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Main Description
This is a “parts kit” for a Soap Bar P90, and contains everything you’d need to make your own pickup, EXCEPT the wire for the coils, the hook-up wire, any tape used to protect the coils after winding, and solder.
This is what we’d call a “Epiphone®” P90 kit – the names a little “catch all” to be honest, because most guitars that aren’t Gibson® models, use this size and shape of P90, so be aware please be aware that this isn’t JUST for Epi® guitars (more on the topic under the “Gibson® vs. Epi®” tab)
Included in the kit are the following parts.
1 x ABS Bobbins (50mm pole spacing)
6 x Steel Poles (M3 Filister Head and colour dependant on selected options)
2 x Steel bobbin mounting screws
1 x Base plate (material dependant on selected options)
1 x Steel “Pole screw keeper bar”
2 x (Magnetised) Bar Magnets (dimensions and material dependant on selected options)
2 x Pickup Mounting Screws (colour to match poles colour where possible)
1 x ABS Cover (pole spacing and colour dependant on selected options)
1 x Grounding Tab
Option Extras
2 x "Height adjustment" foam (70mm x 15mm x 13 or 18mm, dependent on selected options)
Everything is dependant?!
I think it’s fair to say, when it comes to guitar parts, pickup parts kits are about as complicated as it gets I’m afraid. This is the very sharpest end of “tinkering” with guitars, and, to put it simply, there are so many variables involved in this stuff, that even before we account for “how much wire are we putting on the bobbins”, you’re dealing with potentially hundreds of different combinations.
Just be aware that things can wander outside of the stated specifications, and whilst we try our best to specify what parts are being supplied clearly (they’ll be itemised on the invoice), some parts shipped may differ from those specified under the “technical & diagrams” tab to ensure your design works. Don’t worry too much on it, it will only be things like bobbin screw length and spacer height (to account for taller magnets) – everything else is pretty straight forward. I’d like to think it was all fairly self-explanatory, but just to spell it out – what you’re seeing in the image, is what you’re going to get, and we will ensure all parts supplied are compatible.
Gibson®, Epiphone®, Fender®, Telecaster® and Tele® are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and Gibson Musical Instruments Corporation. Axesrus® has no affiliation with FMIC
Gibson® vs. "Epi®"
I can almost see the future with this one, and if i could put it in big, red, flashing letters i would.
The "Gibson®" Version of our P90 Kit IS NOT "better" then the "Epiphone®" version - they are, in ever meaningful way, identical. Please, for my sanity, dont buy a Gibson® sized P90 and try fitting it into an Epiphone® - it, probably, wont fit.
This is because Gibson® use a different shape of Soap bar P90 cover to everyone else.
The difference between the two versions, is in the shape of the cover (not the size!). Gibson® use a 7.5mm radius in the covers of their covers/routes, where Epiphone® use 6mm - in short, Gibson® guitars are routed a little more curvy in the corners, where Epi® are a little squarer.
Honestly, most of the time, it wont make a blind bit of difference, and they'll be cross compatible, but having said that, there'll always be times when you've got to get it right (usually when the cover is meshing tight to a pickguard)
Also, when we say "Gibson®" and "Epiphone®" - its a little catch all - they're the most clearly defined examples of "this size fits this, that size fits that" - and whilst the Gibson® size seems to be pretty much exclusive to Gibson, the Epi® size will turn up on a whole host of guitar, not just Epiphone® - so, its worth measuring.
But, remember, its "Gibson® size" - there will be guitars out there, made small scale, with some hand wound, boutique P90, that have been specified up to be Gibson® size... its not a Gibson® guitar, but its using a Gibson® SIZE P90.
It is, frankly, confusing - so, please, measure the radius in the corners!
A very quick guide for spotting "Epi® size" Soap bars, is that they sometimes have a "lip" (so the top has a "round over with a top fillet") where a Gibson® wont - whilst its not a universal truth (our Epi® Size P90s lack the fillet, and look identical to the Gibson® version except the radius measurement) - if you see the lip, you know its an Epi® size your working with.
Magnets
Now, we’ve been putting a lot of work into magnet testing over the years, and, honestly? There’s a lot of fuss made about Alnico grade, the supposed inferiority of ceramic magnets, the merits of orientated vs. unorientated, the benefits of sand cast vs. rough. Vs polished… so, we figured we’d be as open and honest about it as we can be – so, here goes!
Lets start with the bode plot - pretty easy to get your head around - the line shows how "strong" a signal the pickup is generting at a certain frequency - so the higher the line, the stronger that frequency. (so a higher line in the low frequencies means a bassier pickup, a pickup with a higher line in the treble means brighter - a wider "peak" (where the pickup is busiest) means a smoother pickup, a sharper "peak" means a more defined pickup. Simple as that.
So lets get into it - have a play! Compare your magnets!
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Swap Graphs?
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Humbucker "Type"
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Magnet #1 (Purple)
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Magnet #2 (Blue)
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Tonally, and specifically, I’m speaking about “how the guitar sounds” – honestly? Magnets don’t actually do a great deal believe it or not – when presented with the “full spectrum” of a guitars signal, the minor variations that are evident when comparing one magnet to the next, are just too subtle to for our ears to be able to pick out. If you listen to a recording of an Alnico 3 and compare it to the same piece on an Alnico 8, you’ll struggle to be able to hear any difference what so ever.
However - there actually are tonal difference! It’s just that, in terms of “what we hear” – they’re a little buried under all the information we’re being bombarded with when we listen to audio.
As a general rule of thumb, the weaker the magnet, the more “bass” its producing – and that’s about it – which gives some real credibility to the old wives tale of “weaker magnets sound warmer” – BUT – a magnet is only one variable within the construction of a humbuckers.
I can definitely say that its true for a vintage humbuckers (tested here with an 8.2K Bourbon City, 42 AWG coils, 12 screw coils) – however – when we take the same test, and apply it to a “high output” humbuckers (in this case a 16K Ethereal, 12 screw, 44 AWG coils) – we see that all of the magnets behave pretty much identically with the exception of Alnico 8 and Ceramic (which are often described as “scooping mids”… and that’s actually what they’re doing – they show a volume drop below the resonant peak, but retain the same volume above it!... so again, some truth to the myth!)
So, electrically -we definitely CAN see that the magnets are changing the signal of the pickup – but we’ve got to take this with a pinch of salt, because the coils are actually changing how the magnets are behaving – and that leave us in a strange position where the “hard and fast rules” quickly fall down dependant on a second (or third!) variable! (Which honestly, gets a little beyond the scope of this article) – But remember – when you’re listening to a pickup as a recording, you really won’t be able to tell the difference. I can’t stress that enough! The differences are there, but our ears aren’t good enough to isolate them. It’s that simple.
It’s all in the feel!
HOWEVER – as guitarists, we’re not really interested in how the guitar sounds “on record” (that’s for the studio engineer right?!) – We care about it as a “live thing”, which we respond to, and feel, and generally treat as a very unscientific thing right? (Dare I say, a musical instrument?!) And that’s where things get interesting.
Whilst we might not be able to actually hear a difference between one magnet and the next in retrospect, we certainly can feel it when playing! In the moment, as pick hits string and the amp roars into life, the differences are much more noticeable! And what the graphs show, actually comes through more in the “feel” of a pickup then it does in the recordings. (So, that Alnico 3 Bourbon City felt “muddy”, and that Alnico 8 Ethereal did feel very defined and cutting) I honestly, can’t say I know why, but in blind tests, we were able to highlight differences between magnets – we had combinations we liked, and we had combinations we didn’t.
This brings us to the crux of the matter really – magnets within a humbuckers have very little to do with “tone”, but they really do define the “feel” of the pickup – and, sadly, there’s no right or wrong answers at that point, because we’re speaking about perception – and that’s going to differ for every single person, with every single humbuckers.
Me, for example – I heard the following in the blind tests with the Bourbon City. (Please, excuse the romantic language – these are exactly how the notes were written)
Alnico 3 – Very glassy in the highs, very bloomy in the lows, quite mushy and unpleasant.
Alnico 2 – Huge amount of top end “ping”, bass neat and tidy, plenty of “spank”, a little weird but not unpleasant! (Slightly damning considering the Bourbon comes with an A2 as standard!)
Alnico 4 – Toppy, really soft and forgiving in the bass, mids are rich and interesting. Nice sound.
Alnico 5 – Strong bass, but quite neat and tidy, not an awful lot of mids, and quite chimy. A lot of rattle and definition.
Alnico 6 – tight in the bass, quite crunchy, not overly hot. Nice note separation.
Ceramic – more compressed, better balances, distance between tops and bass is pleasing, slightly lacking in top. Bass very well behaved. Raunchy and fun!
You get the idea – I had “opinions” when playing! Unscientific they may be, but it’s what I “felt” and what is telling, is that my opinions? The “feel” I got from each magnet? They don’t really correspond with the signal we know the pickup is producing!
Alnico 3 does, that increase in bass is definitely coming through as mud and the ceramics certainly show that decrease in bass… but I’m “feeling” things in the pickup that just aren’t in the graphs right?
Well… no – what I’m feeling, comes down to perception – and this is where things start to become a little bit confusing, but basically, we don’t need to hear a change in a specific frequency to actually perceive a change in that frequency. (So, a pickup can feel bassier if the high frequencies are reduced – the bass doesn’t change, but our ears “shift” to become more focused) – And seemingly, even minor shifts in certain frequencies can completely colour our perception of frequencies that haven’t even changed.
Conclusion? Sort of?!
At this point, me sitting here and saying “Alnico 2 does thing, and Alnico 3 does that!” is nonsense, because I’m describing “how it made me feel” more than “how it actually sounded”, and how you feel with a particular magnet (or combination of Magnet and Coil!) will be completely different.
But if theres anything to take away from this, it’s the following “rules”
1.Go into Humbucker magnets knowing that your unlikely to be able to “hear” a difference between any of them, but you’ll definitely be able to feel it!
2. “Vintage” humbuckers (anything wound with 42 AWG) is going to show bigger difference then “high output” winds (43 and 44 AWG)
3. No one is going to agree on how a specific magnet sounds – if a minor change in frequency resulting from a magnet change can alter our perception, then a big change in frequency from a coil change is going to alter it too, and you’ve got to take that into account. Combined with the fact that we’re dealing in perception? In opinion and taste? You’ve got more hope in settling the Gibson® vs. Fender® argument!
4. Whilst there are no “hard and fast” rules – treating some of the old wives tales with a bit of credibility, won’t see you go far wrong. Hotter pickups generally want to be more defined, so benefit from strong magnets, more traditional offerings generally benefit from a little added warmth, so weaker Alnico s are a safe bet – but please, go in knowing that its very much a matter of personal taste.
Base Material
Its one of those weird things with pickups, I wont say its overlooked as such, but its certainly not widely embraced as you’d think.
So, with P90s – you’ve usually got 2 options of material when it comes base plates, either Brass or German Silver (sometimes called Nickel Silver, or just Nickel) and its commonly believed that “brass is ‘bad’ because it sucks out top end” and “German Silver is ‘good’ because it doesn’t effect the tone” – and, broadly speaking, that’s actually correct! But, as with most things, its not as clear cut as we’d like as engineers, so, I’m going to try to drag this topic well and truly into the light!
Ace of Base
So lets start at the bottom, and deal with “base plate material” – Brass vs. Nickel!
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Swap Graphs?
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Base #1 (Purple)
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Base #2 (Blue)
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We can see from the above, that, really? There isn’t a great deal of difference between the two options (I’ve included “no base” too, for completeness’ sake). If anything, a brass base plate, compared to German Silver, isn’t actually sucking out any top end, its sucking out a little of everything up to the resonant peak, but past that, its comparable to German silver – so we’d perceive that, not as “sucking out top end”, in fact, the complete opposite, we’d hear that as the pickup gaining a little definition, and likely, being a shade brighter! However, it’s a fairly small change in that regard, its certainly not as drastic as we’d be lead to believe in the old “Brass bad/Nickel good” argument.
And, we can see that both German Silver and Brass, and both having an effect on the signal compared to the “no base” version of the pickup (and this is telling, because the same happens on a Telecaster® bridge pickup, or a Humbucker) – without a base, we’re actually retaining a little more of the signal above the resonant peak. Its an unrealistic dream to say “P90s without bases sound better”, simply because the mounting system for the pickups is pretty reliant on a metal base, but we can certainly see that the base material, whilst only a minimal change, is always losing “something”. They’re always going to cause a loss of something.
Real world, we’re probably going to “hear” a German silver base as being a little warmer, a little smoother, a little more forgiving (evident in the wider peak) and we’re going to “hear” a brass base as being a little brighter, a little more cutting, a little crisper.
So, with that in mind, it does beg the question – is brass as bad as we’ve all been led to believe?
Well? Probably not, at least from a tonal point of view – we’re not seeing any enormous impact on the signal, we’ve not seeing a huge change to the shape of the plot, frankly (with uncovered pickups!) Brass vs. German silver bases is little more then an extra option for “seasoning”, and I suppose, that’s to be expected, the base is on the bottom, it’s a long way away from the strings, and with all of this stuff, the bigger impacts are things that sit between the coils and strings, not beneath!
However, there are one huge point of note here.
Soldering to Brass!
Brass is an absolute pig to solder to! Its far more conductive than German Silver, so it wicks the heat away from the point you want to solder to, making it difficult to make a good, solid joint. This isn’t a massive issue when the only solder joint you need to make to the base is the ground wire for the hookup, but it can be a real pain if you’re fitting a metal cover, where you’re making a couple of small spot weld to hold the thing in place. German Silver, by comparison, is a poor(er) conductor, it doesn’t wick the heat as effectively, so soldering to it is much easier.
Obviously, this doesn't make much different with a Soap bar P90, because they're (almost) always fitted with plastic covers, and the ground connection is dont on a tab held in place, against the base plate, with the bobbin mounting screw - BUT - it does matter with humbuckers (bare with me)
- and, chances are, that Gibson®, were simply happy to use German silver for all of their bases. Thats a bit of an assumption, because the P90 pre-dated the humbucker, so theres maybe another root cause as to why Gibson® insisted on using German silver over brass when it makes no difference to the way a pickup works (maybe German silver was cheaper then brass back in the 1940s/50s?) but, thats a little academic - Gibson® always used German silver on the P90 bases.
Bases – a conclusion
If you’re building a P90 (with a plastic cover), and your happy soldering the ground connection onto the base, brass is as good as German silver! Its slightly cheaper, and it’s brightening the pickup ever so slightly. It’s probably so small a change that its below our comprehension, but at least you know now, what’s happening. You can lean into it if you want to, or don’t. Just be aware, brass isn’t bad! (And that’s likely going to be the last time I type that, because things are about to get interesting!)
Colours Explained
I think this is a little bit redundant to be honest, because the site has the "smart swatch" system, which shows you how everything looks once you've assembled it, and whilst its a bit "too perfect", it is pretty accurate to what your going to get. However, i will concede that sometimes, real pictures of real things, can be helpful, so, heres another photo dump, detailing as many of the colours as i can.
Covers
Soap Bar P90s are, in this case, always a black bobbin, covered with a plastic cover, which is the "colour" your selecting.
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