- 4 days ago
Get an expert breakdown of two phenomenal single-coil pickups. This clip features a close look at a P90 and a Staple P90 on a custom guitar, with a detailed explanation of their unique construction and sonic qualities.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:26Hi I'm Jamie with Guitarist Magazine and today we're
00:29lucky enough to have Stuart Robson of SunBear pickups with us you might have seen our last
00:34video we did with Stuart which we're talking about Payton applied for pickups and today
00:38we're looking at something a little bit different which is sort of reflective of the breadth of
00:44pickups that you make at SunBear and you're interested in some of the more you know less
00:50common commonly encountered types of pickups from the past yeah and actually we've got two
00:55interesting guitars with your pickups in here so tell me what you've got there first so this
00:59is a guitar by Mikel Springer in France this is Seraph VNS model I hope I've got that right
01:06sorry Mikel if I haven't he's a spectacular maker he's been using my stuff for a good few years
01:13yeah we've worked together on a lot of stuff he's just he makes beautiful guitars but yeah
01:17it's a it's kind of you know a pretty classic recipe but we've got a Spanish cedar back and
01:22neck and then a maple top and this has the greatest of all pickups in it the P90 at the
01:29bridge
01:29and then the neck is the staple pickup so what you would see in the first Les Paul customs albeit
01:36without the raising and lowering of individual magnets construction that was in the the original
01:41pickup basically it's a concession to allowing it to fit in lots of different routes because the
01:47the original pickup is yay sized and it just doesn't fit in most guitars um but yeah that's
01:52basically what this is running and everything else is kind of classic LP style layout so um the the
01:58sort of staple style Alnico pickups how do they different differ from a P90 they are different in
02:04every way you know they get called staple P90s really only because the the memory that people have
02:11of them is because of their housing so Gibson put them in um quite a lot of arch tops back
02:15in the day
02:15so you had them when they were introduced for these guitars when you know the original Les Paul
02:20custom they um they did them in dog ear sizes styles as well but basically the the the story and
02:28it is a
02:28vintage guitar story so you know but Les was out with his Les Paul customs and he was swapping the
02:35neck
02:35pickup for a um a Gretsch Dynasonic and that pickup is a completely different construction to
02:43anything that Gibson make it's much closer to a fender pickup really in most ways but it has a strange
02:49height adjusting system for each of the individual round poles in that case on that pickup and
02:55it would be fair I think to presume that Gibson quite wanted him to be using both Gibson pickups
03:02in their guitars so they came up with the staple pickup I think probably in a bit of a hurry
03:06um yeah so it's different to the Dynasonic in magnet in wire and in magnet shape but the actual
03:12pickup itself is basically a Dynasonic right honesty and so it's much more much more fender than it is
03:19Gibson in a historical sense and so the poles themselves are magnets magnets yes so whereas in a
03:25pickup like a P90 you've got two flat bar magnets underneath um in a slightly unusual setup which is
03:31why P90s sound the way they do this is looking straight at the strings much like a uh a telecaster
03:37pickup or a strap pickup yeah so um and what are the I mean I I've become a real fan
03:43of these and I
03:44had um a set of the your um staple pickups in a telecaster neck position sounded great to me it
03:50sounded like a really good P90 but with more clarity and a bit more bell like sort of like they
03:55have I
03:55think they've got quite a big magnet pull um and they tend even though they're they're quite direct
04:01they they seem to have a slightly wider magnetic field than some pickups like this would and so
04:07that gives you a little bit of a flavor of the P90 but I think also it's about the fact
04:11the kind
04:12of pickups that we often the kind of guitars we often put them in so the tele notwithstanding but
04:16often we've put them in guitars alongside a P90 and that guitar's got a bit more throat about it
04:21anyway and so it might sound a bit different in a very sparkly you know slightly plinky sounding strap
04:28I've seen them matched with um uh filter trons actually and that worked surprisingly well because
04:32you get a nice crisp grind off the bridge filter tron and then you'd get all of that lovely sort
04:36of bell-like um bloom of the of the staple yeah absolutely yeah um so the other guitar we have
04:43here is what year is this one that's a 1960 1960 melody maker single cut um no wings on the
04:48headstock
04:49because this was a this was the sort of entry-level guitar for Gibson they found ways to make it
04:53a
04:53little bit cheaper to for people to afford you know you've got the plastic um tuner buttons there
04:58the body depth is about the same as an SG yes he's saying so in a way although the melody
05:03maker has
05:04sort of um it's going up now but for a long while they weren't considered on the same sort of
05:10par with
05:10SGs and things like that you've got the same body depth as an SG you've got Brazilian rosewood
05:15fingerboard yeah you've got uh all of the the right bits and the only thing they didn't have
05:20um was what you might call a quintessential classic um pickup yeah yeah I mean that's probably
05:26part of the reason why they didn't catch on as much as quite a lot of you know the old
05:31guitars have
05:32you know if you what's wrong with a with a bridge dog ear p90 and a it's the same thing
05:38that's in a
05:38gold an early gold topless pull or whatever else it's it's already a classic pickup but the pickup
05:43that was originally in these which keen-eyed viewers will have seen isn't in there anymore is quite
05:48reedy it's effectively like half of it's not truly but it's very similar to half a firebird pickup
05:54yeah with one bar magnet running through the center of it yeah and they're a thing they have a vibe
05:59they're their own their own kind of character but they are very thin they are quite sharp and they
06:04don't have a large amount of variance from the controls really they're a bit on and off
06:08yeah um so the nice thing if you can get a pick guard cut is that there is space underneath
06:13without
06:14doing any routing to have a mini humbucker or a firebird pickup sized pickup in there which is
06:19what's happened to this one yeah and this is one that you've found as one of your yeah that's a
06:2258
06:22mini 58 mini so as the name implies it's a patent applied for style pickup yeah it's basically my 58
06:28wind and magnet spec for the 58 archive sp path pickup squished yeah into into that size so inherently you
06:37have a slightly different shape coil you have a slightly different size magnet so really it's not
06:41the same pickup but it's it's got that flavor about it and it's seeing less of the string as well
06:46so let's have a little listen to um the uh yes here the staple we just talked about
06:50and then we'll see you guys
07:20and then we'll see you guys
07:30i like how it has warmth but it's also very clearly defined
07:33yeah um and i think um great great if you're a sort of person with you like a fender strap
07:39or
07:39you like you have leanings towards fender sounds but you want them more ballsy um and you want
07:44them in a sort of platform that's more gibson like yeah um it seems like a pretty good yeah it's
07:48got
07:49it's got a lovely it's got a very lovely sweet kind of vocal lyrical kind of character to it
08:05what happens if you back it off a little bit so we take it back to
08:10you don't get the same faux acoustic thing that you do out of the p90
08:14you get quite a lot of low end out of it normally
08:37that's really nice for all of that sort of um woody sort of uh classic 60s and 70s um sounds
08:44it's
08:44great i imagine that sounds really great with something like um a deluxe reverb or even twee
08:49down for sure i think the staple as a pickup generally particularly in the neck position
08:52is one of those pickups that just really works it doesn't really matter where you put it in some
08:58ways it's a bit like um it's why so many people love fender pickups so much is that they are
09:03very
09:03much a direct repeatable kind of sound yeah and the staple does give you that to a certain degree you
09:08know whatever whatever we put it through whether it's through something like the victory here or the
09:12vox that you're playing it has a certain continuous clarity yeah that's right and so it's transferable
09:18to different platforms without um causing too much um miss too many mismatches this pickup on the
09:24other hand do you feel this one just does this translate to different that is that's a very picky
09:28pickup it's um it i find this with minis in general it's the same with fiber pickups although
09:33the internal construction fiber pickup is completely different yes um you know they're both mini
09:37humbuckers but they're not the same thing that pickup on any guitar that's got quite a lot of
09:43high mid-range yeah it'll throw loads of mid-range um the guitar the guitars that that pickup likes
09:49have a kind of an essential richness about them and this guitar as we were discussing before we started
09:54filming is a really interesting mix of chime and real sort of richness and fullness and it just
10:02seems to work also if it's a bit too close to the bridge depending on where the pickup is sat
10:06within
10:06the route of a guitar if you have a guitar where it's really quite close you'll hear it's really
10:11quite close it is a a bit like a fiber pickup so the construction is different it's a little bit
10:16like a kind of quintessential microphone on the guitar yeah what you give it is what you get you
10:21know so when with the right balance um it will give clarity to sort of warm um rich sounding guitars
10:27yeah yeah yeah so let's have a little listen
10:32yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so i forget that sort of neil
10:57young
10:58style crazy horse style yeah yeah yeah it's got some teeth to it but also um there's something
11:03very attractive about it and it obviously is a really good match with this guitar because it
11:06it did sort of everything kind of hangs together nicely rory gallagher got some sounds like this
11:11from some of his guitars and he did play melody makers actually so that's interesting yeah he had a
11:15humbucker in one he did yeah yeah and we're kind of you know we're in the same world to be
11:19honest
11:20but without having cut into the body um you know and that was kind of the approach with a pickup
11:25like
11:25that in this guitar but it's had quite a few different pickups in it it's had firebird pickups
11:29in it those are a bit too strident for it and it's had different wines it's had vintage minis in
11:34it
11:34but that one just seems to work with that particular guitar so that's the name of the game
11:37it's worth sort of stating that clearly really that pickups aren't magic bullet self-contained
11:42solution to tone they have to be a good complement to your um guitar much as we match foods with
11:47drinks
11:48and things like that whatever and and for you and that's the one of the biggest things it's like you
11:52know it might be a great match for me yeah but someone else might might really have preferred
11:56that firebird pickup in there and that's that's fine there isn't a there isn't a dogmatic kind of
12:01this is the right pickup no it's you know it's a it's a it's a very much a personal artistic
12:06choice
12:06i mean i play with my fingers so i'm i'm probably finding that the crispness of it is it's great
12:10because there's you get a natural sort of rounding off of time with fingers
12:33it's nice you have to sort of you have to work it a little bit yeah if we switch guitars
12:36let's just
12:37switch let's have a little play the the the interesting that i'll i'll play it with a pick
12:41and through a slightly different rig obviously probably should have kept with the same effects
12:44actually um yeah if i if i now do the same that just do something with it as well
13:05but the nice thing about a guitar like this
13:19great sounding guitar isn't it yeah it is and it's just you know the best the best things
13:23you know slabs of wood with some strings on yeah absolutely well that's the sort of telecraft or
13:28esquire formula it is yeah it is
13:31so
13:36so
13:46so
14:00i really like this i mean it's got that vocal quality and they it really holds together well
14:05i mean that one's not great warm and splintery and kind of good like that this has got a different
14:09thing going on isn't it for sure yeah it's much sweeter and you could use it for lots
14:12of different stuff yeah that's right you certainly could
14:24yeah and as much as i love the sound of that one this one feels more at home for me
14:27so that's
14:28something to say then jump to the bridge on that you will get that
14:38i mean they're different guitars obviously so there's that as well
14:50let's try it in the middle
15:04killer killer in between that's that's one of the the real joys on the on the original um you know
15:10customs with that kind of pickup mix a lot of people talk about the middle position being
15:13the gorgeous thing yeah yeah and on those guitars the neck pickup was wound basically as hot as the
15:19bridge right and a staple as hot as the bridge p90 is quite a dark pickup so people often didn't
15:25didn't use them i mean you go like barry cadogan or something you know when he's doing the really
15:30sort of big low kind of thumpy thing and then he's throwing in some his some of his fantastic rhythm
15:35work he can really make that big pickup work yeah yeah but you really have to be kind of on
15:39top of
15:40it whereas middle position you've got loads of possibilities you know for sure it is a beautiful
15:44sweet sound so let's um let's just dial that back a bit and we'll see you so
15:57so
16:04so
16:21it's very sweet isn't it and it holds together like you know turn it all the way down and then
16:25you can wind up the wiki in all the sort of harmonics so it's really kind of nice separation
16:36there yeah you can hear also they record really well yeah they sit in a mix really well so that
16:41middle position whereas it might hollow out a little bit too much in the mid-range with two p90s
16:45or with two paths with that mixture of pickups it keeps a certain bit of the mid-range which pokes
16:52through a mix a bit more so it allows that middle position to be a bit more usable in lots
16:56of
16:56different situations um you know it's just it's kind of the ideal middle position sound really
17:02just to come back to this pickup here um just around things out with i mean i know it's an
17:06increasingly sort of um uh common thing for pickup makers to take uh the the sound and internals of
17:13a larger pickup or a pickup in a different shape and sort of rejig it for um a different sort
17:19of
17:19form factor yeah what how do you do that without losing the character of the on some pickups it's
17:24totally straightforward so i could i could take imagine this was a firebird pickup i could take
17:29a firebird pickups internals and put them into a full-size humbucker indeed i do um very often and
17:36providing it's in the same position within that space it's going to be fine the real question mark
17:41pickup that people are always trying to do is a is a p90 in a humbucker shape yeah and when
17:47you've got
17:47a pickup that's got a width that's too big effectively you've got to do something with
17:52that coil shape to get the same amount of wire on there or you have to do something with the
17:57wire to
17:57get the same amount of wire on there so the vast majority of humbucker sized p90s are wound with 43
18:03gauge plain enamel wire so finer wire yeah to get you up to the right resistance levels right because
18:09if you don't do that you really can't get enough wire on them to get anywhere near the character right
18:14but
18:14that tends to make the capacitance higher yeah um so it can make them a bit more meaty and a
18:19bit
18:19more throaty which can be good but it also isn't the character that you're necessarily trying to
18:24replicate there are ways around it some people will do some of the coil with 42 and then they'll
18:30splice to 43 for the rest of the coil i've done that a lot and it does definitely give you
18:35somewhat
18:36of a halfway house but there's also ways in which you're actually laying the wire on the bobbin your
18:41terms per layer things like that that give you the opportunity to lean the pickup more towards
18:47the classic sound um so that they're a balancing act they can be hard to get yeah right so as
18:52always
18:52with pickups you you can't just change anything in isolation because the relationships to everything
18:57else change with that so even on that guitar we've got nickel covers yeah on those pickups which
19:02historically those are both in plastic covered pickups as a general rule and that adds that takes
19:09away high end from the pickup it just does and so on pickups like that the wind in those is
19:15not
19:15the same as my plastic ones no so it's slightly tweaked so that we can keep the character of the
19:21old pickup it's like you say you've changed one thing it's just the cover yeah um and it has
19:26altered the whole character of the pickup albeit it's more than marginal because you can hear it but
19:31it's not it's it's so much so that you do need to try and fix it if you want the
19:36classic sound
19:37still come through so a couple of options there for um you know if you if you want something a
19:41little bit different maybe you're maybe you're a melody maker player you want some uh a more
19:47classic sounding pickup um or maybe you're a uh p90 les paul player who wants um a bit more clarity
19:54and um and sweetness um there are options out there and some there is is one manufacturer who's
20:00who's um doing that with great aplomb so thank you very much steward thanks so much for showing me
20:05these these um it's my pleasure these sounds and guitars so so thanks very much for joining us if
20:09you uh enjoyed that uh hit like a like and subscribe do let us know what you think in the
20:13comments and
20:13see you next time
20:16you
20:35you
20:36you
20:38you