Brierley Pickups B-90 Set

Set consists of B-90 ('bucker-sized P-90) in the bridge with an A-90 (or AlNinety) in the neck; the A-90 has alnico mags with 7.5k resistance, while the B-90 has the bar variety magnets at 9k. Both are single coil, the neck is RWRP.

I installed these into an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Plus that I had changed all the hardware on and got nicely set up. The unplugged sound had improved greatly, though the electronics were letting it down. I replaced the stock humbuckers that the guitar came with, which weren't giving me the right frequency response: too cloudy in the lower mids (170-250Hz) with harsh highs and upper mids. I thought P-90's might be the answer, but didn't want to cut up the guitar. I rang Mick, and amazingly, he had the B-90 lying around.

I play through a custom built Reynolds Valveart 50w tube head going into a Marshall 1969 4x12, which can be switched to provide 30w into 2x12. The sound of this guitar, figuratively speaking, has gone from a small flaccid knob to a raging erection. I play mostly rock with a funk/metal tinge, contemporary with reverence for 'vintage' tones, and the variations these pickups provide is amazing. I would describe them as 'full range'; the neck is fat and warm, the bridge is smooth with a touch of grain when cranked. Each cleans up beautifully when the volume pot is rolled back, and one of the best features is when the selector is in the middle setting - as the A-90 is reverse-wound, reverse-polarity, you end up with a humbucker when both pickups are in circuit. If I roll back the volume on the neck pickup, it sounds like a bridge humbucker, and vice versa.
The only thing I think these might be unsuitable for is death metal -you know, where the bass playing is kind of irrelevant because there is so much bottom end in the chunky guitars - but maybe Mick has a hot humbucker for that purpose, if it's what you want to do.

I've been playing for about 12 years, and only now do I feel that I have the right tools to convey the true essence of my playing. In changing the pickups, I wasn't trying to sound like any player in particular, but I knew what I wanted frequency-wise. I had considered using coil-splittable humbuckers, which seemed initially to be the most obvious choice for versatility. However, I kind of feel that option is neither here nor there. In taking a chance with the B-90 set, it could have worked out that they occupied a useless grey area between HBs and SCs, but instead they have everything good about both, with a distinct flavour all of their own.
There were few manufacturers that I could find that even made this sort of thing, and they were all foreign. The closest competitor to Brierley I could find was the Rio Grande Bastard set, which was basically double the price, and there's no way you could talk on the phone to the guy who made your pickups, nor get them to send one to you to try and see if you like it!