Pup upgrade

[J.R.303]

I hope I'm posting in the right section. Please advise.
I'm waiting on a GSJ-1 and wondered if the p90 is wax potted and whether the magnets are alnico or ceramic.
I see on ebay that there are either £20 like a Vanson which are potted and alnico or much more expensive ones, and wondered if it would be an upgrade over the stock?
Also would it be wise to upgrade the wiring harness?

[fender3x]

Cool kit!

I think the rule of thumb is that if it does not say "alnico" it's ceramic. Ceramic magnets are cheaper than alnico, so they go into most cheap pickups. That said, they also go into some relatively high end pickups like Bill Lawrence and G&L MFD pups.

I don't know about Vanson...but there are some very decent P90 clones for not much money. I'd probably go with ones made in Korea rather than China for quality control purposes. Most (including Wilkinson, I think) are made by Artec.

I test everything before I put it in. Any wires are probably fine, but i always test them for continuity before putting them in. I also test pots at least to make sure they are showing close to the same values, and I prefer audio pots for both the volume and tone...Alphas or ALPS are decent quality and will fit your holes. CTS and Bourns are decent quality and more traditional, but will require enlarging the holes. I'd also upgrade the jack...Puretones are my new favorite after being introduced to them on this forum. Switchcraft are the more traditional high quality jack.

All that said, you can build the guitar with the stock electronics and then just replace anything that fails or that you don't like. You've chosen a kit where making those sorts of upgrades later will be quite easy ;-)

[Simon Barden]

I think all the kit guitars pickups are wax potted. Far less risk of complaints because the pickups are microphonic that way. And I'd concur that the magnets are probably ceramic ones. I've seen pictures of the PBG dog ear pickups, and they certainly aren't constructed like a standard dog-ear.

Non high-end dog-ear P90s are a lot rarer then soapbar P90s, so the choice isn't as wide as you may think. You can of course get conversion kits to dog-ears for soapbars, but that's extra expense and they aren't always easy to find (especially at the moment with the lockdown and many places running out of stock).

The Wilkinson dog-ears (unlike the soapbars) don't seem to be sold separately, just as OEM supplies to manufacturers. I've got one on a Vintage V130 LP DC Jr style guitar, and whilst it's not a bad sounding pickup, it is on the higher output side, whilst I like something a bit more subtle. But it's fine for my open G-tuned guitar as the raunch is just about fine for Stones-style numbers.

I was thinking of trying the Vanson P90 out on my GSJ-1 if I didn't like the sound of the kit pickup, but short of getting something like a GFS dog-ear from the US, then as you've found out, there's a big jump in cost to find something else available, and you are really then going up to boutique-level pickups. The specs of the Vanson one are pretty much spot on for a standard P90, so hopefully the sound is.

I've got some IronGear P90 soapbars in a '93 US Hamer (replacing the outrageously powerful SD-made P90s that were the factory fit), and they sound really nice and aren't too powerful to get a good clean sound from. But no dog-ear versions, so you'd need a conversion kit.

I've also got some Creamery P90 dog-ears waiting to go into my P90 routed ES-1 kit, but that is still waiting to be finished, so I've never heard them yet!

[McCreed]

I can't offer any insight on the P-90, but I have a pair of Vanson Mini Humbuckers in my PRS-1 build and I've been very happy with them.
This coming from someone that is not big on humbuckers.

The mini hums are alnico 5 and vintage output. I would hazard a guess that their P-90's would be of equal quality, both sound and construction-wise. May be worth the punt.

[J.R.303]

Cool kit!

I think the rule of thumb is that if it does not say "alnico" it's ceramic. Ceramic magnets are cheaper than alnico, so they go into most cheap pickups. That said, they also go into some relatively high end pickups like Bill Lawrence and G&L MFD pups.

I don't know about Vanson...but there are some very decent P90 clones for not much money. I'd probably go with ones made in Korea rather than China for quality control purposes. Most (including Wilkinson, I think) are made by Artec.

I test everything before I put it in. Any wires are probably fine, but i always test them for continuity before putting them in. I also test pots at least to make sure they are showing close to the same values, and I prefer audio pots for both the volume and tone...Alphas or ALPS are decent quality and will fit your holes. CTS and Bourns are decent quality and more traditional, but will require enlarging the holes. I'd also upgrade the jack...Puretones are my new favorite after being introduced to them on this forum. Switchcraft are the more traditional high quality jack.

All that said, you can build the guitar with the stock electronics and then just replace anything that fails or that you don't like. You've chosen a kit where making those sorts of upgrades later will be quite easy ;-)

OK, so what would I need exactly to buy to upgrade the electronics?
Sorry to appear daft but I am at the beginning of the curve with wiring.

[J.R.303]

Yes Simon, I think we've done the same homework on the Vanson!

[Andy40]

Hi JR.

There are no daft questions mate.

I tried to find my AG-JR P90 to take some photos for you ...but I cant find it anywhere.

Essentially the pup differences between the Chinese kit P90 and a decent one can be summed up in general:-
1. The Chinese bobbin is plastic and a decent one will be fibreboard;
2. The base plate in the Chinese one will be pot metal and a decent one will be nickel (same with the pick up screws);
3. The magnet in the Chinese one will be ceramic and a decent one will be Alnico;
4. The wire used in the Chinese one will be AWG42 polycoated and a decent one will be wound with AWG42 plain enamel coated;
5. The Chinese one will use less winds to conserve wire and they will charge the ceramic magnet with a higher Gauss to compensate;
6. The Chinese one will be machine wound a decent one will most likely be "hand" wound just meaning that its a bit more scatter wound that a machine wound one;
6. both pick ups have the same plastic dog ear cover.

So the Chinese pups will not have as much clarity in the frequency range as a decent pup, sure they will do the job but you'll probably use the amp or pedals to get most of your tone.

[Andy40]

Sorry, in my AGJR I didn't change the bridge. its actually quite good and intonated perfectly. definitely change the plastic nut for a bone nut.

I changed out the tuning pegs, the pots to Bourns (I think) and a switchcraft jack, but these are just optional, I think these would be the last upgrades you would need.

Make sure you put in the ground wire from the bridge post before you install the post ferrules. and I shielded the entire control cavity as 60 cycle hum is a real problem with this guitar.

Oh and I found that the 9 gauge strings that came with it are a little too light and squishy with this scale length. I'll consider changing them to 11's or 10's at least when i change the strings.

Hope this helps

[Simon Barden]

CTS, Bourns or Alpha 500k ohm log/audio pots for volume and tone. You can use the kit capacitor, but if you want a basic upgrade, then a Sprague orange drop capacitor of 0.022uF (microfarrads) is the normal fitment, though 0.01uF will give you a more useable range of tones without getting really muddy at the bottom end. You'll probably need replacement knobs as well, as these generally come with 1/4" shafts, not the 6mm of most of the Asian-made pots.

I'd suggest wiring it in a 'vintage' fashion, with the tone control connected to the output of the volume pot (middle tag) instead of the input from the

And I'd suggest getting a Pure Tone jack socket, which has more contacts and holds the jack plug more firmly and is more reliable. Only slightly more expensive than a Switchcraft jack, which would be my previous choice.

If wanting an authentic look, tuners should be the 3-on-a-strip type with white oval buttons. This style.

https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/hardware-p...buttons-p13426

[J.R.303]

Thanks all. The advice is appreciated.
Where to put all these guitars?