GFS Pickups Mean 90

p90 sized humbucker. I'm not sure what the specifics, doesn't matter anyway

I put it in a 1973 ampeg super stud.... go ahead research that one. i replaced the bridge caused it sounded extremley thin. I did a really intersting mod, disconect the the neck pickup, so there's only the bridge. Now there is only one volume and one tone. The volume is where the toggle switch is and the tone is where the bridge volume should be. i think it looks really cool and also functional. volume swells are much easier.

Why does anyone want a p90? I'll tell you... to sound like leslie west. thats why i bought it, who doesn't love that phat distorted sound. I wouldn't say its high output, but its fairly hot. My amp is a roland cube 60, which offers alot of different tonal options. I don't bother with effects, just plug and go.

The tone of a pickup is effected by your guitar.. wood, hardware etc.
The guitar is a super heavy, maybe 12 pounds. The tone then is very heavy in the bass and treble.

I play blues rock so and this pickup is a perfect match
It can easily get a good ac/dc tone. If your looking for a good crunchy tone, this is the pickup for you.

great pickup and for only $34 you can't beat it

Passive single coil design, aged Alnico V magnets with 42guage Formvar enamel wire, wound to 8.6K for the bridge, and 8.1K for the neck positions, in a standard, humbucker format. They are available with black, chrome, gold, and black nickel metal covers.

I replaced the EMG LH300/H4 and H4A pups from a new ESP Viper 200FM LTD. I absolutely loved the playability and design of this guitar, and the great weight and balance, but the tone just sucked! EMG and ESP love to tout the "balls to the walls" tone of these pickup designs, along with the 81/85 active versions, but none of this stuff registers as quality tone in my book. I mean no offense to my metal-headed brethren and fellow players, many of whom for which I have great respect; just not MY thing.

Output is very similar to a quality P90, and these highly resemble the Seymour Duncan Phat Cat SPH-90's. The Mean 90's are not as sweet in the top end, are mildly rude in the upper mids, and I attribute much of that to the Alnico V's, as opposed to Alnico II's. The Mean 90's have a good amount of chime and bell quality in the upper register, but again, it has a little "edge" on it, which sounds great. Put this behind a small compressor/sustainer with a little overdrive, like the Soul Preacher, and this combination kicks butt! A great 70's and 80's sound match, but also can get in there and do Cream or The Who with ease. I play in front of a Randall RG200DG3 hybrid 2X12 combo with another 2X12 extension cab, all Celestion Seventy 80 loaded. I tend to nearly always have plate reverb and chorus set up on the amp from it's internal digital library. The neck model is RWRP so you've got dead quiet when both positions are on, although I did not find either the neck or bridge positions only to be noisy; well made and potted to suppress microphonics!

Yes, I'd replace in a heartbeat! I've been plaing and teaching music for over 40 years. My ESP/LTD guitar is equipped with all black nickel hardware, and these pickups having covers in black nickel really set the guitar off, a terrific match. I own a set of Duncan Phat Cats which I have in an ES-335, and for a hollow or semi-hollow body I prefer the Duncan's. BUT, for a solid body like this SG variant, the Mean 90's are awesome...it's an "edgy" looking guitar and should sound the same! That aside, you'll pay over $150 a set for the Phat Cat's, and less than half that for the GFS Mean 90's.

I installed these into a custom built les paul with a bigsby. i play in a western/rockabilly band and wanted a fat twangy sound. i already have a telecaster and wanted to get a p-90 sounding guitar. i liked the fact that these are humbucker sized because if i did not like them there are tons of other pickups i could replace them with.

These pickups are very very heavy in the low mid range. They are almost completely lacking clear highs. They are very muddy sounding. I am rating them a 3 because even though i dont like them they really cut through the sound of a band and are good for leads. Of course when compaired to my tele this guitar is not as bright but it is even more muddy than my carvin tl-60 with c22 humbuckers. I also compaired these to my friend's Lp with gibson p-94s. the p-94's are clean and clear sounding compaired with the mean 90s. i am going to give GFS one more try. I am going to try their memphis retrotron pickups. i heard the sound clips and i think that i will like them.

i would not buy these again.

These are meant to be a P-90 pickup in a humbucker sized case. They are passive, and according to the manufacturer specs, have a wide, flat bobbin and alnico magnets, as do true P-90s. To my ear, they are not wound too hot.

I originally installed a pair of these in an Epi LP in lieu of the stock pups, and they totally changed that guitar for the better, tonally speaking. Unfortunately, it tended to choke out past the 12th fret, and I never could get the action to where I liked it, so I traded it off on a Gibson Faded SG.

I installed them in the SG. I actually wanted to get an SG Classic, but didn't have the scratch to purchase one outright. I was able to trade into the Faded SG, so I was happy. It's an excellent guitar... With the Mean 90s in it, I'm happy as a clam.

These pickups are not overly hot, buth they will drive an amp reasonably well. They are very dynamic and touch-sensitive. They are quite articulate, too, I can hear every note in a chord clearly. On their own, they are excellent sounding pickups.

That said, I happen to also own a Gibson Faded Les Paul DC Special, which has a pair of P-90s in it, so I did a head to head comparison between the SG w/Mean 90s and the LP DC Special w/P-90s through a Peavey Triple XXX amp, using the same settings for each.

As expected, both were quite articulate, with lots of midrange presence. The P-90s have a tad more top end, while the Mean 90s have a tad more bottom end. The Mean 90 tends to "snarl" a bit more, where the P-90 "screams". Cranking up the clean channel volume and setting the master to taste, both pushed the front end of the amp about the same. On the overdrive channels, both really rocked, providing excellent grind, with lots of top end and overtones. The bridge pickups on either provided a nice lead tone that could go from bright and open to ear-searing. The neck pickups on either were very rich, lots of jazzy tones, but with plenty of grunt for a mellow overdriven tone when you wanted it.

Overall, the Mean 90 is a virtual sonic twin to the P-90s in this test. The differences I noted (the Mean 90 being a little darker overall, with what seems to be a bit more bottom end) may simply be due to the innate differences in the two guitars carcasses. The SG is heavier, and the mahogany in it is harder and more dense than the mahogany in my LP DC Special. The other thing that the sonic differences may be attributable to is that I didn't swap out the stock Gibson 300K pots in the SG for a set of 500Ks. That would have opened up the tone on the SG, brightening it somewhat.

I've also had the pleasure of playing several SG Classics, which are a SG with a pair of P-90s and a TOM instead of a wraptail. Tonally, the Faded SG with Mean 90s is a clone of the SG Classic.

The Mean 90s work in this guitar--you can twang or you can crunch with equal facility. Having the center position being humbucking is helpful, too. You can take a regular SG and, with the right amp and tone settings, do everything from a Luther Perkins twang, to CLapton in Cream to early Santana (the tones of "Soul Sacrifice" performed at Woodstock) to Townshend (the tones on the "Live at Leeds" album) all the way to 80's hair metal (think Ozzy back when Jake E. Lee played a lowly little white SG Junior with a P-90 at the bridge alongside all his other pointy guitars).

Cost not considered, they are an excellent way to convert a humbucker-routed guitar over to a true P-90 tone monster. Cost considered, these pickups are a ridiculously good value for the purpose intended.

I'm completely satisfied with the performance of these pickups. If, by some freak accident or theft, I wound up missing my SG with the Mean 90s in it, I'd simply get another Faded SG and drop another set of Mean 90s in it instead of spending the extra scratch and purchasing an SG Classic. Run the two side by side through the same amp with the same settings, with you in a blindfold listening to each, and you really can't tell a tonal difference.

I've been playing since 1976, and have gone through quite a few guitars along the way. This SG with the Mean 90s in it is a complete keeper. Unless something goes horribly wrong, I'll be playing this one until I keel over dead...

Single coil. Target sound: P-90 in a humbucker size. I got the black finish which with the nickel pole pieces gives it a nice P-90-ish vibe in the looks department. Close to 9k.

I put this in a cheap Epi LP Jr that I wanted to upgrade, replacing the stock dogear P-90.

Interesting, to say the least! I emailed the ever helpful Jay at Guitar Fetish because I was having trouble deciding between the Dream 90 and the Mean. I wanted Leslie West tone, so he recommended the Mean, so that's what I went with. I did NOT get that distinctive Mountainesque Leslie West tone, specifically, but this pup does deliver Mountainesque Leslie West BALLS. It's very powerful, warm and round, well balanced, with clear bass, powerful mids and sparkly highs.

To my ears, it's in the Highs department that the Mean 90 really differs from a classic P-90. The highs are not particularly single coily, nor humbuckerish. Instead, there's almost a Filtertronish jangle to the highs that make this pup jump out of a mix without sounding harsh or nasal--and don't worry, NOT sounding like a Filtertron either! Very, very cool. The bass and midrange really fill the mix--without sounding muddy--and the highs sit on top of it all, like the ice cubes in a top shelf mixed drink. When I back off the tone I get a good "woman tone," but it's still clear. LOVE playing Cream covers with this axe!

It's very articulate. It really responds to pick attack, and I can hear all the notes in my chords. Palm-muted arpeggios shine through the Mean 90, butt shaking thump with butt spanking snap.

This would be a great pickup for a classic rock band, because it covers the sonic territory of single coils and classic humbucker sounds (without exactly sounding like either). It has its own unique sonic character. Its distinctive highs make it nice for supercharged country because depending on my setup and attack this guitar can now stand in for a Telecaster.

Oh, it's a lot quieter than I expected it to be.

I'd give it a 10 if it actually nailed P-90, but it's definitely a 10 in my book for its own unique vibe. Wish there was an option for 9.5 in this slot!

Great pickup for the price, and it definitely added a few hundred bucks worth of sonic value to a bargain guitar.

I've been playing since 1974, own 15 guitars, and have been through just about everything over the years. I was hoping to make this lil Junior sound like an expensive Junior. the Mean 90 doesn't, but it DOES make it sound like an expensive guitar that I've never heard before.

Humbucker sized single coil, read 8.9 k_ohms on my meter, bridge pickup.

On an Epiphone SG I have a Gibson P-94 (also humbucker sized single coil) in the neck and a Gibson humbucker in the bridge, the combination is great so I wanted that on my main guitar too. Installed the Mean 90 in the bridge position of an Epiphone Dot, replacing a Stewart Macdonald (golden age) bridge humbucker because I wanted to be able to switch between mellow and bitch.
The neck pickup is still a stewmac golden age humbucker I installed earlier, which sounds great there. Combining a single coil and a humbucker in one guitar sounds like you have a different type of pickup in each position, really versatile. Will probably do this to every future guitar.

Output is about the same output level as the Golden Age Humbucker, about 9k-ohms. Nice and crisp, clear sound. Use it with Boogie studio preamp clone, an old power stage from RCF and a Kitty Hawk cab with a 12" Celestion. Effects are a Real Tube overdrive, a fasel Dunlop wah, EHX pulsar tremolo and a Danelectro wasabi delay. Tone is quite biting in the bridge, nice for cutting through the rest of the band. I play rock/reggae/triphop-stuff. Versatility of the combination of the humbucker and the single coil is great for this.

Would get these more often in the future. They do the trick. Comparing it to a more expensive P-94 from gibson, I think it sounds about as good, and great for a pickup 1/3 the price. Nothing to dislike about these pickups. The rest of my sound will have to be more hard practise ; ) Been playing for 13 years, other stuff I use is an Epiphone SG (gibson humbucker and a P-94), and a Zerosette strat copy from the 60's with rail-mini-humbuckers (Italian vintage thing, check out www.fetishguitars.com).
Amps are several old (40's) tube amps meant for audio/PA and cabs with Celestion speakers, I like Celestion and a Session Rockette 30 solid state (lovely thing). Some wah's, Real Tube overdrive(s), Akai headrush looper, Maestro stage phaser, Vox Valve Tone (TS-type thing) and some other stuff.

The Mean 90 is a humbucker-sized single coil. DC resistance is 8.1 and 8.7. Mine are smooth gloss black, which matches the hardware on my guitar.

I replaced both pickups on my Epiphone Dot Studio with the Mean 90s, replacing the stock humbuckers, which were muddy, imbalanced and inarticulate.

The output level seems comparible to the stock humbuckers. I like a clean sound most of the time and noticed that the Mean 90s don't push the overdrive on my Hartke GT60C nearly as much as the stock overwound humbuckers - a good thing for the sound I like. Hum and feedback are not a problem.

I'd replace these pickups in a heartbeat! I've been playing over 40 years but the Dot is my first electric since the 70s. I love the way the Mean 90s sound like the P90s on the Gibson ES-330 I had years ago. I chose the Mean 90s over the likes of SD Phat Cats and Gibson P94s because of the reviews and the price. These pickups transformed a cheap guitar into a good guitar. I'm very satisfied with these pickups and recommend them to anyone looking for that classic P90 tone.

The Mean 90 is a humbucker sized single coil (I only have one in the bridge position.) It fits perfectly in the pickup ring of my Agile AL2000 Les Paul copy. It is chrome covered, with visible and adjustable pole pieces. I don't know the exact specifics on impedance, but it's not as hot as the neck humbucker, (I knew this before I bought it.) It does seem hotter than a stock Strat bridge pickup, and about the same as my Squire Telecaster bridge pickup.
Note: Make sure you raise the Mean 90 pretty close to the strings! Too low and it just won't cut like you want it too.

I have a 4 month old, 2007 Agile AL2000. It is an outstanding example of a Les Paul style guitar. Though a p90 edition of this guitar is available, I bought the Gold Top version with humbuckers. The bridge humbucker sounded okay, but I am kind of weird and wanted to play country music through a Les Paul. I needed a single coil to cut through on solos, so I ordered this Mean 90. The Mean 90 only costs $35.00 brand new, and I figured I had little to lose by trying it out.

This is where it's a little bit tricky. Generally, you want your bridge pickup to be hotter than your neck pickup. However, I liked the stock neck humbucker so much that I didn't want to lose that sound. So in order to balance the sound output between the neck and bridge, I've had to leave the neck pickup volume at about 7, and the Mean 90 on 10. This is the balance I use for country music. If you put the neck pickup on 10 and the bridge on 7, the middle position sounds awesome for punk rock (with more overdrive, of course). The bridge only solo sound is very country sounding. I play through an Epiphone Valve Junior tube amp which I love, but if you had a big Fender amp I bet it would sound even better.

GFS pretty much has the market cornered with the Mean 90. Anybody who would pay $85.00 for the Seymour Duncan version, or $105.00 for the Gibson version has got more money than he knows what to do with.
The Mean 90 is a wonderful product. It looks nice, it makes a humbucker equipped instrument much more versatile than it normally would be, and I am very pleased. It honestly doesn't sound that much like the Gibson p90s that I've played, but it does sound like a real powerful, very clear and articulate single coil pickup. That's what I wanted. It also doesn't hum that much, about like a Telecaster, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Looks very good, this P90 in humbuckersize with chrome cover. Output is not too hot, so it stays transparent and is not muddy.

Peavey Rockingham B6 - Rockabilly Jazz Guitar with Bigsby.
Neck position
I??ve had Gibson 57 classic, Wolfetone, Dearmonds, Truetone, Epiphone and Voodoo pickups in this guitar.
I never was quite satisfied until now.

I like this cheapo Jazzguitar for its look, playability and for playing it unamplified at midnight at home and not disturbing anyone else. I am not the experienced jazzplayer but I now a lot about sound. I am building electric guitars and I am always exploring how something sounds: pickups, tubes, speakers, amps, cables and I have developped quite a good ear for sound.

My opinion is that a pickup is not bad or good sounding, but every pickup has a certain sound and if you are lucky it suits to your style and your guitar and your amp and your cables and your speaker cabinets. If not, than it does not mean that a pickup is bad. It just does not suit.

I always tried to get the guitar sound good amplified and I always was missing something when using the pickups named above.
I`ll try to make a comparison:
Wolfetone: more suited for rockmusic, clear tone with LOTS of overtones, quite aggressive and lacking warmth and body in this guitar. A plank of mahogany would suit much better.
Truetone: One of the best PAF copies, but could have more lower mids (warmth and body) and a clearer bass.
Epiphone: muddy bass, good mids, no dynamics and no transparency. Lack of detail.
Dearmonds: Really liked them, but more upper mids accentuated and a not sweet enough sounding, lacks lower mids in my opinion, but cuts through very well and would be of course excellent for rockabilly.
Voodoos: the fullest and warmest and sweetest of the bunch, excellent detail, excellent pickup but bass could be clearer in this pickup but I am keeping them for sure. They would sing in every Les Paul guitar like no others. Maybe not aggressive enough for some.

GFS Mean 90: Bass is clear, but deep. Mids are full and warm, lots of body, highs are sweet but there??s a lot of detail (much more than any humbucker) and clarity. Imagine a PAF which sounds very full and warm and add detail dynamic and clarity from a single coil while retaining the overall sound coloration. I??ve never got this sound before in this quality.

Of course there is a little hum, but as I play it only clean it does not matter for me.

I am using 250 KOhm for Volume and it gets sweeter when you back of a bit. turning back more it starts to get clearer and the guitar sounds very natural and acousticlike then.

I??ve not tried this pickup in a different guitar, but I think I would love it in a semiacoustic too. But in my Peavey it is the best pickup I ever installed.

I would of course replace it, but would not put it into all my guitars because I like diversity.
My Toneking Meteor II amp shows every detail from a guitar or playing and thats why it is so good for comparisons. Bad in - bad out. good in - excellent out.
long time ago I??ve tried a Gibson P94 but didn??t like it very much. Too much bass and lacking character. That??s why I always refused to try another P90 in humbucker size. But recently I had to order from guitarfetish and thought: 35 Dollars? Why should??nt I try it.
Luckily I gave it a chance. Value for money could not be better.

Humbucker sized P-90. Metal casing, chrome.

I have these pickups in both positions of a Fender Jaguar Special, the HH stoptail one. Not exactly HH anymore. The previous tenants to the pickups routes were the stock humbuckers, Fender Dragsters. Hot ceramic humbuckers, sounds good for what they are, but I finally realized how I wanted to sound, and AlNiCo single coils are part of the equation.

The output is what I would expect of a big single coil: that is, big for a single coil. Definitely not as hot as the humbuckers I pulled out, but hot enough for me. They've very dynamic, so even at greater volumes they can stay clean with softer pick attack. Very transparent pickups as well. Pretty much exactly what you do is what comes out of the amp, if you know what I mean. Combine that with the dynamics and you've got some very sensitive pickups that will make you tighten up your technique if you've been going humbucker-only for a while. The string definition is good. It takes some work to muddy these up, even with gain added. You can really hear yourself play. Hope that's a good thing, huh?

With gain they start to growl. That's the best way I can describe it. I guess it's in the EQ, which I'll deal with later. Even more gain can net some pretty searing lead tones, if I do say so myself. These pickups can soar if you let them. Sort of gritty sounding, yet slicing. If humbuckers are broadswords and regular single coils are rapiers, these are knuckle dusters with knives affixed. MEAN, I suppose. They do hum, but it is very manageable, especially with the hum-cancelling middle position.

The neck pickup is softer in tone. With the treble up it can get bell-like, but not like a Strat or Telecaster. P-90s are to cathedrals as 'casters are to town churches. With treble rolled off the sound get very warm. These are some of the best jazz tones out of a solid body guitar I've heard. They're mellow, but still defined. No humbucker compression and muddiness. The neck/bridge blend is a more open sound that's good for rhythms of all kinds. Has a nice balance, but not what I'd choose for a lead sound. The bridge is SPICY. It growls and growls, but never really snaps or barks like a Telecaster or Stratocaster might. Still some good punch in the bridge, but that's not what P-90s are for.

The tone is humped. Lots of midrange in these pickups, and in P-90s as a rule. It really helps you hear yourself in a band situation, and personally I am a mids fan, but if for some reason you are the kind of person that immediately cranks down the mid knob, you should not think about purchasing Mean 90s. Shame on all you scoopers! There is a very strong bass response as well. I had to lower my big E pole pieces to balance it out. I'm a fan of it now, but be prepared for lots of low end. From what I hear this is a hallmark of GFS products. The treble is the weakest part of the EQ. These pickups are somewhat dark, but this too is a feature of P-90s. They aren't especially dark though, and get sort of a bright yet dark on the bridge pickup wide open. Add a little reverb and it's very spaghetti western. A nice balance overall, but don't expect tradition single coil brightness.

I play, for lack of a better term, latin funk rock jazz fusion. It sounds like a mess, I know, but it's what I do. For those of you also playing this, look no further for pickups. This genre and P-90s were made for each other. For rockers, P-90s love to rock. Mid-gain rock and P-90s are a great match. They can do blues, but blues isn't so much a tone as a state of playing. The only thing I wouldn't do with is play brutal metal. For one thing, they're single coils. For another, they start to sizzle at higher gain levels. Not good for a tight metal sound at all. Just get some hot humbuckers and be done with it.

I would replace these pickups if damaged. They were the sound in my head, I just didn't know it yet. I've only been playing three years, but that's just about long enough to know what I like. I'm sharp, and now I'm just going to keep on honing myself. What I like is basically what's in the previous section. The only thing I could complain about is the hum, but I don't use much gain most of the time. As far as humbucker sized P-90s go, I'd say choose this one. I don't have much experience in this field, but like I said, I know what I like. For me, it is perfect. The price was a determining factor because I am a student, but it was a lesson that throwing more money at something does not make it better. I am completely satisfied with the sound and playability of my Jaguar now, and have been for 6 months. No honeymoon raving here. I'd recommend them for what they are: great tools, regardless of price. They might not fit perfectly, but give them a try.