The magic sound of the P90 pickup

The song Hideaway by Freddie King is part of what inspired me to get the Epiphone Les Paul Special I P90 guitar...

...because the P90 has great tone.

The P90 works for basically every type of music except metal. Ordinarily I'd say you can make any electric "sound metal", but not when it comes to the P90; that pickup is best suited for blues, jazz, country, classic hard rock and pretty much everything else short of metal crunching.

Again, this is why I say I think it's mandatory for guitar players to own multiple guitars with different pickups and pickup configurations. I don't ever plan on performing metal songs with the Paul I bought, but instead concentrate on classic rock and blues tones, which I know the P90 is good for.

Do you need a Les Paul for that classic P90 sound? No. What you need is the P90 itself no matter what guitar it is. The pickups could be in a Stratocaster body and they would basically sound the same. So if you happen to be in situation where you really like the P90 but can't get the Epi Les Paul like I did, find yourself another guitar that can have that pickup installed, or if it's a Strat body just get a pick guard that has the proper cutouts for it.

Published 2012 Dec 15