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P90 pickups and Helix


Rocco_Crocco
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I have eight presets I use live with my band (classic rock/metal... CCR to Metallica). These presets sound great with all of my humbucker guitars... an assortment of EMGs, Duncan JBs, PAF types and DiMarzio Super Distortions. They really don't need much tweaking (if any) going from one humbucker to another.

 

So Sam Ash had a Gibson Double Cut Special on sale. It was an offer I couldn't refuse. It has P90s. These pickups sound really harsh using the established humbucker presets I use. Dialing in more high cut didn't really help. 

 

Looks like I may just start over with my presets. Any p90-specific advice? 

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Either that or a separate bank of presets.

This. Start from scratch with the P90s where you don't have to worry about preserving what works with the HBs and it'll come together for you. I have several guitars that I use with Helix and it's a losing battle to try and make presets that play nice with all of them. I have a Twin, AC-30, LItigator and Plexi patch for each of them and then some guitar-specific presets, and I can tweak to optimize one without then negatively effecting another. It is a bit of an undertaking initially depending on your stable of guitars, but ultimately rewarding...

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I have a pair of Kent Armstrong P-90s in one of my guitars. The pickups are sidewinder humbuckers and I wired the neck pickup coils in parallel. It's a lot brighter and works much better with the bridge pickup - to me.

I find most neck pickups far too bassy and muddy for my uses. I like them bright!

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  • 1 year later...

Did you ever come up with any presets you like? I have a Hamer with Lollar P90s, and I haven't found a distorted tone I like. I want something with gain, but articulation too. I've been using the various British amps (e.g., WhoWatt), which would probably work with a bunch of tweaking, but maybe I can use yours :-)

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Gibson p90’s, with their alnico 5’s and 500k pots, are just too hot/crisp/bright for me.  I usually end up switching them out for Duncan antiquity p90’s and a 250k volume pot.     It smooths them out a bit and lets them play nicer with rigs set up for humbuckers. 

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20 hours ago, marmatkat said:

Did you ever come up with any presets you like? I have a Hamer with Lollar P90s, and I haven't found a distorted tone I like. I want something with gain, but articulation too. I've been using the various British amps (e.g., WhoWatt), which would probably work with a bunch of tweaking, but maybe I can use yours :-)

Try putting a blue comp (legacy effect) in front, then going into the detailed Ingrid amp/cab model.  Set the master to around 4-4.5, and the drive to between 3.5-5.0.  Drop the presence, everything else around 5.0. Change the mic to a 121 ribbon at 1”.  See how you like that. 

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  • 2 years later...

Helix, just like any other gear will sound vastly different depending on guitar pickups.  Some pickups "clean up" when you roll down the volume.  While on the same setting other pickups will simply sound less loud yet still dirty.  From humbuckers to single coils, you will have less saturation, more twang and more noise.  So how can we make single coils sound like a humbucker?

 

1. noise -- use the built-in noise gate if it bothers you.

2. the output is less than a humbuckers, so boost the input signal with a gain block and/or a compressor

3. more twang -- single coils are always brighter.  So if it's too brittle, dial out the harsh top-end with an EQ block

 

Do these in the beginning of the chain.  P-90's are not some special untamable pickups.  Just a different flavor of electric guitar sound, nothing out of the ordinary. 

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On 9/22/2021 at 6:07 PM, ac_moseley said:

I just bought my helix last week and I’m trying to make a preset that sounds good with my Epiphone Riviera with 3 P90’s. I’m having zero luck right now. We do country and southern/classic rock. Anyone with advice would be much appreciated. 

 

Without knowing what trouble you're running into and what you're using for output it's hard to give you much in the way of specifics.  But I do play a considerable amount of country both old and new and I always have the best luck with amps like the WhoWatt (southern/classic rock), Jazz Rivet for sparkly cleans and the Archetype clean.  Any of those will give you a very usable clean tone you can build on using pedals if you need to add a bit of crunch.  Cabinets tend to vary depending on the overall tone I want but I'd suggest using ribbon mics on your cabinets rather than dynamic mics like a SM57 to avoid the harsh high mids in the 4.2khz range.  MD421 works well for a dynamic mic with a more mellow mid.  I always run direct to the PA with no amp on stage, just a good floor monitor (QSC K10.2).  A good mild compressor at the end of you signal chain like the LA Studio Compressor can be your best friend for smoothing things out, and the Retro Reel in the modulators section placed toward the beginning of your signal chain can add some nice authenticity to your southern/classic rock tones).

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