modding P90's to fit jazzmaster pickups

[Thijmen]

I'm looking to fit jazzmaster pickups (or pickups that sound alike) in an epiphone casino. Because i really like how it plays and looks but don't really like the sound because i built the sound of my setup around a jazzmaster. Now i know that the jazzmaster pickups are a bit wider than the dogear p90 mounts. Is there anybody making dogear brackets for jazzmaster pickups or does anyone know another way around this?

[mynameisjonas]

How about these pickups from Lindy Fralin?
"Jazzmaster Tone, P90 Looks, No Hum"

[Larry Mal]

I own those Fralins, and have never been all that impressed with them.

I also own these Kinman pickups, and have them in the Gibson equivalent of the Casino.

I could not say enough good things about those Kinman pickups. I don't know if I would say the ES-330 with them in there really sounds like a Jazzmaster, but the pickups excel in every way, powerful, dynamic, sensitive. Really among the best pickups I've ever heard if not the best.

The Fralins by comparison sound tinny and cheap. Or at least that's my feeling.

[mynameisjonas]

I own those Fralins, and have never been all that impressed with them.

Just for the record, I have no experience with them, I just remembered they had a pickup that is supposed to sound Jazzmaster-ish in a P90 format.

[Larry Mal]

I own those Fralins, and have never been all that impressed with them.

Just for the record, I have no experience with them, I just remembered they had a pickup that is supposed to sound Jazzmaster-ish in a P90 format.

Yeah, I wanted to like them, but they are only OK. Maybe I'll bring the guitar out today, see if I like them more. I've been not recommending them for some time and a while back I was selling an amp to some character so we played my guitars through it, and I was just struck by how much better those Kinman "staple" pickups were in every way.

I'd like to replace the Fralins, but the pickups I bought to replace them with didn't fit so I'm sort of stuck with them.

[mynameisjonas]

Yeah I think I know what you mean. I have one of their "normal" hum cancelling P90s, and while I think it sounds really good in my LP Jr, it doesn't sound like a real P90. It's a different kinda pickup, much more "contained". It's like you took a real P90, cut its hair, and gave it a job. Same deal with the Mojotone '56 Quiet Coil (which is built similarly), but that one has even more of its edges polished off.

Sorry for going off topic.

[Larry Mal]

Yeah I think I know what you mean. I have one of their "normal" hum cancelling P90s, and while I think it sounds really good in my LP Jr, it doesn't sound like a real P90. It's a different kinda pickup, much more "contained". It's like you took a real P90, cut its hair, and gave it a job. Same deal with the Mojotone '56 Quiet Coil (which is built similarly), but that one has even more of its edges polished off.

Sorry for going off topic.

Nah, you're good.

I'm going to officially not recommend those Fralins. I just pulled the guitar I have with them in there out, a Firebird, and I played with a couple presets on Amplitube and compared it with a Strat with Kinman pickups and a Jazzmaster with the Kinman SurfMasters, which are supposed to sound the most like a vintage Jazzmaster set of pickups.

The Fralins are just dull and unexciting pickups. They are considerably quieter than the Kinmans, but also are lacking in highs, lows, and dynamic range as well. The Kinmans are very exciting pickups, they have a wild quality to them.

The Fralins are just boring. The sound explodes out of the Kinman pickups, it's almost too much. I feel like I'm wrestling with the Fralins trying to get them to do something.

Now, I'm a huge Kinman evangelist around here but they cost a lot and I tried everything to get around that expense, including Fralin pickups. And maybe his actual P90s are better than these AlNiCo rod noiseless ones, but these pickups are just lackluster.

It's a shame, too, since it's one of my favorite guitars. One day I'll put some other pickups in there.

[andy_tchp]

1. The bobbins and overall construction are too big for the packaging to work in P90 form factor. You would be changing important things like wind width/depth to try and accomodate this.

2. Still won't sound anything like a Jazzmaster.


You might partially achieve this by talking to some custom pickup winders about what they can do to get close to this, noting point 1 above. Novak offers a P-90 'Narrow range' for instance: P-90 Narrow Range

[gibs]

I own those Fralins, and have never been all that impressed with them.

Just for the record, I have no experience with them, I just remembered they had a pickup that is supposed to sound Jazzmaster-ish in a P90 format.

Yeah, I wanted to like them, but they are only OK. Maybe I'll bring the guitar out today, see if I like them more. I've been not recommending them for some time and a while back I was selling an amp to some character so we played my guitars through it, and I was just struck by how much better those Kinman "staple" pickups were in every way.

I'd like to replace the Fralins, but the pickups I bought to replace them with didn't fit so I'm sort of stuck with them.

Wait a minute, kinman makes a staple p90?!?!?

[Larry Mal]

Wait a minute, kinman makes a staple p90?!?!?

Well, they call it that, but the magnets are not rectangles so it doesn't look anything like real staple pickups.

And since it isn't, of course, a staple pickup and doesn't look like a staple pickup I guess you couldn't really call it that, but they call it that, so I guess I might as well also in case anyone wants to look them up.

However they are amazing pickups and I would recommend them to anyone. Even by the standards of Kinman pickups, which I think the world of, they stand out.

[gibs]

Got it.