needing suggestions on a budget dog ear P90

[underhill]

i'm needing some suggestions on a budget (under $100) dog ear P90 to go between two existing P90s.  current bridge is coming in at a little over 9k, neck is 8.1k. both of these pickups sound good, but a tad bright. i'm running a 300k tone, and a 500k volume on the controls. i'd like something that might bring a little fatter tone to add to a neck/middle & bridge/middle settings. 
thanks

[newey]

For low cost pickups of any style, I have always liked GFS pickups. I've never used their Dogear P90s, but I've used their HB-sized P-90s and liked them very much.
www.guitarfetish.com/KP--GFS-Alnico-Vintage-Wound-Dogear-Pickups-Black--Kwikplug%E2%84%A2-Ready_p_22017.html

They make cream or black covered ones. The neck model clocks in at 8KΩ, while the Bridge is 8.8K, so the bridge would be in between the ones you have.

[underhill]

thanks newey. i have seen them listed. there are a couple of youtube videos on them, but not what i would call a serious review/assessment. the price is certainly right, so i might just give one a try.
thanks again for the input.

[underhill]

newey, what have you heard about the Oripure pickups? they seem to get pretty good reviews on Amazon.

[reTrEaD]

Oct 7, 2023 13:58:40 GMT -5 underhill said:

i'm needing some suggestions on a budget (under $100) dog ear P90 to go between two existing P90s.  current bridge is coming in at a little over 9k, neck is 8.1k. both of these pickups sound good, but a tad bright. i'm running a 300k tone, and a 500k volume on the controls. i'd like something that might bring a little fatter tone to add to a neck/middle & bridge/middle settings. 
thanks

Before purchasing an additional pickup, you might want to consider which pickups will be combined together so you can get hum-canceling, if possible.

If the two pickups you already have, hum-cancel when combined together, adding the new pickup between those two will only hum-cancel when combined with one of the existing pickups. However if your new middle has the same magnetic polarity as your neck pickup, you can get hum-canceling if your combinations are neck/bridge and middle/bridge.

You might want to move the existing neck pickup to the middle position and choose a new pickup for the neck position that has the same magnetic polarity as the bridge pickup. Then you'll be able to have hum-canceling when your combinations are neck/middle and bridge/middle.

[gckelloch]

P90's aren't a particularly bright pickups, but a few things other than pot values will affect that.

First, a very low capacitance cable might smooth off and extend the resonance peak so it's not so focused in one place that makes a sharper tone. The total capacitance of the pickup, any cabling b4 the 1st preamp stage, and inside the 1st preamp stage might be high enough to put at least the bridge pickup peak between 1.5-2kHz and somewhat strong, which can be piercing in some cases. A very low C cable of ~200pF or less might help.

Keeping the pole screws down and the coil up yeilds a fatter note timbre. You might try some P90 shims if the pickups are not close enough to the strings.

The other factor you could change is the pickup magnets. AlNiCo II bars would yield a smoother note timbre due to less string pull than with AV or C8 bars. The output with AII may not even drop much at all from AV because the increased permeability might increase efficiency by drawing flux lines from the strings down more through the coil. It may just sound warmer/fatter. A thin steel plate between the magnets and coil would achieve the same thing. Magnets can usually be easily slide in/out of a P90 with the baseplate screws loosened. Just be careful of the lead wires. P90 bar magnets can be had pretty cheap.

[davidofchatham]

Others have provided good suggestions and wise counsel, but if you're still looking for that P90, you might want to check out the thread "Cheap P90" at TDPRI.

Wilkinson, Epiphone pulls (especially from the last couple of years), and yes, GFS, are popular recommendations. Guitar Madness is another good option for pickups sourced similarly to GFS's.

If you decide you want something custom, Q Pickups (Croatia) might be a good option, based on what I've read about their other pickups. Oh yeah, I've personally bought from Odezza Handwound Pickups (US) and had a good experience; his P90 is just under $100 according to the pricelist.