my bandmate has a newer MIC. His is a bit lighter and the trapeze is thinner gauge metal but plugged in they sound the same.

 

Unless you want to go to nylon saddles like the Revolution it dulls the sound a bit. My MIK and the Elitist I played are brighter and had a more electric sound, had to be the steel saddles vs the nylon on the Lennon.

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GlennW

GlennW

Posted
Posted

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but before you buy anything you really should take some time and a little ruler and set the pickup height to 3/32". Then play it plugged in and see what you think.

 

It's a bit of a challenge, but very easy if you're not making finished spacers for your pickups. Just loosen the mounting screws enough so you can pull up on the pickups 1/4" or so.

 

First, check the current height fo both before you start; then you'l know how much you need to raise them. They're probably too low now. To check the height, fret the low E at the last fret and measure from the top of the pole screw to the bottom of the string. Do that for the little E too, on both pickups. If you don't have a little ruler you can guestimate with a penny...using a penny as a gauge set the height so the strings are about 1.5 times the thickness of a penny.

 

Then, loosen the mounting screws, raise the pickups and slide some cardboard or something between the cover and the top of the guitar. I'm pretty sure dogears with chrome cover pickups are soldered to the covers, so everything will stay together when you lift them.

 

Snug the mounting screws, check the distance between the pole screws and the strings (while fretting at the last fret), and see how they sound.

 

Another thing, most people prefer the sound of P-90s with the screw poles screwed down. Just raising the screws will sound different than raising the whole pickup.

 

The thing is...even with replacement pickups, if the height is too low they'd probably sound better raised.

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