Gibson P-94

Samick Royale RL-4 semi hollow all mahogany (Guitar Player Editor's Pick). Replaced Gibson '57 Classic HB's.

Similar output to Gibson '57 Classic HB's vintage alnico II's. Much better output from P-94 bridge pup than my Fender CP Jazzmaster, which is a little thin on its P-90. I use Fender BF amp with onboard reverb/trem, and play blues/jazz, so I play clean and use some OD for natural breakup, but no gain. Sometimes I also use Boss/Fender FBM-1 Bassman pedal to get a little "hair", but sound is still basically clean. I also use Barber Tone Press for compression at times. The sound is truly in-between a single coil and a humbucker, and is great on many blues/jazz applications, but I'd bet P094's are better on a semi hollow or an LP guitar, with tonewood substance, rather than a light solid guitar.

Been playing 50 years. Glad I stuck with Gibson, as there is a lot of competition out there, and I was OK with first purchase.

Gibson P-94 neck and bridge, gold with black inserts.

I put this into a Samick Royale RL-4 (reminiscent of an ES-137, all mahogany thin semi hollow). I also have a Gibson ES-339 with '57 Classic humbuckers, my favorite HB's, and Hamer Newport Pro Custom with Seth Lover PAF pups. I replaced the Stewmac Golden Age HB's in the Samick. I wanted vintage BB King '50's sound like 3 O'Clock Blues, and T-Bone Walker tones, all early Chicago Blues sounds.

I played Samick with P-94's through my Fender Princeton Reverb RI with 10" Weber ALNiCO speaker and Fargen Blackbird head and cab with 12" Eminence Red Fang ALNiCO speaker. Fargen has a mids control as well. Both amps have onboard reverb/trem to thicken sound slightly for Chicago blues. I occasionally use a Berber LTD SR transparent OD pedal at lower volume, and at times a Barber Tone Press pedal for even more sustain.

I play totally clean, no gain or grit. I found neck/bridge pups well matched. No hum whatsoever, dead quiet. Bridge pup clear and powerful at all volumes. Neck pup warm and clear. Basically clearer/cleaner but similar output to '57 Classics, for single coil tones I wanted.

The mid control on my Fargen head did wonders for these pups, which naturally have good bass and highs; with boosted mids they're heaven for what I play.

Compared to my Fender CP JM P-90 pups (which are also good), the P-94's sound a little more full and warmer in the all mahogany semi hollow, but both guitars have plenty of similar sustain for leads. I prefer the P-94's for playing rhythm on the semi hollow, as traditional blues was all recorded on those guitars. The Fender JM has more snap, and the semi hollow has more soul, to coin an adjective.

I was going to go for Stephens Design humbucker sized P-90's, but sight unseen opted for Gibson instead, as I trust their pups. I haven't compared these HB sized P-94's to any other HB sized P-90, of which there are several.

These pups suit me completely after 55 years of playing Chicago Blues.

Single coil passive, designed to drop into a standard humbucking mount.

Put this in the neck of a Tele, hoping to get a fatter tone.

Biggest problem was the output level compared to the bridge pup. Had I had separate volume controls for each pup,it might have stayed longer. Even so, I wasn't terribly impressed with the sound. Thought I'd get more upper highs...

Removed it, sold it on Ebay and replaced with a TV Jones Filtertron.

Single Coil in a Humbucker housing. I bought the cream covers with the gold bands/hardware. These look great on my Gibson Invader (which I also switched up to gold hardware, cream pickup rings & pickguard.

I chose to reserect my 84 Gibson Invader (original equipment were zebra humbuckers, marked Sonex 180 on the backs). I replaced both with a new set of the cream faced, gold rimmed P-94's. I recently purchased an "08" Gibson Les Paul Classic with 496/500 pickups, and wanted the Invader to become a brighter toned insturment to fill out my arcenal.

The output is supprisingly loud for single coil pickups. I run a Fender FM65DSP, which has various Fender amplifier emulations and an array of onboard effects. Also use a Boss GT10 effects processor through Edirol active speakers mainly for recording. The bridge pickup is bright and crisp. The neck pickup is a delight, and I find myself partial to the tone which allows for nuiances in playing I cound not achieve before. I use the neck for picking leads, which I could not do before. The pair are matched well, and useing them in combination with the bridge tone at 10 and neck tone at 7 allows for smooth rythem, while allowing the leads to break through. I am happy with the combination, and would suggest if anyone is thinking about replacing one of their humbuckers with a P-94, the neck is the deffinate one to replace.

If anything happened to the Invader, I would either replace the 496 in the Les Paul Classic with a P-94 or buy another insturment and replace both humbuckers with a P-94 set. I have been playing for 30+ years, and also own an electric bass and electric/acoustic 6 string guitar. I recently passed on my Americal Fat Strat, which was loaded with duncans (pearly gate humbucker in the bridge), and asside from feel of a strat, their is no tone comparrison. Gibson, ya did it again!

Great sounding single coil in a humbucker package

I have just gotten my second set of these great pickups,the first went into my 335 and these ones went into my sg,they replaced classic 57s and kent armstrongs.
I changed out the pickups in each because i was looking for a more agressive and responsive pickup,after 25 plus years of playing and using every humbucker i could get my hands on i was stil never able to get a sound like pete townsend live,i thought the armstrong single coils were going to be the ticket and they did get close but they still sounded more like a humbucker than a p 90.

The output is suprising,very loud.The neck pickup growls when picked hard and now i even find myself playing some leads with the neck pickup only,something i was never a fan of.The neck has great bass response but does not fart out like the armstrongs or 57s with higher gain.The bridge pickup is very agressive,alot more than a p 90,we cover alot of classic rock and some old school metal that i used to have to change guitarrs for but these pickups actually can put a single coil into the metal realm.The first night out that i didnt change a 335 to cover battery i had at least 10 guitar players in the audience ask what pickups they were,the rythyms were thick and saturated and the leads sounded like a hot humbucker.The more you adjust your volume the more tones you can get.

Anyone who disses this pickup i would want to actually see their rig or the rest of their guitar,they will not turn a hondo into a lp,nor will they turn their gorillia into a jcm.By adjusting the height of the pickups i can get classic p 90 sounds of raise it a bit and get really modern sounds with much more dynamics than a humbucker.
Also a point of interest,when people say they cant get p 90 sounds from these babys;guitars equiped with humbuckers come with 500k pots and usually .22 tone caps,single coil guitars have 250k pots and usually .47 caps.If you dont change the whole deal you wont get the pure p 90 tone but end up with a hybrid wich is still cool but not a replica.on the 335 i replaced the pots and the caps with vitimin qs.If there is a soul in this world who can tell the difference between a p 90 and a p 94 set up right i havent met him yet.
The botom line i guess is this;if this pickup is the most expensive peice of gear you own,dont buy it,get a better guitar and a tube amp first

Hot Single Coil

passive

Gretsch 5120 Electromatic Hollowbody

I replaced the very cheap sounding Gretsch Dual Coil Humbuckers

no other pick up on this Guitar I use p94's in both psitions Neck& Bridge

The output is a little hotter than a "normal" single coil

I use a Fender Bassman,a Twin reverb,and a crate all tube class A Amp

Tone is just great it has all it takes

I play Rockabilly,Rock'n'Roll,Swing, Country Surf , Blues

I play Guitar for 30 years,I own a couple of Gretsches some with TV Jones Filtertrons,some with DeArmond Pick Ups,all of thes Gretsches are expensive Guitars,some are vintage, I have a 59 6120 with Filtertrons that sound great, and a Duo Jet with DeArmond Pick Ups from 1957,some Gretsches out of that"professionell "serieswith TV Jones Pickps,one day I stumbled acoss that Electromatic(bought it for 250 Bucks),and it looked really good,I imediatly fell in love with it ,the sound of the Guitar unplugged was pretty good,but plugged in it sounded cheap because of those really bad Humbuckers that were in there.The P94's sound great in that Guitar,it sounds as good and similar to my other Gretsches!If the p94's would get stolen,I would try to find the bastard,and kill him,and try to get my P94's back,if that doesn't work I would buy new ones, these Pick Ups are highly recommended for Rockabilly and Country, Swing, Blues,....you get Filtertronish sounds out of them, it can sound like an Dearmond Pick up, and it can also sound like a P90, I get all the sounds I want in one Guitar,the P94's made that Electrmatic the Guitar I use most of the Time,eventhough it is the cheapest Guitar I own,I'm really happy with them, great Pick Ups!!!!!!!

Hot single coil sound.

Installed in an Epiphone Les Paul switching out the stock pickups. Just wanted something different for an old klunker guitar. The sound of these reminds me of a Joe Walsh type tone.

This is a higher output pickup, which in turn is not going to give you the classic p90 sound. If you lower the pickups below what I would say is normal, or if you back your volume knob off while playing about 35%, you will get closer to that woody, crunchy, rockin classic P90 tone. But these are not vintage p90's. They are pretty well balanced, they have great sustain and using your hands you can get a larger variety of tones than a normal humbucker. Neck pickup emphasizes big loose bass, pretty dark. Bridge pickup is very bright with lots of crunch. This is not going to give you a spot on vintage P90 sound, but they are very cool pickups, and I like having them on a guitar as a tonal option. I keep mine setup a little lower from the strings than normal. It warms up the tone a bit.

I've been playing about 12 years, and I play professionally. I use fender's, dr z, voxes, peavey classic 50. If these were lost I would probably get more, but its not detrimental to my sound, so it wouldn't be a rush. I debated on getting a les paul Jr with the stock p90's in it, I might still since these ended up being big, loud, and bright. But this is a great pickup to have some fun with. Particularly if you have a guitar that is really dark or bassy (many epiphone models) and want to find a different kind of sound. They are very much their own thing.

single coil for humbucker housing

Epiphone Les Paul
bridge
seymour duncan SH-1 '59
seymour duncan SH-1 '59 (neck)
Gordy Johnson (Big Sugar), John-Angus MacDonald (The Trews)
heard the tone, wanted it

high output, great bass response, fairly flat mids, bright highs... sounds best with scooped mids on amp settings
vox ac15 with BBE fequency boost (essentially a Brian May-esque treble booster)
blues, rock, hard rock
great in bridge position, can't wait to get one for the neck

I'll stick with p-94s, they are much more dynamic than any humbucker, p-90 or strat single coil... highly reccomended, they look amazing too

but in order to do them justice you really need a decent tube amp... even 15 watts of tube makes the p-94 just sparkle

Pickup features: Passive Single Coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Epiphone Elitist Les Paul
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock Epiphone
Other pickups on guitar: Stock Neck
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Rock n' Roll
Reason for pickup change: Wanted the P-90 sound of Mike Ness and Lars Frederiksen in a humbucker slot. Advertisments for the pickup promised P-90 tone in a humbucker slot. Sounded good to me

Perceived output level: Mid output about the same as a Gibson '57 Classic
Tone: Very clear and lots or bass and highs....
Sonic evaluation: I use this pickup with a Pignose tube amp, that has been modded, and a Marshall JCM 900. The Pignose is for clean & rythm and the marshall is for the lead tones. This pickup is good. NOT A P-90 THOUGH! It doesnt remotely sound like a P-90. I've played Gibson guitars with stock P-90s and they are a hell of alot better than this P-94 that Gibson is trying to pass off as a P-90 clone. If you want good P-90 sound get a cheaper guitar with P-90's and replace them with Gibsons or Seymour Duncans. Thats the only way to get the REAL P-90 sound.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Unsuitable for things you would use a (real) P-90 for.

Comments: I've been playing for about 10 years. During that time i have played a bunch of different guitars and a bunch of different pickups. I know what P-90's sound like and this aint it. I put this up against my Friend's les paul JR with stock Gibson P-90s and his Les Paul standard (copy) with seymour duncan SP90-2. Thats what a P-90 should sound like, I'm very unhappy with this pickup. If it were lost of stolen i would be pissed i couldnt sell it first to put money toward a real P-90 setup.

Pickup features: Paaive single coil
Impedence or other specs: 8.1 & 8.4-5

Model of guitar or bass: Penco 335 good copy
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: originals and some demarzios
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: Yo Yo Ma, Beverly Sills , ( I think the guy who used to play the beaver also, but I'm not sure)
You musical style(s):
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level:
Tone:
Sonic evaluation: Here is a trick to get these babies tweeked just right. Another person complained that the adjustable pole pieces didn't go in/down deep enough which can complicate getting just the right sound. It did for me. I coouldn't get the G string low enough for the balance/sound I wanted on the neck PU. Get out your handy dandy dremel tool. I used the little diamond ball so I wouldn't hit the top sides/yellow cover and ruin the appearance. The threads screw at the top and the bottom so no worries there and the top place where you will be routing out is plastic so this is a very easy job. Just rout out ever so little so that your adjustable pole piece will go down just a little farther on just the poles you need to.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:

Comments: