EASY AND AFFORDABLE HUMBUCKER AND P-90 PICKUP MODS
If you’ve ever investigated pickup construction, you may have noticed that most are made with exactly the same ingredients. All you need are some flats or bobbins, magnet wire, magnets, screws, slugs and wax. So how there can be such variation in output and tonal characteristics?
It’s a dark and complex art, but part of the alchemy is understanding how to combine those ingredients and make seemingly minor changes that can elevate your guitar’s performance from the mundane to the sublime. Most of us swap pickups from time to time but have you considered modifying the pickups you already have?
Changing the component parts can dramatically change tone and output, and it will cost you far less than a new set of pickups. You can learn a lot in the process too, which may help you differentiate the snake oil from the science if you do eventually decide to upgrade.
The P-90 and PAF-style humbucker mods covered here are entry-level stuff but you’ll still need to take care when getting into it. Both the P-90 and the PAF-style humbucker are ideal for such modifications because their modular construction means there are several things you can try, and for the most part all you need
