Devil guitar?

[davidwpack]

Ello!!! I've been super busy and have been away for awhile but I've been a member for quite a bit. I've built several amps with the Hoffman style layouts with the help of this forum.
Anyways,  I just got a new Gibson LP Standard 50's with the P-90s. It seems to be relatively noisy. It has some hum but continuity seems to check out with a multi meter. The biggest issue I have is that it's really microphonic when you use moderate gain. Ordinarily,  I'd say it was just inherent with the pickups but, I used to have a '56 reissue LP that was quiet. I didn't get any hum or squealing. By appearance, they are pretty much exactly the same guitar. I've also got other P-90 equipped guitars that don't do this through the same setup with the same volume.  I'm not sure if the pickups are potted but I wonder if potting them would help. Perhaps some shielding tape in the cavities would help the hum? Anyone else have issues with P-90 equipped Gibsons? Suggestions?
Thanks!
Dave

[davidwpack]

....also...can you even pot P-90s with plastic covers without damaging the plastic?

[nandrewjackson]

I've found pickups to be hit-or-miss. Among the same pickup type and brand, good one, bad one, good one, bad one.


The past few years I've had several Seymour Duncan Jb, some good, some bad.
Seymour Duncan alnico pro 2, some good some bad.

[Platefire]

I got one of these because I never had a p-90 guitar. Cheap way in So I don't have an actual base line to go by what a quality one sounds like. Having said that I like um. To me it's a cross between a fender single coil and Gibson humbucker. A little bit of the Fender brightness and Gibson Bottom. They are really not that noisy to me but I'm not a high gain guy. I usually run a pretty clean amp and use pedals to get my dirt. So I now have a good impression of P-90s and have considered buying some high quality ones and put on this ax but I come from the school if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So here I stand

[NewYorker]

Dave:

I can't comment on the microphonics and the squealing, but the hum ...

Were you paying attention to the environment in which you were playing / testing and noticing the hum?  I know that with my Tele I will get obnoxious noticeable hum if I'm too close to my amp (and its transformers) or somehow pointed in the wrong direction.  I also recall a similar discussion here, where the guitar turned out to be right next to the beer fridge, which happened to be running.

Ed

[bmccowan]

I got one of these because I never had a p-90 guitar. Cheap way in So I don't have an actual base line to go by what a quality one sounds like. Having said that I like um. To me it's a cross between a fender single coil and Gibson humbucker. A little bit of the Fender brightness and Gibson Bottom. They are really not that noisy to me but I'm not a high gain guy. I usually run a pretty clean amp and use pedals to get my dirt. So I now have a good impression of P-90s and have considered buying some high quality ones and put on this ax but I come from the school if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So here I stand

I have 3 guitars with P90s - none are too noisy in my opinion. But I agree with New Yorker that they are more sensitive to the distance and orientation to the amp than buckers. My favorite is the cheapest - a Squire Tele Custom with Duncan "designed" P90s. that guitar plays and sounds great. USA Fenders have nothing on that guitar. I also have a Gibson non-reverse Firebird III reissue - sounds good but I cannot get used to it. The third is a 60s Guild Capri. It is a wonderful and beautiful guitar. I agree that they have some of the brightness of Fender single coils - but they have a solid growl to the bass and mids that other single coils do not deliver. An ex-bandmate had a 50s LP special TV yellow. A favorite of his and mine. Untouchable $ now. So I think that Epi is a great choice.