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P90's, do they always hum?

YeahThatRocks.comYeahThatRocks.com Posts: 117
edited October 2006 in Musicians and Gearheads
I have an Epi LP '56 goldtop which I LOVE! I play it through a Marshall (30 DFx, I think). Whenever I have the distortion on, which is most of the time. The bridge pickup hums. Is this normal? Is this why the humbucker was invented?
Leave your lady on the cement floor.

"You boo us, you call us pussies, and still we come back." EV NJ1 2006

2008 MSG 2
2006 NJ 1, NJ 2
2003 MSG 1
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Comments

  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    yes and yes.
  • YeahThatRocks.comYeahThatRocks.com Posts: 117
    exhausted wrote:
    yes and yes.

    Thanks! My wife complains about the hum when she's in the room, but I LOVE how this guitar sounds with the gain on 11.
    Leave your lady on the cement floor.

    "You boo us, you call us pussies, and still we come back." EV NJ1 2006

    2008 MSG 2
    2006 NJ 1, NJ 2
    2003 MSG 1
  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    yes, it is unfortunate because p90s sound so good.

    i hate hum and have done a lot of work and experimentation to get rid of it.
  • keeponrockinkeeponrockin Posts: 7,446
    Anything successful?
    Believe me, when I was growin up, I thought the worst thing you could turn out to be was normal, So I say freaks in the most complementary way. Here's a song by a fellow freak - E.V
  • armanHammerarmanHammer Posts: 471
    There are of course hum cancelling P90's, but naturally the compromise would be a tone that's not as 'pure', or so they say.
    Riverside.. LA.. California. EV?
  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    keeponrockin wrote:
    Anything successful?


    stacked singles and fender SCNs in my fenders. i actually love SCNs and i have lil 59s in my bridges. i have a tele neck stacked single that i want to replace with an SCN.

    facing only one direction in my studio with my rickenbacker. i will never modify that guitar.

    shielding guitars etc. did nothing.


    that suhr backplate for stratocasters looks awesome.
  • NovawindNovawind Posts: 836
    I'd love to try out the suhr plate and give you a review but that's $260 that I really do not have.

    On the topic of p90s, how's the output compared to say the stock 490R/498T that's in the Gibson SG? Just curious.
    If idle hands are the devil's workshop, he must not be very productive.

    7/9/06 LA 1
    7/10/06 LA 2
    10/21/06 Bridge 1
  • vinceinhidingvinceinhiding Posts: 72
    the p90's on my LP don't hum. mine are much newer though, so maybe thats why.
    how am i supposed to sign here?
  • YeahThatRocks.comYeahThatRocks.com Posts: 117
    Mine is a re-issue of the 56, so it's not that old. they only hum when the distortion is on.
    Leave your lady on the cement floor.

    "You boo us, you call us pussies, and still we come back." EV NJ1 2006

    2008 MSG 2
    2006 NJ 1, NJ 2
    2003 MSG 1
  • seanw1010seanw1010 Posts: 1,205
    now you can actually buy a double coil p90 from gibson. its available in the billie joe armstrong sig. model(sux i kno)
    they call them fingers, but i never see them fing. oh, there they go
  • IsSomethingWrong?IsSomethingWrong? Posts: 6
    NO! THEY DO NOT ALWAYS HUM! Seymour Duncan Phat Cats are essentially reverse wound p90s that hum cancel when both pickups are being used and even solo, produce minimum hum. I have them on my Campbell American.
  • Pacomc79Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
    exhausted wrote:
    yes and yes.


    :D that just makes me smile and laugh for some reason.

    Still, damn the hum, I don't know if it gets better than a 4x10 tweed cranked with a hollow body P90 guitar.
    My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
  • enharmonicenharmonic Posts: 1,917
    armanHammer wrote:
    There are of course hum cancelling P90's, but naturally the compromise would be a tone that's not as 'pure', or so they say.

    That was true before the Fralin P-92. Now it's simply not true.

    Alas, they are not P-90 sized pickups.

    what you need to do is two-fold

    1. Get the routs and control cavity painted with shielding paint. This stuff works like a charm and will reduce RF significantly.
    2. Have one of your P-90's rewound to provide reverse polarity from the other, and use the middle position when playing live. This will create a hum-cancelling effect, and doesn't sound half bad.

    Those two tricks will make your P-90 guitar far more useful. :)
    new music: http://www.myspace.com/blackbirdsymphonique

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  • dirtyfrankdahmerdirtyfrankdahmer Posts: 136
    the hum could be a bunch of things. if you don't know what is causing it, or can't give an educated guess what is causing the hum, i would not worry about it. i would worry about becoming more knowledgable by reading and reading more. and that is not by any means an insult.
  • ianvomsaalianvomsaal Posts: 1,224
    True P-90's are a single coil pickups (hence the 60-cycle hum). You can get reverse would pickups that won't hum when they are used together (neck and bridge together), but when using just one or the other you will natually get hum (P90's are typically just a higher output single coil pickup).
    Cheers . . .

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