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EVAN SKOPP
P- 90 Primer
In the last column, George Ellison was
going through the major pickup types,
starting with the Strat single coil, which he
called “the best” pickup. I’d have to agree
that the Strat’s pickups are responsible for
some of the greatest tones the electric guitar ever made. I love Strats, too, but I also
have a special place in my heart for another
single coil, one that’s older than the Strat:
the venerable P- 90.
During the sixteen years I’ve worked for
Seymour Duncan, I’ve noticed a dramatic
surge in the popularity of P-90s. In fact, no
recent “movement” in pickups has been
quite as strong as the renewed interest in
these great-sounding tone beasts. Let’s
look at the history of the P- 90 and discuss
its unique characteristics and advantages.
Gibson debuted their “Electric Spanish”
line of guitars in the thirties as a way for
guitarists to be heard, particularly in an
ensemble format. Some of these early
instruments, like the 1936 ES- 150, used
built-in, straight-bar, “Charlie Christian”
pickups. Walt Fuller was the man responsible for this new design. This pickup
eventually evolved into a rectangular-shaped, diagonally-slanted single coil unit
with adjustable pole pieces. You could see
these odd pickups on the ES-300, along
with certain Gibson lap steels from 1940 to
1945. This transitional pickup was the big
brother to the P- 90, which Fuller developed
in 1946, and which appeared on Gibson’s
ES-175 and Switchmaster guitars shortly
thereafter. Fuller used black thermo-formed
plastic covers to house these pickups. And,
like their predecessor, they used adjustable
poles and Alnico magnets.
32 PREMIER GUITAR GREATEST HITS VOL. 1 72 PREMIER GUITAR FEBRUARY 2009
In the early fifties, Gibson began their offi-
cial collaboration with the legendary Les
Paul. It was in the spring of 1952 that the
majestic Gold Top Les Paul debuted—fea-
turing P- 90 pickups. Back in the day, you
could have one of these beauties for a
mere $210. Sigh…
Some might argue that the P- 90 was Gibson’s
only truly successful single coil pickup. To
me, the P- 90 has the perfect blend of output
and high-end response. Compared to the
Strat, the tone is fatter, with more “beef” and
more mids. Like the Strat pickup, traditional
P-90s employ a single coil design with sand-
cast Alnico magnets. Unlike the Strat, the
vintage P- 90 uses a single conductor, braided
shield hookup cable. The original P-90s were
machine wound using 42 gauge, plain enamel
magnet wire. Traditional P-90s use two
magnets with opposing fields that face each
other: the two south sides faced the screw
pole pieces.
The average DC resistance of the original
P-90s was around 8.50k ohms. Unlike the
Strat pickup’s tall, thin bobbin, the P- 90
uses a short, flat bobbin, which accounts
for a fatter, more midrange-intensive tone.
As for covers, the late-forties ES-5s and
ES-175s used the black thermo-formed
“dog ear” cover, while the 1952 Les Paul
used a cover that looked vaguely like a bar
of yellowish soap—not that you’d necessarily want to wash with it. These “
soapbar” covers were readily available in black
as well, and were found on the 1956 Les
Paul Custom and 1957 Special Junior. The
soapbar version is truly unique in that the
mounting and height adjustment screws sit
in between the “A” and “D” string pole
pieces on one side and the “G” and “B” on
the other.
If you were around in the fifties and sixties,
you could hear jazzers like Herb Ellis and
the great Joe Pass using P-90s to produce
“warm ‘n’ woody” tones, especially when
used with the heavier gauge strings of the
day. Other notable P- 90 users have includ-
ed Freddie King, George Thorogood, and
Mountain’s Leslie West.
The nineties revival of swing and rockabilly
music fueled a resurgance in traditional
P- 90 tones. Clever pickup manufacturers
have figured out new ways of delivering
P- 90 flavors. Some have developed ceramic
magnet P-90s used together with high-output coils for “Bad to the Bone” tone.
Others have built hum-canceling P-90s that
use a stacked-coil design, which not only
cancels the hum found in all true single coil
pickups, but also allows the player to switch
between series, parallel and split wiring
for even more tone options. Some offer
P-90s housed under covers that make them
direct, drop-in replacements for humbuck-er-equipped instruments. And still others
offer full-size humbucker pickups that can
split to a real-deal P- 90.
So, whaddayathink Are P-90s right for
you? Well, if you like a big, fat, punchy tone
with lots of single coil “cut,” and boosted
mids, then you might be ready to take the
P- 90 plunge.
Evan Skopp
Evan Skopp is head of Marketing and OEM Sales for
Seymour Duncan, based in Santa Barbara, California. He
serves on the board of directors of Musician’s Institute
in Hollywood and is past-president of the Guitar and
Accessories Marketing Association.
