There are some fans and some notable users of the Gibson P90 pickup, for example the famous solo of Another Brick in the Wall part 2 was recorded with a P90 equipped Les Paul and Johnny Thunders, Nick Valensi or Mick Jones are/were some of their users. If you own a Melody Maker guitar and want to have the P90 tone now you have an option, the BG Pickups Melody Maker MM90.
The BG Pickups Melody Maker MM90 features forbon vulcanized fiber baseplate, dual ceramic 8 magnets, 43 american wire gauge magnet wire, solid copper hook up wires and the size of a single-coil pickup to fit in the Melody Maker pickup hole (but it will probably fit in other single-coil holes). The MM90 produces a fat sound perfect for rock, blues or jazz music styles.
This pickup is hand-wound and comes with a 7-day return/exchange period and lifetime warranty. The BG Pickups Melody Maker MM90 is now available and its price is $65, independently of their position, bridge or neck.
One of the most famous pickup manufacturers has released a new model in its active humbucker series, the Seymour Duncan AHB-1 Blackouts Active Pickups has been designed after founding a design flaw in the active pickups and the solve of this issue brought a more effective pickup at canceling hum.
But the Seymour Duncan AHB-1 Blackouts Active pickups doesn’t only feature a better hum cancellation, because these pickups have better output than any other (at least is what Seymour Duncan says). There are two models, for bridge and neck positions, their main features are 750 Hz (neck) and 530 Hz (bridge) resonant frequency, -97dBV (neck) and -96dBV (bridge) noise, 1K ohm output impedance, 1420 hours of battery life, …
You can acquire bridge and neck pickups or a package with both of them, the price of the Seymour Duncan AHB-1 Blackouts Active Pickups package is $173.95, while only one of them is $89.95. All models include all hardware necessary to mount them on the guitar (pots, jack, battery clip, …).
The pickups are always an important point when choosing an instrument, you always can change them later but it’s easier when the instrument already comes with good pickups. Carvin has announced that a new pickup will be available to choose from the standard bass features, the Carvin SP Series “Soap Bar” Bass Pickup, that can be placed in 4, 5 or 6-string bass guitars.
The Carvin SP Series “Soap Bar” are humbucker pickups that feature a deep and smooth bass sound but with an aggressive high tone definition and a side by side coil design that enhances midrange tones. There are different version for neck (SPN) and bridge (SPB) positions and can be used with active or passive electronics.
This pickup comes with Icon series bass guitars and can be ordered, in pairs, with other Carvin bass models. The Carvin SP Series “Soap Bar” Bass pickups are now available and they will add $30 when purchasing a Carvin bass guitar.
A lot of guitar players search for a 60’s or 70’s vintage tone for their guitars, there are some options DSP’s that emulate the vintage tones, vintage distortion pedals or if you have some money to spend you can order the limited edition pickups that just have been released by Custom WB Pickups. This pickups were built in 1967, I can imagine someone opening an old closet and finding some old boxes with these true vintage pickups that have been turned into the Custom WB Pickups 67-07 Vintage Wire Limited pickups.
There are only 50 sets of each version, one is the Vintage Tuned PAF version and the other is the Hot Vintage Tuned PAF version. The Custom WB Pickups 67-07 Vintage Wire Limited are very fragile and were hand-build using 1967 vintage wire so if your order one of this you’ll get a very good sounding pickup.
Each pickup will feature a certificate of authenticity, a signed and numbered (numbers are assigned when each order is received) baseplate, a wire sample and the first eighteen will be shipped in the original 1967 boxes. The price of the Custom WB Pickups 67-07 Vintage Wire Limited is $550, you also can order a gold, nickel and chrome cover for additional $15 ($20 for gold cover).
Custom WB pickups will release next week the 67-07 Vintage Wire “S”, a single-coil version of this pickup.
If you own a 5-string bass guitar take a look at the new version of the Quarter-Pound pickups, that were designed for Fender Jazz basses, for 5-string bass that was released earlier this year. The Seymour Duncan Basslines SJ5-3 Quarter-Pound 5-String is a single-coil pickup hand-made in the US and produces a very clean sound even at lower frequencies.
The Seymour Duncan Basslines Quarter-Pound 5-String features 1/4” pole pieces, Alnico 5 magnets, shielded connections and can be used with passive volume and tone controls. The pickup produces a clean, without saturation, but also a loud and punchy sound that will allow you to make the same profit from a 4-string bass.
This single-coil pickup is specially designed for blues, rock and nu-metal. The Seymour Duncan Basslines Quarter-Pound 5-String is available and its price is $66.95 in neck and bridge models.
BG Pups, the Bryan Gunsher pickup company, has released a Gibson’s P-90 replica for Strato users. The BG Pups Strat P 90 is a handwound pickup catches the classic high output (with treble response) sound of the original P-90 into a Strato single-coil size.
The BG Pups Strat P 90 pickup features forbon fiber baseplate, dual ceramic 8 magnets, 43 awg magnet wire and solid copper hook up wires. The pickup produced a fat clean or dirty gained sound perfect for using it with rock, blues, jazz and country
This guitar pickup has been developed by Bryan Gunsher with the help of Harmony Central Electric Guitar Forum Community, listening to the samples you can say they’ve done a great job. The price of the BG Pups Strat P 90 pickup is $55 and is only available in black color.
D-TAR released some time ago the Wave-Length pickup, a easy-to-install low-distortion acoustic pickup. Now they have teamed up with Guild to release the D-TAR Wave-Length Load ‘N Lock pickup, a special version of the Wave-Length pickup with Load ‘N Lock battery access system that is exclusively created for Guild acoustic/electric guitars.
The D-TAR Wave-Length Load ‘N Lock pickup features thin piezo transducer with 18V preamp, dual source capability (an extra input for magnetic pickups or soundboard transducers), volume and tone controls and is powered by 2 AA batteries. The 18V preamp allows players to strum hard the strings without having noise and distortion on your sound.
Although the D-TAR Wave-Length Load ‘N Lock pickup is announced in Guild’s official site, they haven’t said which guitars will feature this pickup.
Tesla, an American company that builds pickups for guitar, bass and banjo players to help them to achieve the finest quality sound, has released their first active pickup model, the Tesla AH-1 Humbucker.
The Tesla AH-1 Humbucker is a 9V battery powered pickup for guitar players that want a warm and clear mid tone with a powerful output but without annoying noise from some active pickups. This pickup comes in a set that contains 2 Tesla AH-1 pickups (calibrated for neck and bridge positions), 2 potentiometers (volume and tone), battery clip, tone capacitors, output jack and all necessary accessories to mount the set.
The Tesla AH-1 Humbucker set’s price is $165, you can find them through your local dealer.
Shadow Electronics will introduce at Musikmeesse a dual-pickup system for acoustic instruments, the SH Sonic Doubleplay. This systems is composed by 2 pickups, the Shadow Nanoflex in the bridge position and the Shadow NanoMAG in the fingerboard (neck) position.
The Nanoflex electromagnetic pickup captures all the sound shades produced by the instrument sensing the vibrations of the string but also, at the same time, the instrument body vibrations. The Nanoflex amplifies and protects the sound in the pickup using the active amplification and the 100% shield that features the pickup, so no wires needed for that.
The NanoMAG active magnetic pickup is placed into or in front of the fingerboard and produces an acoustic sound and perfect balance with bronze strings. The NanoMAG can be installed in an electric guitar to produce and additional acoustic sound to the guitar.
The SH Sonic Doubleplay will feature volume and tone controls and blend crossfade. It will be available after Musikmeesse and its price is €300.
Lace introduced the Lace Ultra Slim Acoustic Sensor Humbucking pickup that features a cool chrome–cover design. This pickup has been designed for acoustic guitars and resonators, but it soon will be available in mandolins and other instruments.
The Ultra Slim Acoustic Sensor features a low profile (0.275” tall), duo-coil design and a high quality 1/4″ female jack (with a Switchcraft brand ). The low profile doesn’t affect to the sound and it hasn’t the interference of a full-size humbucker pickup.
The Ultra Slim Acoustic Sensor will be available this spring and its price will be $199.
