Vintage Vibe Guitars HS90A

This is a P90 single coil pickup housed in a standard nickel humbucker housing. It looks like a humbucker from afar, the only thing that gives it away is the fact that the pole pieces are in the middle of the pickup instead of on the bridge side. I also requested that Pete do a custom modification to my pickup, which a fellow reviewer Gregg Nickens had done to his pup, I will describe it later.

'99 Gibson Les Paul Standard, manufactured in November of that year, with the '59 rounded profile neck, heritage cherryburst finish, 498 pickups I believe, grover locking tuners, tusq nut, graphtech saddles, tonepros bridge, and recently added a Bigsby B7 tailpiece. Wicked axe if I do say so myself. I put this pup in the bridge position-I changed to thisbecause I was sick of hearing nothing but mud when I tried to play this guitar clean, I hated that sound, altho the stock pup was great in overdrive it sucked when it came to clarity and definition of any kind.

pure, raw clear middy tone, yet not harsh-twangy yet grungy, pretty much like a cross between the thickest telecaster and the most out of control stratocaster you've ever heard with ALL of the balls of a Les Paul-kinda hard to explain-if you appreciate Neil Young's tone you would love the tone I get with this guitar.
I'm currently using this with a Marshall MG100DFX 112 amp on the clean channel with the bass and mids off and the treble and gain cranked up on 10 and the crunch/gain switch deactivated, with just a touch of reverb and the shortest, quickest delay-I sparingly use a BOSS ME50 for some variety when the need arises....
I play a wide range, lots of southern fried classic rock and roll, lots of oldies and old country, the real stuff, not the sh*t that CMT passes off as country nowadays. This guitar can now do it all-she has all the balls, depth, warmth and sustain that you can expect from a Les Paul along with much of the twanginess of a tele or a strat on steroids! I LIKe...I Like!

Folks, I've held off about 2 months before I decided tonight that I oughta write a review, just to give enough time for a good workout....I'm for real....
I've always been partial to Teles and Les Pauls and until now, I had to choose...but now I have the best of both worlds...I have a sound that has similar definiton and attack as a tele, yet all the balls and sustain of a les paul and I love it. I now own my dream guitar, and after some tweaking and a bunch of mods which I have carefully picked and chosen over to the years, I have MY guitar-it sounds like none other I've played so far.I would certainly buy this pickup again in a heartbeat if the need arose. I began playing the guitar at age 8, began playing in bands at 13, started playing semi pro at age 15 and have played ever since, I am now 24 years old, have been basically self taught all along. I own too much gear, way more than I need-all of it used, all of it has character, most of it dirt cheap with no resale value but lots of sentimental value to me
I love everything about my Les Paul nowadays-I always did but now that love has grown. Before this mod, I could make my guitar talk-with the help of this pickup, now I can make her sing! I love the clarity, I love the spank, I love the thickness and warmth yet it still has a lot of tele twang....mind you, it is impossible to make a les paul sound like a tele, different woods, different construction, different electronics-but this is an ideal sound for me! And I hate nothing about my sound!
I compared it with every other humbucker sized P90 I could find on the net, this one looked and sounded the best to me on paper and on screen, and it sounds even better than I could have imagined in person....I'm very happy with it the way it is...I am very happy with my sound, I've found "that" sound!
I'll describe the mod I requested Pete to make on this pup now....this is how fellow reviewer Gregg, had his pup set up as well...
I asked Pete if he could make the pups with Alnico II rod magnets on the E-B-G strings and Alnico V rod magnets on the D-A-E strings. What this does for the overall sound is smooth and reduce the edgy quality of the unwound strings, but give clarity and punch to the wound ones.
I emailed Pete and described this mod to him, he said no prob, gave me a quote, I sent him $85, 4 weeks later I received my pickup and my search for the holy grail of sound has ended! This pup is THAT good...call him up, and get this! You'll never make your Les Paul happier....you recall Mississippi Queen? All Right Now? American Woman? Born To Be Wild? Cinnamon Girl? THIS IS THE SOUND YOU WILL GET...AND MORE! I swear, this pickup comes damn close to Brad Paisley chunky mildly overdiven sound! If you've bothered to read all of this review, you will love it! BUY ONE, Pete is a super guy, one of the best!!!

Pickup features: Single coil/passive
Impedence or other specs: 9K Neck and 10K Bridge

Model of guitar or bass: Lefty Greco 61' SG (Lawsuit Model)
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Standard japanese humbuckers
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup: Don't know of any offhand, but more artists should be aware of this pup
You musical style(s): Rock and Blues
Reason for pickup change: The humbuckers that were in said guitar sounded good with the exception that the mids were not pronounced.

Perceived output level: The D.C. Resistance measurements for both pup positions seems high, thereby delivering more output. Never having had or used P-90's before, I believe 9K-10K to be about average for a P-90 pup.
Tone: The tone is balanced across the spectrum (lows to highs). The pickups are forceful, punchy, clear and articulate, quiet even in single coil mode, and NOT AT ALL muddy due to the higher output wind.
Sonic evaluation: So far I have used this guitar through a Fender Silver Face Vibrolux Reverb, Marshall JCM 800, Fender Vibroverb Re-issue, and a Mesa Boogie Mark I Re-issue w/Class A tube converters to give approx. 30 watts of Class A performance. The Silver Face Fender has a Hicks Mender I installed (An overdrive using the two existing 12AX7's from the Normal and Vibrato channels of a Fender for a Mesa gain stage like quality). I have several other overdrives, but the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive has been used in conjunction with this guitar delivering some amazing results.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Rock and Blues. In all actuality, I think it can be used for most applications, it's that diverse.

Comments: I had first seen Pete's products on eBay, had read some reviews @ harmony central and then contacted Pete. I have always been a lover of the single coil tone vs. humbuckers, and I have quite a few guitars(all lefty)including 4 w/humbuckers. I had always wanted a guitar w/P-90's because of the gutsy mid tones, and I had come across this lefty Greco 61' SG copy on eBay. The jap pups were actually very good excepting the lack of pronounced mids that I referred to in my prior comment. I wanted to try something experimental that Seymour Duncan had done on his strat and tele pup line called the Nashville 52' model, so I asked Pete if he could make the pups with Alnico II rod magnets on the E-B-G strings and Alnico V rod magnets on the D-A-E strings. What this does for the overall sound is smooth and reduce the edgy quality of the unwound strings, but give clarity and punch to the wound strings. I have never been a fan of brittle or edgy highs (never have been) and have always preferred vintage or stock output from a pup. I wanted the vintage P-90 tone w/o the razor edged highs. I also asked that Pete calibrate the two pups (for a balanced tone when switching between positions) and a RWRP on one of the pups so that in the middle position would give me a humbucking mode. The covers on the pups are a bluish abalone veneer, and with the alnico rod magnets remind me of a Jazzmaster pup, only with a abalone look. After I first installed them, I took the guitar to the local Guitar Center in Okc. and received tons of complements on the tone and looks of the pups. In my honest opinion (and I have had the set for sometime now) I am so stoked with these pups because they really outdo Fender type single coils as well as humbuckers. These pickups are so complex and yet so definitive. I have to congratulate Pete for being the first man (as far as I know) to apply the Nashville 52' concept to a humbucker spaced P-90 (even Seymour Duncan hasn't offered this option in his standard Phat Cat pups yet). Pete you did a MAGNIFICENT job! kudos are definitely in order here.

Pickup features: Humbucker sized P-90
Impedence or other specs: 6-7K

Model of guitar or bass: 2000 Gibson Les Paul Standard
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: 490R/498T
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Blues, Rock, Alternative
Reason for pickup change: Wanted output and treble response to match my Fenders.

Perceived output level: Not hot. Same as a stock strat.
Tone: Balanced.
Sonic evaluation: I have been searching for the right pickups to put in my Les Paul for a while. My search is over. My amps are a '69 Fender Super Reverb and an early 60's Vox Ac30 TB. My other guitars are a 96 AM Telecaster w/Texas SP and a 2001 AM Strat W/Fralin Blues SP. I play alot of cover tunes so I like to switch guitars for whatever song they sound best for. The origional Gibson humbuckers were too dark and powerful. I don't like having to mess with my amps eq settings when I change guitars. My favorite Les Paul tones are Mike Bloomfield's from East/West(p-90s) and Super Sessions(pafs). I decided to try Dimarzio Bluesbuckers to get a p-90 tone in a humbucker size. They had more treble but didn't sound like a p-90. Then I installed Kent Armstrong P-900s. Much closer to a p-90 but lacked the sharp attack and were still too dark sounding. They also don't use a P-90 style bobbin. I decided to give humbuckers another try and installed Gibson Burstbuckers (#1,#2). Still too dark for my needs and were microphonic. The Vintage Vibe HS90s are just right. Not very noisy. They have a p-90 style bobbin with Alnico V rod magnets for poles instead of steel screws. This gives them a frequency response comparable to Fender single coils. But they still nail that fat woody P-90 character. He also can make them with steel screw poles and bar magnets if you wanted.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: , I play blues, rock, rockabilly. RadioheadU2. These pickups can cover anything but metal maybe.

Comments: Highly recomended. Very fast delivery. Affordable. If you want an acurate P-90 tone in a humbucker size, these will do the job. There are other humbucker sized P-90s out there that I haven't tried made by Rio Grande, Harmonic Design, S.K., and Seymour Duncan. If you don't like the way the pickups you ordered sound, he can work on them untill you get the sound you want. If you're tired of dark, powerful humbuckers, give these a try.

Pickup features: Single Coil P-90 Vintage Alnico 5 Magnet (Humbucking size)
Impedence or other specs: Bridge - 10k - 11,500 turns Neck 9.3K 8,500 turns

Model of guitar or bass: PRS Curtom 24
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: PRS Custom 24 - HFS bridge, Vintage Neck
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: None I know of, however they should check these out
You musical style(s): Blues, Early rock and rock
Reason for pickup change: PRS pickups, especially the neck HFS did not get good vintage tone. I wanted classic P-90 sound, but didn't want to sell the guitar. I got it it here!

Perceived output level: Normal very balanced
Tone: very clear, bell like tones, clean, smooth overdrive
Sonic evaluation: Using this through a Fender Champ, a Gibson GA-20, Supro, and Rivera. All sound fantastic. Gets great blues tone. Early Beatles and Rolling Stones sound just like the orginal recordings. Wow!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Rock, Blues - perfect vintage P-90 tone - and fits in your exitsing humbucker

Comments: I would definitely buy this again. Maybe I should try other Vintage Vibe pickups. I have Lindy Fralin Humbuckers in my Les Paul, and I would put the Vintage Vibe P-90's in the same quality of tone category. Clearly they don't sound like the humbuckers, but the sound quality and workmanship are on even par with Lindy.