Haeussel P 90 HB

I bought this little 'baby' on a fleamarket for musicians. It was still in the original acryl-box with a little description about the wire colors.
This is a singlecoil PU in the size of a humbucker. The DC resistance of my P90 was 8.1 kOhms and has got 2 wires and one shield. It looks like it's well waxed so you don't get a feedback for high gain use. The coils are covered with a nickel or chrome cover

I replaced the neck PU of my Cort MGM-1 because I was not very happy with those PU's. They are sounding ok but have with quite a bit loss of treble. So i thought I'll give it a try...

(The bridge PU I use now is a vintage humbucker from Duesenberg)

The installation is easy if you know to solder and understand the electronics of your guitar. Otherwise I't propose that you take it to a guitar shop and ask the guys to do it for you!

Wow! I did NOT expect this great sound from a single coil PU. If you ever wished to have the punch of a humbucker with the clearness of a singlecoil you really should give the Haeussel P90 a chance! The sound is just wonderfull and with a tube amp, it sounds very creamy as soon as the amp begins to distort a bit. I would like to thank Harry Haeussel for this great pickup!!!!

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If I mix the signal of the P90 with the Duesenberg Humbucker it's sounding quite funky - maybe a bit too trebly. Probably the PU's are out of phase? I should try to swap the white and the black wire. Probably that helps...

Well what can I say in addition. I use a VOX VR30 amp in my bedroom and the P90 sounds great. It sounds even better in our bandroom with an vintage VOX AC30! I think that if I'd buy another guitar, I'll reassemble the original neck PU with another P90 from haeussel again.

(The humbuckers in neck-position are too bassy for my taste!)

These is P90 pickups made for the humbucker cavity of your guitar. They are passive and closed in the metal cap. The impedence is at 8.5 KOhms.

I installed the set in my Ibanez AS80 thinline (="335") from the 80s.
They replaced the original Ibanez p.us that were too agressive, too rock for my kind of music (jazz-blues-fusion). I was offered this pickups from the agent as a try, and I kept them!

These p.us are powerful, but not ina "hard" way. It is difficult to descrive, but the sound is "big", but not because of too much bass. The high frequencies never sound thin or hard, but like sparkly.
The guitar now sounds like another instrument, but of higher level (like luthiery made).
I play with a old Fender Twin Silverface (1975), most of the time, and sometimes I use some light overdrive from pedals like Boss DS1, etc.
I did one mistake - a good one! - when I put them in the guitar: I forgot to change the potentiometers to 250k (to use as singlecoils). Now what happens is when the tone is full open I get a very acoustic kind of tone, it is nice if I play fingerpicking. Then I can close the tones for a more electric and warm sound. It was a "good" mistake!
I think, these pickups are not good for very hard music, because they are not noiseless (single coils).

I have been playing now for almost 30 years as a good amateur. I think, these pickups let me play better, because they make my expression come out better. So yes, I really like them alot and I am recommending them to friends, etc. some builders here in Italy are using them too (Jacaranda, Molinelli, for example).
They are expensive, but I think, since they are sounding so good, that you don't want to spend more money again, looking for other ones, like usually happens.
If I maybe sell this guitar, I will keep the pickups for the new one (also thinline), and maybe I will try the "Big Mag" set for my telecaster - also a P90 pickups but for the single coil cavity.

This is a follow-up to the review before. I don't have the Epiphone Dot anymore, but before I sold it I put the junk-Indonesia-PUs back in again...

I now have a complete set of Haeussel HB90 in my Gibson SG Special. The Gibson 490 Humbuckers didn't quite meet my taste, so I swapped things around a little.
The SG is completely made of mahogany, so the sound is generally described as thick and rich but also punchy and cutting, with an airy, woody resonance. I guess with the HB90 singlecoils, the sound goes somewhat into a direction of a vintage '59 Les Paul special or a vintage SG special, both equipped with P90s and made completely of mahogany.
Anyway, the PUs work well in this instrument. They deliver all the bottom-end you want, but still also have enough highs and a nice honk in the mids.

These PUs are f.... loud. I play that guitar through some effects and then a Fender DeVille 4*10 (60W RMS) or a Rivera Quiana 2*12 (also 60W RMS). I have to set the volumes a lot lower than with my Fender Stratocaster. The HB90s have an output of something around 11kOhms, which is almost double compared with the Fender PUs.
These PUs are the Cruch-Weltmeister - I've never heard such an awesome crunch- overdrive and distortion-sound before. These PUs kick you know what.

Would buy it again! Definitely. Thanks Harry!

Pickup features: P 90-type single coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Epiphone DOT 335
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock Epiphone Humbucker (old type)
Other pickups on guitar: Stock Epiphone Humbucker (old type, neck position)
Artists using this pickup: dunno
You musical style(s): Rock, Pop, Schlager, Country, Surf
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level: This thing is loud!! It?s definately much louder than the single coils on my stratocaster. I Play a Fender Hot Rod DeVill 4x10 and I had to turn this down quite a bit to perceive the same volume that I?m used to. Maybe the PU is still a little too close to the strings.
Tone: Pretty bassy, but with nice raw mids and just enough highs. I had missed just that on the stock HBs. If you overdrive the amp it sings and has a nice sustain, but remains clear all the time. Also more complex chords are possible without getting muddy.
Sonic evaluation: As said before, I play a Fender 4x10 tube amp with 60 watts RMS. Line up is as follows: Epiphone Dot > Ibanez Mostortion MT10 > Dunlop Cry Baby > Marshall Vibratrem > Fender Amp. Love it to bits!!!!!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: As stated above, it?s a wild mix. I like to play clean a lot. I play rhythm AND the solo passages in my band. So I need good clean tones as well as good overdrive. No high gain stuff for me!

Comments: I give this PU a 9 out of 10. I would probably get it again if stolen - unfortunately they are pretty rare (and pretty expensive if bought new), so there a not many used ones to be found.