Constantine (and I guess whoever else is interested)

Richie

Sorry it took a while, but here are the pics of the Vintage Vibe Jaguar P90. Not brilliant pics, but you can see what's what I suppose.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k265/rlesbirel/P903.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k265/rlesbirel/P902.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k265/rlesbirel/P901.jpg

The big chunky things on the bottoms are the magnets. In the pics they're AlNiCo 5s, but I've since swapped them for the ceramic set. I expected this to be detramental to my clean tone but it's actually made it even clearer and more Fender-ish, and my distortion tone is, at the risk of sounding like Zakk Wylde, crushing. 😆

Richie

Will also point out that yes, the coil is covered in copper foil. I'm not sure why. The braided cable you can see in wire channel is the hot connection for the P90 also.

robertoriginal

what year is that jag, i have a jap jag like that but its a 96 with copper shielding instead of the paint.

so thats a p-90 sized single?

awsome!

i just made myself(or rather am making myself) a jaguar with normal sized p-90s.

gotta llove the mike ness tone!

Richie

I'm not sure about the year. It has a '93 serial number but says "Crafted In Japan" on it, not "Made". 😕

Also is that paint in the cavities, the matt black stuff, some kind of shielding? 'Cause if that's the case it ain't very good.

Yeah, it's *sort of* a P90. Here's the site for the guy who makes them (11th pic down):

http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/pickup_sc.html#

As I say, I've found that having ceramic magnets in it gives you proper jag cleans but massive distortion tones. Doesn't really sound like a P90 anymore but that's not really what I bought it for. And now it just sounds like my own unique guitar sound.

I saw the thread about your jaguar build robert, it looks sweet. Can't wait to see her finished. 😀

65fenvox

I saw the thread about your jaguar build robert, it looks sweet. Can't wait to see her finished. 😀

Yeah, thats what I'm waiting for too!

robertoriginal

the neck is shaped, and i have been experiementing with tints, it will be a while before i get anywhere else with it, and besides i have been thinknig of putting vintage epiphone humbuckers innit instead.

i ordered all the plates last night so... i guess some more progress is due.

becky

Damn, I was looking into those exact pups myself (I even have a CAR jag 😆 ). Any chance of sound clips? I was debating scrapping the idea and just going for duncans. But im still interested.

Does it fatten everything up more? Is the neck pup a bit less muddy too?

Richie

I dunno about neck pickups, I only have the bridge model. My neck pickup (and I'm wondering when people are going to get sick of me announcing it) is an SD Antiquity which is also brilliant I think.

Basically, if you ask the guy when you order them to put ceramic magnets on it, it sounds more or less the same as a good quality regular Jaguar pickup. It still has all the definition and sparkle etc. You only notice a difference when you put some overdrive on it, it absolutely owns, sounds huuuuuuuuge.

I very highly reccomend it basically. I've been meaning to post some soundclips for a while but my recording stuff's being a bit stupid at the moment and I can't get a decent tone through it. Typical. 😆

Constantine

Thanks for posting the pictures. It is an interesting design. I guess they must have messed around with the magnet and winding combinations to get it to sound like a P 90 (maybe with the stock Alnico magnet) without the wide flat form factor of a classic P90. The copper foil would also have a some effect on the sound (maybe adds capacitance).

They must have done quite bit of experimenting to get a tall narrow pickup to sound like a wide flat one. I guess they could have just shot for the numbers....Match the inductance, capacitance, circuit "Q" etc until the specs were "P90 like". Of course it probably involved a lot of playing and listening time.

It would be interesting to swap the original Alnico V's back in a see what it sounds like then in comparison to a regular P90. However, I have taken my guitar apart enough times to know what a hassle that can be.

eddiebax

Took me a while to find it, but I found it now. Cool info. I think ill buy ASAP.

Richie

Not meaning to keep revisiting my own posts and milking them for all they're worth, but...

*FRAN*

I've found that with some tinkering it is possible to fit the claw with these pickups. It involves completely removing the baseplate for the magnets and putting the claw between the coil and the magnets. I think it's important to point out though that the magnets must be insulated against the claw while still in contact with the polepieces, and the claw needs its own ground connection. I'm still doing some juggling to get it right though. Like lots of things it seems there's one way in which it'll work fine and every other setup'll be full of problems. First off I didn't isolate the claw's ground, and it caused it to not be grounded properly. When I fixed that it developed a squeal not dissimilar to that of the CIJ pickups 😕

Although dispite the feedback squeal thing, it is noticably better shielded, so it'd be worth fixing it.

I'll keep tinkering with it and see if I can get it working properly, and if not, oh well, but I thought it would be worth mentioning if I do figure it out.

eddiebax

Hey what is the sustain like with this pickup through distortion? Will it growl for a long time or just a short time if you fang it?

Richie

Erm... it's alright I guess. It certainly doesn't die off like it used to with stock. Generally yeah, quite good. That said, most of my sustain comes from my bridge setup now, so it might be different on your guitar... to be honest I'd say take the chance. 😆

A followup to that last post of mine also, I now have the claw on and working perfectly, the only noise I get is from the amp now. Awesome.

eddiebax

Last question i promise! Do you have any idea what the output might be? If your not sure do you think it is near the P90 output of 8 or 9 ohm?

Richie

😆

Don't worry about it, the whole shared knowledge thing is what forums are for.

Yeah, it's around that mark, 8.6 I think mine is, although 'cause they're handwound it varies between pickups. But yeah, that's what you're looking at. 😉

eddiebax

Sounds awesome. Im getting these for my surf green jag - the one im planning on using for live performance. I wanted something loud and biting with high output, but not a humbucker as I cant stand the overscreaming of most hot humbuckers.

So These looked pretty much like what I was after.

Im hoping they also wont hum as much loud as my current stock ones do - Ive even had trouble with the US made replacements at extreme volume levels. Reckon they'll do the job?

Richie

Actually they do hum quite a bit when you're within like 4 feet or so of your amp and using overdrive. I've only managed to get rid of most of this recently by shielding the crap out of the guitar and actually messing about with the pickup itself (thus voiding the warranty. I wouldn't reccomend trying what I did unless you have a fair idea of what you're doing, 'cause you could ruin it).

That said they don't hum as much as your average stock pickup. Just don't expect silence 'cause you won't get it. It's still a singlecoil.

eddiebax

yeah true. Hum more than a seymour duncan replacement?

Richie

No idea, I've never used any SD bridge pickups in my jag. The Antiquity neck pickup seems about the same though.

You have to bare in mind though that these give a very different tone to any of the SD models. It's all very objective. You're just going to have to try stuff out.