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Hatsubai « Ripping P90 sound »
Published on 10/12/11 at 14:36This is a Custom Shop version of the famous 54 Black Beauty that was released oh so long ago. In reality, this is a bit different from the actual 54 that came out around that time, and I actually prefer this to the old one, ergonomically (and economically). The guitar features a mahogany body with a maple top, mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard, 22 frets, trapezoid inlays, pickguard, binding, hard tail bridge, two P90 pickups, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar had a very nice weight to it. It wasn't too heavy, but it also wasn't a balsa wood guitar, either. It seemed to hover around the 8 lb mark, which tends to be perfect for Les Paul guitars, from what I've found. It reverberated quite nicely, too. The fretwork on this was pretty good, but I've been better from Gibson. That said, I tend to see worse lately, so don't look too deeply into that. The nut was cut correctly, so no issues there. All it needed was a little bit of lube to make it work the way it should. I restrung this with 9s as I tend to prefer those instead of 10s, and it was just where I wanted it.
SOUNDS
The P90s in this thing sounded great. If you've never heard P90s before, think of how single coils sound. Now add some balls to them and take out the annoying treble that tends to plague them. That's what you can expect from these. They're super thick, and they work great with low to mid gain amps. You can use these with high gain, but I find they tend to be a bit too spongy to keep it together for the faster and tighter metal riffing that you hear in today's music. Through a cranked Marshall, these things just really came alive. It had the perfect amount of compression, the perfect amount of openness, the perfect amount of give to the low strings, and it just screamed the ultimate hard rock tone. The only issue was the annoying hum that came with these.
OVERALL OPINION
These are pretty expensive, but they're totally worth it if you can find a good one. The P90s in these guitars really sound amazing, and they add a dimension to tone that you don't normally hear in today's music thanks to the overwhelming majority preferring humbuckers. If you ever get the chance to try one of these out, try it with an old school Marshall or some sort of boosted Fender if you're more into the blues kind of tone.
UTILIZATION
The guitar had a very nice weight to it. It wasn't too heavy, but it also wasn't a balsa wood guitar, either. It seemed to hover around the 8 lb mark, which tends to be perfect for Les Paul guitars, from what I've found. It reverberated quite nicely, too. The fretwork on this was pretty good, but I've been better from Gibson. That said, I tend to see worse lately, so don't look too deeply into that. The nut was cut correctly, so no issues there. All it needed was a little bit of lube to make it work the way it should. I restrung this with 9s as I tend to prefer those instead of 10s, and it was just where I wanted it.
SOUNDS
The P90s in this thing sounded great. If you've never heard P90s before, think of how single coils sound. Now add some balls to them and take out the annoying treble that tends to plague them. That's what you can expect from these. They're super thick, and they work great with low to mid gain amps. You can use these with high gain, but I find they tend to be a bit too spongy to keep it together for the faster and tighter metal riffing that you hear in today's music. Through a cranked Marshall, these things just really came alive. It had the perfect amount of compression, the perfect amount of openness, the perfect amount of give to the low strings, and it just screamed the ultimate hard rock tone. The only issue was the annoying hum that came with these.
OVERALL OPINION
These are pretty expensive, but they're totally worth it if you can find a good one. The P90s in these guitars really sound amazing, and they add a dimension to tone that you don't normally hear in today's music thanks to the overwhelming majority preferring humbuckers. If you ever get the chance to try one of these out, try it with an old school Marshall or some sort of boosted Fender if you're more into the blues kind of tone.