P90

A single-coil pickup with a wide, shallow coil and bar magnets beneath it, producing more output and thickness than a conventional single coil.

The broad coil senses a longer section of string than a narrow one, which brings out more of the lower and middle overtones and gives the pickup a fat, growling voice with a slightly gritty edge when pushed. It hums like any single coil, since it has no second coil to cancel noise. Its position between single coil and humbucker in character is why it appears on guitars where a warmer single-coil sound is wanted without going the whole way to a dual-coil design.

Example: a soapbar P90 in the bridge of a solid body gives a rock riff a rough, midrange-heavy bite that a humbucker would smooth out.

P90

See also