[Rumble_b]

I’m not sure if this guitar is a reward or punishment for me. I decided the end of last year to get back into playing. Hardly touched a guitar for 6-7 years(various reasons). I’ve always wanted a single p90 gold top les Paul but the have been rare and out of my price range. This one is almost perfect, soap bar and fret markers all the way down would be better.

Guess I’m breaking out the visa!

 

[DrumBob]

Jeez, some of you really derailed this thread. If I was the OP, I might be a bit peeved.

 

[vadsy]

Jeez, some of you really derailed this thread. If I was the OP, I might be a bit peeved.

yea, but do we know if it's extra for mustard?

 

[tdotrob]

yea, but do we know if it's extra for mustard?

I think it was determined it definitely used to be but not now.

Colchar is on his way to Montreal to get the ultimate I told ya so.

 

[mhammer]

I'm of two minds when it comes to single-pickup guitars. In one sense, they oblige the player to think harder, and be more attentive to pick attack, simply because you ONLY have the one pickup and can't "take the easy route" of switching pickups to get a different tone; you have to make a different tone with your fingers and pick. And certainly all those jazz players that had one pickup by the fingerboard never seemed to yearn for a bridge pickup to give them more sonic flexibility. At the same time, there's really only so much one can do with a single pickup. I don't know that I could live with a single pickup, no matter how much I like the visual clean lines and simplicity of guitars that do.

But that's me. Plenty of people have the tastes and playing style that requires nothing more than a bridge pickup, and indeed, plenty of players who may use a multi-pickup guitar rarely use anything other than the bridge pickup. And of course, if one has several guitars or more, you have the freedom/latitude to exploit a single-pickup guitar for what it CAN do, and switch to another when it can't.

 

[jb welder]

@mhammer , maybe I'm the only one chuckling at your joke about the homies from Jane & Finch working Bay St.

 

[mhammer]

I'm sure some do.

 

[BMW-KTM]

I guess if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.
Pay attention now.

THIS .... is a boner alert.
Please make note of this for future reference.

 

[Wardo]

Wanted this one for awhile now but costs too much, nowhere to play anymore anyway and I'd have to unload a few guitars to get it.

 

[madhermit]

which seymour duncan p90 is used?

I didn’t see if this got answered in all that mustard talk. All I can find anywhere is that it is a Seymour Duncan P-90, but not which specific one.

Makes a BIG difference. I had a Godin with a ceramic Seymour Duncan P90 in the bridge. Yuck (WAY too much mustard on that pickup!) Got another Godin with a vintage style Seymour Duncan in the bridge. Yum! Just the right amount of mustard.

 

[mhammer]

I didn’t see if this got answered in all that mustard talk. All I can find anywhere is that it is a Seymour Duncan P-90, but not which specific one.

Makes a BIG difference. I had a Godin with a ceramic Seymour Duncan P90 in the bridge. Yuck (WAY too much mustard on that pickup!) Got another Godin with a vintage style Seymour Duncan in the bridge. Yum! Just the right amount of mustard.

Ah, but you had to pay more for less mustard, didn't you?

In Dave Hunter's "Guitar Pickup Handbook", pickup-maker Kent Armstrong (son of Dan) rebuffs critiques of ceramic-mag pickups by saying that one has to wind for ceramic mags. His view is that the harshness associated with ceramic occurs when people think that everything which applies to AlNiCo can just be transposed, as is, to ceramic. I don't have any experience with his pickups to be able to question or reject his views, but it's worth considering. When critiques of digital recording as "harsh" and "brittle" started to emerge in the mid-'80s, one of the deans of audio (Julian Hirsch, I think) had a piece in Stereo Review where he said that such criticisms stemmed from engineers simply replicating all the mic-ing techniques traditionally used to help instruments "cut through" on bandwidth-challenged mag tape. He suggested that, as time and experience accumulated, audio engineers would eventually adapt their methods to bring out the best in the new digital technology.

So maybe Armstrong is on to something. Certainly from a cost and environmental perspective (cobalt mining is not particularly green, and has geopolitical consequences), more ceramic pickups would be nice. Whether he is on to something true, I can't offer an opinion on.

There is also the matter of whether a few small changes to the guitar circuitry, like a small cap here, or change in volume/tone-pot value there, can massage typical ceramic pickups into something pleasing. Again, I'm agnostic.

 

[madhermit]

Ah, but you had to pay more for less mustard, didn't you?

In Dave Hunter's "Guitar Pickup Handbook", pickup-maker Kent Armstrong (son of Dan) rebuffs critiques of ceramic-mag pickups by saying that one has to wind for ceramic mags. His view is that the harshness associated with ceramic occurs when people think that everything which applies to AlNiCo can just be transposed, as is, to ceramic. I don't have any experience with his pickups to be able to question or reject his views, but it's worth considering. When critiques of digital recording as "harsh" and "brittle" started to emerge in the mid-'80s, one of the deans of audio (Julian Hirsch, I think) had a piece in Stereo Review where he said that such criticisms stemmed from engineers simply replicating all the mic-ing techniques traditionally used to help instruments "cut through" on bandwidth-challenged mag tape. He suggested that, as time and experience accumulated, audio engineers would eventually adapt their methods to bring out the best in the new digital technology.

So maybe Armstrong is on to something. Certainly from a cost and environmental perspective (cobalt mining is not particularly green, and has geopolitical consequences), more ceramic pickups would be nice. Whether he is on to something true, I can't offer an opinion on.

There is also the matter of whether a few small changes to the guitar circuitry, like a small cap here, or change in volume/tone-pot value there, can massage typical ceramic pickups into something pleasing. Again, I'm agnostic.

He very well might be on to something, but all I know is about those two pickups and what my ears told me. I really disliked the ceramic one. It was super high output too, so that may be why I didn’t like it. It measured at 14k, compared to 9.5 for the vintage style alnico one. So maybe if SD learn how to wind pickups, maybe they can make a good ceramic one (sarcasm alert!)

 

[mhammer]

My guess is that any "economy" ceramic units made under their brand are not likely made in the USA, but rather somewhere in Asia.