# P90 for doom/sludge/stoner



## Rawhdney (Nov 4, 2011)

So my guitar doesn't have 7 strings. Or a floyd. Or even a humbucker. It's a Gibson Les Paul Jr. with a single P90 in the bridge position. Now, I'm determined to make this thing work for my doom/sludge stuff. I also tune down 1 1/2 steps to C#. Now the stock pickup is ok but I'm looking for something with a little more oomph. I really like the throaty mid-range growl/snarl of a P90 and the 60 cycle hum doesn't bother me too much. Does anyone have experience with some of the hot P90's on the market? Is a hot P90 even necessary or will it flatten out too much of the top end?

I've looked into Lollar's overwound, Fralin's overwound, Wolfetone Meanest, and Bare Knuckles Supermassive and.... Well there's only so much info you can get from a website and a couple of sound clips. It's hard picking something with so little to go off of. I feel a bit blind.

Anyone with real world experience with any of these p'ups?


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## ImBCRichBitch (Nov 4, 2011)

You say you have a LPJ like its a bad thing. But honestly look at the seymour duncan ones. A suggestion i have that i do alot is drop my Mockingbird down to drop a/ADGCFAD alot and the extra low sound makes my rockfields sound so much heavier.


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## Rawhdney (Nov 4, 2011)

ImBCRichBitch said:


> You say you have a LPJ like its a bad thing. But honestly look at the seymour duncan ones.



The Junior isn't a bad thing at all. I love the little beast! Simple and nasty in a good way. 

Is it a simple procedure to replace the pickup covers on duncan's? I see the only p90's they offer with the dog ear cover are the antiquities. All the rest have the soapbar cover, my Junior came with a dog ear.


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## ImBCRichBitch (Nov 4, 2011)

Rawhdney said:


> The Junior isn't a bad thing at all. I love the little beast! Simple and nasty in a good way.
> 
> Is it a simple procedure to replace the pickup covers on duncan's? I see the only p90's they offer with the dog ear cover are the antiquities. All the rest have the soapbar cover, my Junior came with a dog ear.


 Ahh well check out stewart macdonald then. I thought you had a soapbar. Also i think theres a hotter gibson version too.


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## celticelk (Nov 5, 2011)

Lace does their Aluma-90 as a dog ear now, though I'm not sure they're hot enough for your application: Lace Music Products | Since 1979 - Lace Sensor electric guitar pickups, Alumitone, bass pickups, California Acoustic pickups - A pickup for any style of music.


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## Infinite Recursion (Nov 5, 2011)

BKP Pig 90. This is a P90 modeled after the Warpig (ultimate doom humbucker). Do it.


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## poisonelvis (Nov 5, 2011)

Infinite Recursion said:


> BKP Pig 90. This is a P90 modeled after the Warpig (ultimate doom humbucker). Do it.



this is the shit!


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## Rawhdney (Nov 5, 2011)

poisonelvis said:


> this is the shit!



Have you tried the pig90? I can't seem to find any examples of it online other than on the official website.

I emailed bare knuckles before posting here, they thought for tuning to c# the supermassive would be better for note definition..


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## Purelojik (Nov 6, 2011)

SEYMOUR DUNCAN P RAILS. they actually kick some ass dude. now they have a hotter version out called the p rails hot. give em ai try i used to have one in my les paul neck position. it was great. then i got greedy and started trying more pups lol prolly gonna go back to it too.


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## Rawhdney (Nov 15, 2011)

Purelojik said:


> SEYMOUR DUNCAN P RAILS. they actually kick some ass dude. now they have a hotter version out called the p rails hot. give em ai try i used to have one in my les paul neck position. it was great. then i got greedy and started trying more pups lol prolly gonna go back to it too.



These look cool but are humbucker sized. I need something to replace a dog ear P90. Unfortunately, most companies just do 'vintage' voiced P90's in that size. 

Another noob question. Are high output pickups truly essential for heavy tones? I had just assumed they were, as a lot of metal players use them.


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## MF_Kitten (Nov 15, 2011)

i have the Lace Alumatone 90's in my bass. That should be enough information in and of itself 

seriously though, they can do almost everything. They retain the nasty single coil timbre, but with a hi-fi clarity and deepness extending the frequency response of it, i guess you could say. Also, no noise!


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## Purelojik (Nov 16, 2011)

Rawhdney said:


> These look cool but are humbucker sized. I need something to replace a dog ear P90. Unfortunately, most companies just do 'vintage' voiced P90's in that size.
> 
> Another noob question. Are high output pickups truly essential for heavy tones? I had just assumed they were, as a lot of metal players use them.



Not for all cases. High output pickups make it easier to drive the amp to get the wall of sound distortion and smoooth searing leads. but you can easily achieve that with mid output pups and some Eq on the amp and whatnot. i mean there was a live BKP demo i saw on youtube with nolly demoing out Deamoness guitars which has a BKP rebel yell and a VHII and those are mid to high output from what i undetsand and are incredibly articulate because they dont need to drive the amp as much. 

What pickups were you looking at?


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## ridner (Nov 16, 2011)

I had good luck with the super distortion P90


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## datalore (Nov 16, 2011)

The output of a regular Gibson P90 is fine for doom, sludge or stoner stuff. If you want to hit the rest of your signal chain harder, you can just run the P90 into a clean boost. I wish I could get my hands on a 7-string P90.


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