Humbucker Sized P90's - Anyone tried them in a Starfire yet?

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Greetings! I've got a '97 Starfire II. I was thinking about swapping the pickups for a Humbucker sized P90 such as one of the following:

http://www.dallenpickups.com/product_p/ap-bk90.htm
http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/me...duct_Code=265&Category_Code=humbucker-pickups
http://www.fralinpickups.com/humbuckers.asp

Has anyone out there tried something similar? Without taking my guitar apart, would these types of pickups work or are they more along the lines of Gibson's humbuckers? It looks like Guilds have a different mounting system with two screws on one side and just one on the other.
 

cc_mac

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You've got good taste in pickups. I don't really know for sure but you can read the GAD article and learn more about what might be in your guitar and perhaps find the answer. The link is below. If it turns out you have "SD-1" pickups and would like to sell then to finance the single coils then let me know. I might be interested in putting them in one of my Guilds.

http://www.gad.net/Blog/2011/11/25/guild-full-sized-hb1-and-sd1-pickup-variations/
 

Zelja

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I haven't tried any of the above but have another guitar, a Hamer Newport, which is similiar to an SFII/III as it is a full hollow-body guitar. That sports Seymour Duncan Phat Cats which are similar to P90s I guess but with a bit less mids - maybe somewhere between an old Guild Frranz & a P90. It suits that guitar very well.

With the pickups it really depends on what you want in the tonal spectrum. The Fralin Twangmaster would be the brightest & have the most single coil character, & then the Fralin P92 would likely be a bit thicker sounding. Both of these are actually 2 half single coil pickups (one for the bottom 3 strings & one for the top 3) wired like a humbucker so would have far less noise.

The Lollar & the Dallen seem similar to the Phat Cat. Another much cheaper option of the same ilk are the GFS Dream90 & Mean90 & these are good sounding pickups as well, pretty sweet sounding in an Ibanez AS200 (semi-hollow) I have: http://www.guitarfetish.com/Humbucker-Sized-Guitar-Pickups_c_26.html

The offerings from TV Jones are good to if you want something Gretschy.

Either way you'll have to make an adaptor to use the existing rings without drilling another hole in them.
 

dapmdave

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I went through the same research thing over the past month or so. FWIW, here's a review of several P90s for humbucker-routed guitars. http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/20058-humbucker-sized-p-90-review-roundup

I've been looking to try something else in my SF4. I ended up buying a pair of used Gibson 57 Classics. Haven't got them in, yet. Bear in mind that my SF4 is a 2001, with the Fender 'buckers. Already routed for a standard humbucker.
 
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Hey Dapmdave, waiting to hear of your adventures with the Classic 57's, good or bad. I had a '68 ST302, took out the anemic mini-hums that were stock, and inserted some Gibson HB/ers, back in 1972. Minimal improvement.

Let us know how it goes.
 
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