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I finally have a P90 loaded LP. Boy oh boy have I been missing out.


V-Type

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Well Im 44 years old and learned another new one(For Me) today.

I read so much P90/Soapbar love over the years but it never sunk in until I got a Insanely good deal on used older Agile LP 2500 with dual P90's.

Once I figured out the 60 cycle hum threshold on both pickups I went with much lower gain and more Mids and lows cranked up on the amps settings.

I was actually hitting Whitesnake as well as 70's Sabbath and The Doors tone/feel wise IMO better than I had with any my Humbucker or SC loaded guitars.

Boy if I could ground these a bit better I could do metal just as good I bet.

Anyways I have been missing out on owning a P90 loaded axe.

Now I understand....:-/ :D/

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Don't own any Agiles but own a few SX's and love them for what they are; two strat copies and a Gibson Special solid mahogany body and neck one with P90s. These sound great but I wish they were noise cancelling in the middle switch position like on my black, the SX Gibson copy is antique burst, beautiful too; anyway back to the noise cancelling black Squire Telecaster Custom II with two P nineties that are noise cancelling in the middle position and have the four vol and tone knobs like your beautiful cherry burst or flammed, or whatever, Agile LP.

 

That is a nice guitar.

 

I am like you. I never had a P ninety guitar and didn't get much positive feedback from many of my friends so I stayed away. Finally I picked up the SX shortly followed by the awesome Squire. Can you imagine using words like awesome to describe a Squire? Not long ago I never would have bought a Squire from my amateurish point of view, but as my playing and ear developed I learned some things; two of which are that I love SX guitars and also love P nineties. Haven't bought the last of either, God willing.

 

My latest guitar is an inexpensive ESP LTD Viper-50 with hot open coil pups, almost P ninety sounding. I bet this Viper would sound good with a nice set of humbucker sized P nineties, hot ones. The Viper is black cherry solid color with a basswood body. I've been playing my "Black Flash" ebony Epi LP Jr with great sounding duncan designed chrome covered humbuckers I took off an expensive Schecter C-1 E/A hybrid swanp ash/mahogany beautiful hot guitar when I put a SD '59 in the neck and a JB in the bridge for a superior sound, it also has piezo electric bridge saddle pups and runs mono or stereo thru one jack only: stereo to a great guitar amp and a great acoustic amp, a Crate Gunnison, is sounds way better than running it mono into a great guitar amp. Best hybrid I've owned or played stereo.

 

Anyway I had a pro tech put the pickups in and better tone pots because there are no access panels on the back of the guitar. All the work had to be done thru the pup holes and f holes. Plus the wiring inside is sophisticated and complicated due to the quick connect plugs on the piezo electric set up and pcb board and the wiring to the HB's. This guitar looks like a very expensive guitar just visually, much more expensive looking than the one thousand dollar retail price. I got a great deal on it at Guitar Center, brand new, on one of those major blow outs; like when I got two Fender Hwy one's for 335 each, brand new. That place has some great deals. Just got my son a micro Korg synth keyboard there.

 

Back to the P nineties. They are really nice. I'm sure that some of the different brand and set up p nineties sound a lot quieter than others. The ones in my Squire Custom II tele are way quieter, but the SX is beautiful and fun to play and the noise is really not annoying but I will consider a future pup upgrade, has to be an upgrade though, not a lateral move.

 

I was just reading that the early Santana albums were heavy with the P ninety tone. Maybe he was playing an SG with p nineties, I can't remember and haven't checked but shoud utube some of the old footage.

 

The Beatles of course had the Casinos that were given to them with the p nineties. They sure found some good hands to fall into.

 

Good luck with the Agile, I bet it is a really great guitar, cost comparison aside, just straight up against anything.

 

Duffy

Winfield, Pa.

 

Peace

 

"Hey Mr. Tambourine Man play a song for me; and in the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you." +/- as by BD.

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I tried a few sets of buckers in my sheri.. but when I tried the buck size p90s I was all done swapping pups.

 

and put one in the neck of my epi lp, too.

 

and yeah..I'm old enough that I should have started there!

 

give me a hot tube and a p90 anytime!

 

TWANG

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I think Im going too shield the entire control cavity as well as beef up the bridge and body grounds too try and help stop that damn interference/hum that kicks in past half volume. The tones and low gain are pretty sweet though.

Im also leaning towards upgrading the pickups too a Alnico rather than Ceramic. Duncans and Fralins as well as BG's are the ones that come too mind.

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Congrats V-Type...

 

I'm late to P90's too...played for morer than 20 years before I finally got one...now I have 2...and want more of course.

 

P90's are my favorite pickup by far.

 

Enjoy! The 60 cycle hum is small price to pay for the responsivness and dynamics the P90 has to offer!

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I know exactly what you mean. I just recently picked up a Gibby L.P. Special Doublecut with P-90s and am loving it. Years ago, when playing the heavy stuff, I needed those humbuckers to get that tone. But now I have been playing more bluesy material and you just can't beat those P90s for that.

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I have 2 P90 guitars and personally, I think they sound better and are more versatile than any other pickup I've ever tried (I've tried humbuckers, single coils, coil taps, and P90s).

 

I use a direct/fx box into the PA so the hum is very minimal, usually MUCH lower than the ambient room noise. In fact, so low that it isn't a factor for me. It could be 10 times louder and I'd still love the P90s, after all, when the music is on, the hum is not a factor.

 

In college I learned that when the signal to noise ration is 35db or more, the noise is indistinguishable.

 

The stellar highs, the clean and fat midranges, the pick response and everything else about them is music to my ears. Playing humbuckers makes me feel like there is something between my pick and the sound coming out of the speakers, and Fender-ish single coils sound too thin for my ears.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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