As some of you will remember, in 2007 I was lucky enough to purchase one of Gibson’s “Guitar of The Week” models, the gorgeous Limited Edition ‘67 SG Special Reissue w/P-90’s.
I have since fallen in love with this guitar over and over again, and it only sounds better with time… with one caveat –– the buzz from the single-coil P90s is driving me to distraction.
Is it authentic? Sure. But that doesn’t mean I need to put up with it. We are lucky to live in an age where the promise of noiseless pickups has finally come to fruition, and seeing as how I live in a 100-year-old house with ancient wiring, I’ve all but given up playing this beautiful guitar until I find a quieter solution that manages to maintain the soul and classic tone of the original “noisy” P-90s.
Of course, the two top dogs in this arena are Lindy Fralin –– who produces the much-loved ‘Hum-Cancelling P-90‘ –– and Chris Kinman, maker of the ‘P-90 HX‘. Both pickups get consistently good reviews, and both are said to be nearly noiseless, so to save money –– and avoid having to deepen the routing on my beautiful SG –– I’ve personally decided upon the Lindy Fralin Noiseless.
Said pickups have been ordered and should be in my greedy little hands sometime in the next few days. I’ll get some snapshots of the pickups, plus any tinkering I have to do, and post them soon… probably next week.
Got any experience with either of these pickups? Drop me a comment –– I’d love to hear your thoughts.
UPDATE: See my post about the raging success of my Lindy Fralin Noiseless P90 Upgrade, over on the forums.
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May 28th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I’ve got an SG classic and I’ve been considering the hum canceling Fralins as well. Definitely post a review after you try them out I’d love to hear someones first hand experience with them!
June 2nd, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Hey Soupy, I’ll try to get a full review up soon, but for now I just thought I’d let you know that I got the Fralin Hum-cancelling P-90s installed and so far I’m very happy with them.
As I’ve read other places, they aren’t quite as raw as the Gibson P90s that came stock on my SG, but they are incredibly close, and sound beautiful. I would say they are slightly more tame (but only slightly,) but still have plenty of that fat, thick P90 tone, and can really honk too.
The neck position is still really throaty, as I expect from a P90, and the bridge sounds exactly as I had hoped.
So far I’m completely stoked… these things are easily as quiet as any of my humbucker-equipped guitars and are unmistakeably P90. I’ll give you another rundown in a few weeks.
Right now I’m falling in love with my ’67 SG all over again. So nice to not be bothered with that terrible buzz….
June 6th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
That’s great to hear! I love my SG Classic, I got it at a steal a few years back during a labor day sale and it’s one of my favorite guitars. I would have loved to have gotten one of ’67′s but I missed out. The only problem is I live near power lines so the P90′s pick up everything. But I just love the P90 sound so I’ve put up with the buzz. Getting rid of the buzz for a slight difference in tone seems worth it to me. I may have to take the plunge and pick these up. I look forward to your full review as well. Thanks again!