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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Coil to string distance - is this important?

5/5/2006 9:55 PM
Ken	Coil to string distance - is this important? I have an old Tele that was routed for a rhythm HB once. I have a P90 I wanted to put in, so I rerouted the HB hole for the P90. But, the top of the P90's coil bobbin is about 1/4" from the strings. I can adjust the PP screws close enough to the strings to work, but I was concerned about how far away the coil itself was from the strings. Does this really matter? Thank you, Ken

5/5/2006 9:55 PM

Ken

Coil to string distance - is this important?

I have an old Tele that was routed for a rhythm HB once. I have a P90 I wanted to put in, so I rerouted the HB hole for the P90. But, the top of the P90's
coil bobbin is about 1/4" from the strings. I can adjust the PP screws close enough to the strings to work, but I was concerned about how far away the coil itself was from the strings.

Does this really matter?

Thank you,
Ken

5/6/2006 5:22 AM
Spence	Did you put foam pads under the P90 baseplate when you mounted it? Be careful how close to the strings you get because you've got two powerful magnets in a P90 which could pull the strings out of tune.

5/7/2006 4:55 AM
Dave Stephens	I love P90s, 1/4 inch is too far away. I put my P90s up real close and keep the poles screws low, and there's a good reason for this; your strings not only are cutting through the magnetic flux at the pole they cut through the field at the coil itself. Go look at some vintage gibons archtops, the pickup is always up close to the strings. Thats where alot of the fatness in the tone comes from. PUt them low and they get tinny and trebly and weak. One of my major gripes about Asian made guitars is that every damn one of them has their P90s so low they are useless and sound tinny and totally dumb. A customer recently sent me pix of an Epihpone Zephy blues guitar, an ES5 copy. This guy is a killer player up in Chicago and complained the pickups were too weak and couldn't get good tone happening. The pix told the story all the pickups needed serious shimming up to get them near the strings. Those pickups are alnico, overpotted but still not horrible pickups, so told him to get some AllParts shims to fix the problem. I just finished working over a Jay Turser archtop guitar tonite I've had for almost a year, it has 3 P90s, not a bad guitar but the pickups had metal covers that don't fit the guitar so they sit at an angle, pickups are horrible anyway. I wouldn't buy this guitar again. I put my Zephyrs in it and shimmed them etc and man my pickups sounded dull in that thing. Couldn't understand it because what I make are dead ringers for early 50s P90s, I put alot of work into making them sound that way. A friend told me to replace the pots. the pots are supposed to be 500K but some of them were like 400K minipots, Alpha brand, they also used way too much hookup wire to the pickups adding alot of capacitance thats not needed. Anway finished it tonite after all this time and headaches, making a custom cover for the bridge , changing to plastic covers etc. etc. now this guitar sounds like a real vintage ES5, P90 quack for days, pickups up high, taking it to the jam tomorrow nite. P90s are the best pickup ever designed if you ask me.....

5/7/2006 4:55 AM

Dave Stephens

I love P90s, 1/4 inch is too far away. I put my P90s up real close and keep the poles screws low, and there's a good reason for this; your strings not only are cutting through the magnetic flux at the pole they cut through the field at the coil itself. Go look at some vintage gibons archtops, the pickup is always up close to the strings. Thats where alot of the fatness in the tone comes from. PUt them low and they get tinny and trebly and weak.

One of my major gripes about Asian made guitars is that every damn one of them has their P90s so low they are useless and sound tinny and totally dumb. A customer recently sent me pix of an Epihpone Zephy blues guitar, an ES5 copy. This guy is a killer player up in Chicago and complained the pickups were too weak and couldn't get good tone happening. The pix told the story all the pickups needed serious shimming up to get them near the strings. Those pickups are alnico, overpotted but still not horrible pickups, so told him to get some AllParts shims to fix the problem.

I just finished working over a Jay Turser archtop guitar tonite I've had for almost a year, it has 3 P90s, not a bad guitar but the pickups had metal covers that don't fit the guitar so they sit at an angle, pickups are horrible anyway. I wouldn't buy this guitar again. I put my Zephyrs in it and shimmed them etc and man my pickups sounded dull in that thing. Couldn't understand it because what I make are dead ringers for early 50s P90s, I put alot of work into making them sound that way. A friend told me to replace the pots. the pots are supposed to be 500K but some of them were like 400K minipots, Alpha brand, they also used way too much hookup wire to the pickups adding alot of capacitance thats not needed. Anway finished it tonite after all this time and headaches, making a custom cover for the bridge , changing to plastic covers etc. etc. now this guitar sounds like a real vintage ES5, P90 quack for days, pickups up high, taking it to the jam tomorrow nite. P90s are the best pickup ever designed if you ask me.....

5/7/2006 8:40 PM
Ken	I'm going to raise the pickups and lower the poles like you said, I couldn't figure out why the guitar was doing some of the things it was doing but I recognize many of the 'symptoms' it has from these posts. Now where did that foam tape go? Hmmm... Ken

5/8/2006 3:30 AM
Dave Stephens	You can get foam at one of those RV upholstery places or buy the foam springs from AllParts or StewMac I think. Some guys use single coil springs instead. Heck you can just jam a big wad of paper towels in there, whatever works.....

5/8/2006 7:28 PM
Ken	All 'foams' are not the same... the self adhesive strip foams today you get at hardware stores and used to seal windows is different from the stuff Fender used to support pickups. After awhile, for some reason the 'window' foam tends to degrade and turn into powder. I'm trying to remember which store I saw the 'real' Fender style foam in, as usual the stuff only appears when you don't need it. I 'just' saw it too. It came in 25 foot or 50 foot rolls. Ken

5/8/2006 7:28 PM

Ken

All 'foams' are not the same... the self adhesive strip foams today you get at hardware stores and used to seal windows is different from the stuff Fender used to support pickups. After awhile, for some reason the 'window' foam tends to degrade and turn into powder. I'm trying to remember which store I saw the 'real' Fender style foam in, as usual the stuff only appears when you don't need it. I 'just' saw it too.
It came in 25 foot or 50 foot rolls.

Ken

5/8/2006 7:47 PM
Mick	Some of the foams used to insulate water pipes from the frosty weather can be ok , this can be quite firm and works fine . Try a hardware store or plummers supply place , Mick

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