Any straight P-90 is going to pick up a lot more noise than a humbucker, and more noise than a thin single coil like a Strat's. With its wide flat coils it's probably the pickup most prone to noise out there, which is why there have been a lot of dual-stacked versions in order to reduce the noise levels. Gibson's own attempt, the P-100, was quiet but didn't have the P-90 sound. Most of the double stacked versions are significantly deeper than the normal P-90s, so may not fit in guitars with thinner bodies.Originally Posted by Muzza
My first P-90 equipped guitar was a Gibson LP DC faded (i.e. a cheap double cut LP special) and that was very noisy. I shielded the cavities and that helped a bit, but the lack of metal covers on most P-90s allows a lot of noise in. A friend has an old ES-330 with metal dog-ear P-90s, and he's never noticed undue noise. It seems a shame to me that manufacturers don't offer metal covers options for soap-bar P90s. They could still paint them black or cream and have them look like the plastic versions. The humbucker sized P-90s invariably come with a metal cover and benefit from the increased shielding, so why can't the normal ones?
Of course the amount of noise is going to depend on how much electrical noise there is in the location where it's being played, so for somewhere with minimal electric/electronics, they could be as quiet as anything else.
The Tonerider vintage P-90 set is a RWRP set, so are hum-cancelling in the 'both pups on' position. It's not stated on their website whether the Hot 90 set is, but being hotter, will probably also pick up a bit more noise.
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