Renowned bluesman, guitar expert and all-round gear guru Joe Bonamassa has taken Guitar World down a deep-dive into the differences between P-90s and humbuckers – discussing what makes the former sing and how best to set them up.
P-90s were big players for the best part of a decade before humbuckers came along and became the most common choice, especially in Gibsons. But what’s the difference between the two?
On the sliding scale of pickup tones, P-90s are said to be dead center. Generally speaking, while single-coils have snap and bite, humbuckers offer more warmth and size. P-90s sit right between them.
But how does that translate in application? Well, in a new Guitar World video, Bonamassa delivers the answer.
He’s armed himself with two Gibson Les Pauls that are as close in makeup as possible, save for their pickups. There’s a ‘58 Goldtop Standard with PAF-style humbuckers, and a ‘56 with P-90s.
“The difference with P-90s is they're a little bit more sparkly when you roll the volume down,” he explains. “They’re more like single-coils, but they’re pretty woolly when you roll the volume up.” It covers all bases.
Speaking with Gibson last year, Joe Bonamassa claimed that “most people who are real dyed-in-the-wool Gibson people will say behind closed doors when the internet isn’t watching that their favorite pickup is a P-90.”
“They're cleaner,” he believes. “There's a sparkle on top that a humbucking pickup doesn't get.”
And that’s why his Copper Iridescent Epiphone model is, like Warren Haynes' new signature, loaded with them over usual humbuckers.
But the pickup height makes a big difference, too. There are two schools of thought when it comes to pickup heights: keep them close to the strings for maximum output, or move them further away and push the amp.
Bonamassa falls in the former category when it comes to humbuckers, but P-90s require a change of tact.
“[With P-90s], I try to get the front pickup as low as I possibly can, and the back pickup as high as possible,” he states. “It creates more of a balance. Sometimes you've gotta use popsicle sticks and put it on some low-budget, de facto scaffolding to get it to work.”
P-90s are having a bit of a moment. Haynes had them fitted into his recent signature Gibson after discovering the benefits they offer. Former Ozzy Osbourne shredder, Jake E. Lee, has also been talking about the lesser-loved pickups.
“Humbuckers are great, but, to me, the P-90s were always the best of both worlds,” he tells Guitar World. “They have that articulation, attack, and aggressiveness that single coils have, but they’re also kind of smooth and beefy-sounding, like humbuckers.
The only reason he didn't play them during his Ozzy days was “because they didn’t make humbucking P-90s, so you’d have to deal with all that noise that comes with them, and at the volume I played at, it just was untenable.”
Haynes has also explained why he’s defected from ‘buckers, as P-90s find themselves in vogue once more.
