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A pair of brand new high quality pickups. Humbucker sized P90 retrofit guitar pickups.
This fantastic humbucker sized P90 pickup is a straight drop in fit to your existing humbucker mount rings so you can have the clarity and big fat single coil sound with the minimum of modifications.
A bright chrome metal housing surrounds the black pickup face with six adjustable pole pieces. The neck has a string span of 50mm across the poles and the bridge measures 52mm across the pole pieces.
The bridge measures 8k with an inductance of 4H and the neck measures slightly lower at 7.5k and 3.7H inductance.
You can also see the frequency response graph plotted for the pickup. Please note the slight eddy current effect in the pickup happening just before the main super elevation of its main frequency peak. This graph helps explain a little what makes so many players just Love the tone of our P90 pickup.
Both come with nice long leads for wiring up LP and SG style and are supplied with height springs and screws.
These 90's are opposed wound so that when you are using both together they operate in hum cancelling / humbucking mode.
Metallor pickups use ceramic magnets as these are even brighter than Alnico V or III, and in higher output pickups to help counterbalance the treble lost by the higher resistance (remember higher resistance means more midrange, but less highs if you're using Alnico).
The face of each pickup is covered with a clear protective film which needs to be removed prior to playing.
These get the most fantastic reviews from guitarists of all genre and have been used to 'lift' many an expensive guitar that is lacking in tone and clarity. Have a check around the various guitar forums to see what players have to say about these rather than just take our word for it.
belevitt
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2025
As another reviewer pointed out, these aren't at all like P90s. The sound is okay, nicer than the cheapest import humbuckers, and definitely single coil-like. But they use a single humbucker bobbin, stuck over a P90 style magnet arrangement (2 magnets with their same poles facing inward toward a ferromagnetic separator, and screws running into that), and the magnets are ceramic. I kind of wonder if they would sound worse with alnicos though since ceramics magnets emphasize highs and these already don't sound as bright or articulate as I'd like (better than a bad humbucker though). I was really hoping these used oversized bobbins like I believe Mean 90s do, so I'm kind of disappointed.
River Runner
Reviewed in Canada on June 16, 2024
I have wanted to play with a p-90 sound for some time but could never justify yet another guitar.Starting with a very playable but rarely used Epiphone SG (g400), I swapped these in using the existing electronics (500k pots 0.022 mike caps). Install was trivia. Black is ground, white is signal. Drop in replacement. This SG is on the mellower side for the guitar type.There has been comment that these are not p-90 bobbins. They are not; neither as wide nor as long as you simply can’t put that into a humbucker footprint. That said, they are certainly wider than a strat pickup and closer to a p-90 in that dimension and you can hear it in the broader harmonic content.The neck lived up to my hopes. Not quite the quack of a full p-90 but powerful, with good midrange and perhaps a touch too much bottom. It is full, authoritative and takes overdrive well, filling out the top end harmonics without being too sharp. Clean, the neck is articulate. I will keep this one in place for sure. Output level is quite high; comparable to the hot hb that it replaced.The bridge feels a bit thin, although it takes overdrive and distortion well enough. I will play with the height and pole adjustment to see if I can fatten it up a bit. Output was ok but not as punchy as the neck.Both pups are surprisingly quiet for single coils, and running both together adds a hint of hum cancelling. I have not explored the sound of both together in any great detail, but first impressions are m’eh. Ok, but not a lot of attention grabbing character.Overall this has been a worthwhile experiment. New tones from an old friend that I will now spend some quality time with. I expect to keep the neck pup for sure as I can really hear the woody voice of the guitar come through. If I can’t get a bit more depth out of the bridge pup, I may switch back to the stock HOTHB8B that came with the guitar. If I learn anything new I will update the review.In short, at less than $50 CAN, these pick ups offer terrific value and very decent quality. Their sound is certainly a pleasant change from this mid-range guitar’s stock humbuckers and I look forward to exploring it.Update: I balanced out the pole pieces and the bridge pickup is now sounding really nice. I am keeping both pickups in place and enjoying the clean and overdriven sounds of both. I have increased my rating from 4 to 5. These are inexpensive pickups but a great deal with very reasonable sound.
Francois
Reviewed in Canada on May 26, 2023
Ça dépend des goûts, j'ai remplacé les humbucker pour ces P90. J'ai d'autres guitares avec des humbuckers donc ça fait différent et c'est cool!
François
Reviewed in Canada on January 15, 2022
M'amuser a pimper une guitare
douggrose42@msn.com
Reviewed in Canada on January 14, 2022
P-90s in a humbucker size and shape. I've had them installed on 2 or 3 guitars now and was not disappointed. Great value... and so far, a great product.
Alex cristales
Reviewed in Canada on October 3, 2021
Great pickups. If you're on the fence, just get these. You won't regret it
Jason E. Maggard
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2020
EDIT: I bought a second guitar (Eart headless) and put another pair of these in it. Still in love.I bought a used Grote second hand for $200 and started setting it up for slide. The OEM pickups were high output humbuckers - nice for the weedle-weedle guys.So I decided to throw in a pair of P-90's for some good ol' slide growl. Holy Henry, these guys gave me that and more. They essentially turn your volume control into an overdrive pedal. 0-6 is nice and clean. You can turn up the amp a bit and there's no hum. Just warm fat punchy jazz tone. Well, 3 and down could be used for that strangled pop arpeggio sound even. But from 6-10, they get nasty. They growl, they bark, they sing. They make suspicious looks at your girlfriend. They grumble from the low strings while you reach for the tone knob to get a handle on that high end siren call of ear shattering treble. Striking the right balance between the gritty sound of brass grinding on the wound strings while maintaining the definition you need on the unwounds. Great dynamic response - if you play fingerstyle, you can get great tone control by modulating your attack.And, bonus time, pickup switching options that make a difference. I've had plenty of guitars that left me guessing which pickup was on.... The bridge is nice and sharp for rhythm, the neck is nice and fat for lead. Two REALLY nice voices that give you some options and flavor.As far as the looks go... Yuck. If they offered this in a solid black or even a vintage cream, it would be greater than Morgan Freeman and James Earl Jones having a tickle fight. Alas, they are uglier than sin after 30 days in quarantine.Pro Tip: Their pickup rings are angled. If you do not have a carved top guitar, reuse your current pickup rings.But I don't know if you're getting the "I love these pickups" vibe I'm trying to convey here. I'm a pro guitarist of ~30 years and these P90's blow me away. For $35? I replaced this and the cheapie plastic switch for less than I paid for the last glass slide I bought. Happy dance.Oh, one more downside. I now want to buy a cheap 335 clone to drop a set of these in. Seriously man, these pickups are fantastic. If you play any kind of blues, jazz, rockabilly, country, or if you just want a guitar that sounds great straight into the amp, put these in that Epiphone, Ibanez, whatever Gibson copy and get ready to find that creamy sweet spot in the 6-8 range and bask in it's warmth. Buy a guitar just to put these in, they're that good.
Christine
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2020
I've been wanting a P90 guitar for a while but couldn't find the right type. I finally decided to get a telecaster and pop some in myself. These sound so much better than the stock humbuckers I replaced on a squier tele and it's like a new guitar. The bridge pickup is NOT super hot, but is gnarly and wants to be overdriven big time. However, it's not the real kind of twangy kind and sings clearly like a single coil should. These have worked well for my higher-gain fuzzes, as you can really add a lot of gain and have some room to work with here. It's not as punchy as a strat-type single coil, and doesn't crunch like a humbucker.. the overall tone can be kind of "quacky" but that's what you're getting with a p90. low-gain and clean tones are very nice with great mids and clarity, as opposed to a humbucker that can be muddy or the super-scooped strat type that lacks mids.They react really well to the tone and volume knob and the hum canceling when using the middle position is nice too. The middle position is great and not overly boomy like the neck position pickups can be -- although i keep the neck one very low.I took a chance on these but they are as good or better than any pickups I've played. It gave me confidence to order three strat-style single coils ($18 together!) from Metallor, and very satisfied with those too.,
sgpenguin
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2019
I got these to put in my first guitar build from a kit. Honestly I was quite impressed!Pros:1. Very quiet2. Cleans are very clear you can hear each note of the chord.3. High gain sound is decent as well however, I’m going to use an invader pick up in the bridge for that4. The price is UNBEATABLE!5. Humbucker sized, fit without an issue (I modified an HSS so you can see the pickguard cut out.Cons1. The plastic case that came with them was ugly so you’ll probably want to buy a different one or not use one at all like I did. The pick ups themselves look very pretty though.2. They were not labeled neck or bridge. You need to use a multimeter, only takes a second if you already have one.I wasn’t expecting the tone of more expensive name brands but for only a fraction of the price this one gets reasonably close.
Scott Wharton
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2019
Dropped right in to a standard pickguard. They are what they are for the price. If you want to try out a P90 pickup but don't want to spend too much, give them a shot and maybe upgrade later. I bought them for my Squier Telecaster Bullet and they sound way better than the stock pickups. I had to do some modifications for the bridge.
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