Best P-90 pickups 2024: Rejuvenate your guitar tone with a fresh set of P-90s covering various price points and styles (2024)

Guitarists will argue until they are blue in the face about every minute detail of the electric guitar. From the role tonewood plays in the overall sound, to which tone capacitors will allow you to achieve sonic bliss and everything in between. Thankfully, there's one thing guitar players universally agree on – the best P-90 pickups are among the most versatile tone generators in the world.

Introduced to guitarists in the 1940s, Gibson's wide bobbin single coil is just as popular today as it was all those decades ago. Nowadays, there are many pickup designers and manufacturers looking to showcase their own unique take on this iconic concept, and we've listed a few of our favorite examples in this guide to the best P-90 pickups.

We have vintage throwbacks from Seymour Duncan, hi-tech options from Fishman and Lace, as well as hum-canceling pups that will allow you to crank the gain without fear of excessive noise. So, join us as we walk through a slew of P-90s that are sure to seriously improve your tone.

Our top picks

Best overall

Seymour Duncan is arguably the most popular and well-known electric guitar pickup designer ever – and with their decades of experience, knowledge and thirst for better tone, Seymour Duncan is our go-to place for epic-sounding P-90s.

While we had a lot of P-90s we could choose from, our top pick has to be the Antiquity. This vintage reissue pickup has been a guitar modders staple since the '90s and is a firm favourite among vintage guitar chasers.

Utilising a twin set of Alnico II bar magnets, this soapbar pickup yields a retro tone that sounds like it jumped straight out of an early '50s Les Paul – and just like those vintage examples, the Antiquity has plenty of bite and a mid-range bark that is perfectly suited for those bluesy lead lines.

Best for versatility

Video instructor, best-selling author and guitar player extraordinaire, Greg Koch, is one of the guitar communities most well-respected personalities – oh, and he just so happens to have lent his name to a rather spectacular P-90 pickup.

Now, this isn't Koch's first venture into Fluence technology. After seeing success with his Telecaster Gristle-Tone pickup set, Fishman and Koch would team up again, taking on the legendary sound of the soapbar.

Fishman offers a unique take on the P-90, giving users a trio of voices. In position one, you'll be met with a vintage-inspired soapbar, while in position two, the sound will be more aggressive as it imitates the tone of an overwound, modded P90 and finally, in the third position, you can expect a bright and jangly single coil tone.

Best ceramic P-90

Perhaps best known for the devilishly popular Super Distortion humbucker, DiMarzio is a leading force in aftermarket pickups. However, it isn't all high-output shred-ready humbuckers at DiMarzio, they make a pretty stellar P-90 as well.

The simply named DiMarzio Soapbar is a fairly faithful take on the vintage P-90s of yesteryear, but with one major departure – the use of ceramic magnets. While these pickups ate designed to sound as close to the originals as possible, the switch to ceramic means the pickup's magnetic field won't deteriorate over time, so neither will the tone.

This brilliant-sounding P-90 is available in various color options, so you'll be sure to find one to suit your current six-string – and it even comes in the dogear format, too!

Best noiseless

While we all love the bright, shimmery nature of single coil pickups, we can all do without that dreaded 60-cycle hum. This excessive noise has the ability to ruin a perfectly beautiful guitar sound, and it can drive some players mad.

Luckily, Mojotone has the perfect option for those not willing to compromise on a true vintage tone but are desperate to eliminate the extra noise – the 56 Quiet Coil P-90.

Unlike other noiseless options, the Mojotones 56 Quiet Coil P-90 doesn't use any fancy modern tech to eradicate the noise. So you'll find no PC boards, batteries or stacked coils here, just 42 gauge coil wire, lower Gauss Alnico magnets and vintage braided leads.

Best classic P-90

If you are seeking the authentic P-90 tone of early '50s six-strings, then it makes sense to go straight to the source, Gibson. Over the course of the last few decades, Gibson has defined the sound of blues, punk and hard rock with their soapbar single coil and you can easily achieve this legendary sound by installing this pickup in your guitar.

Gibson has designed this replacement pickup to be as authentic to the originals as possible. From the warm vintage tone to the braided two-conductor wiring, this pickup will transport your guitar back in time.

So whether you have a Gibson guitar in need of an upgrade or you just want to add a little Gibson magic to your current axe, this is the pickup for you.

Best for hard rock

Bare Knuckle aren't concerned with trying to replicate the past with the Supermassive 90, instead focusing on a modern tone that delivers extra output and body – and boy, this stunning P-90 pickup hits you in the face like an ungloved fist.

At the heart of this pickup are custom-made Alnico V magnets and 43AWG wire, resulting in a P-90 that contemporary rock fans will adore. The Supermassive 90 takes gain like no other P-90 we tried, managing to handle the most outrageous fuzz tones with ease.

So if you aren't on the hunt for the retro tone of vintage guitars and are instead looking to make an impact with truly gigantic-sounding riffs, you need to give the Bare Knuckle Supermassive 90 a try.

Best Neodymium

The Lindy Fralin Hum-Cancelling P-90 is a triumph. This pickup sounds bold and raw, with just the right amount of mids to cut through the densest rock track – and better yet, there's no 60-cycle hum!

Utilising USA-made Neodymium magnets, this pickup delivers a feisty tone that will most certainly please hard rockers and blues rock aficionados. Each pickup is perfectly hand-wound and Lindy Fralin is so confident in his work that you also get a 10-year warranty against manufacturing defects.

So, if you're looking for a boutique approach to the P-90 tone, it's worth seeking out the Lindy Fralin Hum-Cancelling P-90.

FAQs

How we choose

Here atGuitar World, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything guitar and bass related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our guides.

When choosing what we believe to be the best P-90 pickups available right now, we combine our hands-on experience, user reviews and testimonies and engage in lengthy discussions with our editorial colleagues to reach a consensus about the top products in any given category.

First and foremost, we are guitarists, and we want other players to find the right product for them. So we take into careful consideration everything from budget to feature set, durability and value for money to come up with a list of what we can safely say are the best P-90 pickups on the market right now.

Read more about our rating system, how we choose the gear we feature, and exactlyhow we testeach product.

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