@music6000
The
Zhangbucker "Lollipop" P90 prototype showed up in the mail today. (On a Sunday...?? Wierd).
Of course I couldn't resist installing it.
View attachment 33309
I put it in my Gretsch Jet Junior that's got the vintage style Filtertron (Sonotron) in the bridge position.
That pickup was an interesting find. I posted about it
in this thread.
It's one music store on Reverb that sells these as well as some other interesting pickups. I'm guessing that must be outsourced overseas for the price but they had gotten good reviews. I put it in my watchlist on Reverb and they sent me an offer of $30 shipped. That's cheaper than GuitarFetish (their filtertrons don't sound much like filtertrons). I figured, what the heck, it was a low cost investment and I could return it if I didn't like it. But I was very pleasantly surprised at how good and authentic it sounded. Sounds at least as good as a Gretsch "Filtertron" (not their Broadtron, which is more PAF-ish). Not TV Jones quality of sound but not that far off either.
Anyway, one issue I had was that for some reason the polarity is reversed on that pickup, so I could not use a traditional mesh wire type single conductor neck pickup or it would be out of phase with the bridge. The second issue I had was that the Sonotron is 4.8k, pretty low output and it's difficult to match levels with a typical neck P90 which are normally around 8k for a standard wind.
Thus, the Zhangbucker Lollipop solves both issues by being wound really low for a P90 (6k) and came with 3 conductor wiring so I could match phase with the bridge.
So how does it sound? Well, it's not your daddy's P90. Definitely a ultra low wind, so it's got a clarity and openness that's not typically associated with the P90 sound. It doesn't have as much mid-range growl, in fact it's well balanced, to the point that it kind of reminds of me of a Gold Foil.
Yet, with gain it sounds really good, it's got that hollow, flutey-ness of a good low wind P90. David Plummer (aka Mr. Zhang) knows what he's doing and is a gifted pickup winder, even if some of his stuff is a bit unorthodox. It was originally developed to go into a Tele with a Tele bridge pickup to match better than a normal wind P90 which is hotter and louder. So, I would say the same principle applies to matching it with my Filtertron and now I don't have the big volume disparity switching pickups. To ME it sounds really good and I like it a lot in the Gretsch.
But it may not be everyone's cup of tea if you're expecting a typical P90.
I'm also glad I did not try to match it with the Epiphone bridge P90, which is what I originally intended when I ordered it. They would be way too mismatched both in terms of output and tonal qualities. Very glad I got the Lollar set for the Special.
I'm traveling this coming week but when I get back I'll record a couple more clips to add to the above clips so you hear for yourself what it sounds like. Like most "good" pickups, it's got a ton of "character" and a 3d quality to it. But as I said, it's not your typical P90.
Oh and I have yet another P90 coming that someone on the forum turned me onto.
BootStrap Pickups. Ridiculously low priced for a custom wound pickup, he winds them in his garage. But a lot of folks rave about his pickups. But he's got a minimum 4 week backlog and he's not very responsive. So it was like I sent my PayPal into the ether and then one day a month and a half later I got a "shipped" notice. Doesn't work too well for us "instant gratification" types, heh.
Bootstrap also makes a "humbucker shaped" P90 and I also ordered a pair of those to try in my Warmoth P90 Strat that currently has a pair of GFS Mean 90's in it. I've been searching for something more authentically P90-ish to replace them with.
So the long and short of it, I will wind up with 3 extra P90's with nowhere for them to go. Which of course has me thinking about building something heh. Not sure what though. I've always wanted a 3 P90 guitar, perhaps in a Tele platform. That's one possibility.
