H-P90-S has it been done?

[Andy123]

For years I've played with a hot humbucker in the bridge position and not spared a thought for anything else. Recently however, I've been learning about how different tones are created with different styles of pick ups placed in different positions.

I've discovered how awesome P90s are and want to experiment. Also, I've come to realise that Hendrix's lead tone more often than not came from a single coil neck pick up.

Naturally I thought about getting a kit guitar and installing some magic combination of pick ups. The conflict began with not being able to let go of the idea of a humbucker in the bridge. If I keep that, and want a single coil in the neck, how do I implement a P90?

So I'm thinking I want a guitar with a humbucker in the bridge, P90 in the middle, and single coil in the neck. Possibly a Fender scale length so the pick ups can be reasonably spaced apart.

Does such a beast already exist? Can I buy one off the shelf?
If not, what would be the easiest kit to do this to?

[Dedman]

I have a few guitars with a bucker in the bridge and a single in the neck, one of my favourites is my MKA-2 which I had a custom pick guard made that took a humbucker at the bridge and a single up front. The JMA kits with the huge swimming pool routing would be easy to configure anyway you wanted by simply making a pick guard to suit.
Also dont forget that you can get P90's in a humbucker size/shape. I have them in a build and they sound great! ( Tone Rider make them) So if you had a kit custom ordered for 3 humbuckers you could put a regular bucker in the bridge, then 2 bucker sized P90's up front. (p90's are big single coils after all)

The JMA kits and the MKA both have big open routings , it would only require you to make a pick guard to hold any combo of pick ups.

[Andy123]

I suspect I may be banned from the Pit Bull custom shop after my last effort

To my ears there's a definite difference in tone between a traditional single coil and a P90, even though the P90 technically has only a single coil in it. The tonal possibilities with blending the bridge humbucker with a P90, or a P90 with a fender style neck single coil excite me quite a bit.

[Dedman]

Yup, they do sound different. I say just get a JM kit and make a pick guard to hold a bucker, a P90 and a Strat single

[Andy123]

I'm not a huge fan of pick guards, and the idea of coming up with a custom one feels like an unwanted speed bump here. Having a browse through the pitbull site though, with a bit of extra routing I reckon the DM1 might be a good blank canvas to muck around with.

[Simon Barden]

Don't underestimate the difficulty of fitting a pickup selector switch in the DM-1 as you'll want at least a 5-way switch and the control cavity is pretty small. You'll almost certainly have to expand the existing one or rout a new cavity in the back for it. At least the top and back are flat, which means that routing the new pickup cavities and the control cavity work are easy. A lot harder with an arched top!

[WeirdBits]

Or use 2 x 3-way toggles. One selects bridge/both/neck, the other selects output of switch 1/both/middle. Gives you all the combinations and may be easier than trying to fit a lever switch.

[wazkelly]

If your pockets are deep enough I saw a YouTube demo on Seymour Duncan P Rails recently (Darrel Braun Guitars) and they can do just about everything you want when combined with a few push pull switches.

https://www.guitarplayer.com/miscell...shpr-1-p-rails

https://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/...P-Rails-Review



In one of Darrel Braun's videos (ultimate Epiphone Les Paul from memory) he mentioned scale length has a bearing on how single coil split can sound on 24.75" scale compared to 25.5" and why Fender Tele's sound different. He also suggested flipping the P rails so that the single coil bars were nearest the bridge and nearest the neck to help get a sound closer to that produced by a Tele.

Using separate HB, P90 & single coil could be a challenge keeping hum and feedback under control as P90's are notoriously noisy.

[corsair]

Yeah... doing a P90 (bridge), Stacked h/b (middle), hot s/c (neck) coversion on an 80s Japanese superstrat currently...

[wazkelly]

Just tripped over this YouTube P rails demo video which covers all the sound combinations.

If I had the coin would definitely give them a go.