$189.00
580 Alnico
Expression through EXTREME Dynamics is the 3rd Dimension and this pickup has it in spades. The sound is Extreme Fender, like no Strat could ever sound like; it has that typical Fendery clang and has amazing prominent piano mid-tones in the low wound strings plus it has P90-like whack attack plus a huge warm lush and sensual bottom end and brilliant highs that have a nice sweet harmonic bloom. Mounted in an all Mahogany guitar the overall sound is a true cross of Fender (with beyond excellent note separation) -and- a P-90 (with it’s airy extreme dynamic range, touch sensitivity and it’s lush, sensual feel)
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Description
‘580’ ….. the Concert Grand Piano of the pickup world
NEWS Flash 18-August-2022: We now supply our new ‘Universal’ soapbar covers in genuine Gibson Cream, Warm White, Old Ivory and Black, click the option when ordering. A must for Gibson guitars!
Indulge yourself in the Concert Grand Piano of the pickup world.
Outstanding sonic characteristics: Expression through EXTREME Dynamics is the 3rd Dimension and this pickup has it in spades. The sound is Extreme Fender, like no Strat could ever sound like; it has that typical Fendery clang and has amazing prominent piano mid-tones in the low wound strings plus it has P90-like whack attack plus a huge warm lush and sensual bottom end and brilliant highs that have a nice sweet harmonic bloom. Mounted in an all Mahogany guitar the overall sound is a true cross of Fender (with beyond excellent note separation) -and- a P-90 (with it’s airy extreme dynamic range, touch sensitivity and it’s lush, sensual feel)
Matching Bridge Version: The 580 Extra is the matching bridge pickup, it sounds a little heavier than the 580 neck model and it balances perfectly volume-wise with the normal 580 in the neck position and both-on-together gives a surprising huge ‘c-luck’ with extreme dynamic range. Yup, a pair of these will definitely put you in Sonic Nirvana, you really should try these wonderful pickups.
Additional benefits: Both versions are highly resistant to mushing and blurring on the low wound strings when played hard, especially in chord formation.
Recommended especially for neck position of Les Pauls* and any guitar with P-90’s when a bright, dynamically expressive, clean tidy sound is required -and/or- the bridge position for country or instrumental and Surf Twang. We are pretty sure it’ll put a big grin on your face.
Suitable for Soap-bar covers (included) and for use under existing Dog-Ear covers. See “Covers” below in the Technical section.
Introduced July-15 / v2 upgrade introduced 18-May-2021
* Les Paul is a Trade Mark of Gibson, Inc. Kinman is not associated with Gibson,Inc.
** Alnico-K is Kinman’s proprietary low strength Alnico-5 rod magnet
Technical Stuff
Upgrades: Grounded pole screws are now standard on all models as from July-2017
Signal chain requirements: Any old cable won’t do. It is highly recommended to use a low capacitance cable to get the incredible performance of this pickup (or any other pickup).
The 580 is a Zero-Hum soapbar pickup. Some people will call these ‘noiseless’ 480 pickups but Kinman prefers to describe them correctly as ‘Zero-Hum’ 480 pickups. That’s because there are 2 types of noise, Hum which is cancelled in the pickup…. and Buzz which can only be minimized by shielding the wiring cavities Refer to >Technical >Perfect Guitar >Shielding for newer guitars
Installation
When replacing an original Gibson 480 two new screw holes must be drilled in the floor of the cavity because our 580 has the mounting screws of a P-90. Cavity for original Gibson 480 is suitable, no modification required. We use fixed Alnico-K** rod magnets, not individually adjustable Alnico-5 blocks as the 480 has.
Consider including our optional non-magnetic mounting plate kit, it makes install fast n easy because you don’t have to drill holes in the precise position for the pickups mounting screws in cavity floors. Do NOT use original Gibson mounting plates, being magnetic will dramatically compromise the hum cancelling ability of the P-90 Hx.
Epiphones
Kinman’s will bring your Epiphone to life because they achieve the maximum sonic potential of the guitar, and are easier to install than practically all other brands too because of our Easy Install Kit for f-hole guitars. Comprehensive, easy to do step-by-step instructions provided. Refer to the Overview Tab >Epiphone f-hole talk. More in Pole Spreads, next item ….
Connections
- Bare wires for soldering.
- Kinman connectors for plugging into a Kinman Strat, Tele or KHP-90 No-Soldering harness.
- Gibson 2 wire & 5 wire Quick Connect circuit board connectors shown below.
Output Polarity:
- in-phase with Gibson and Copy humbuckers
- in-phase with all other Kinman pickups
- opposite phase to Fender Strat
- Fender pickups have opposite output polarity so consider Kinman’s Strat models which have same output polarity.
Pot & Capacitor values
- Best with 500k Ohm for Volume. Many Gibson’s have 300k which makes a darker, less dynamic sound.
- Normal Tone pot is 500k however to maximize clarity use a No-Load or alternatively a 1 Meg Ohm tone pot.
- Normal tone cap value of 0.022µF in 63 ~ 100 volt Polyester. Smaller value lessen the severity of Treble cut, higher values increase it.
Cavity depth
- No need to deepen the pickup cavity in ANY guitar that has flat bottom cavities for P-90’s. Click Install Requirements to discover requirements for pickup cavity.
- Click this for the Install requirements for the original version, now discontinued.
Pole spreads
- 53mm pole spread for bridge position of Stratocasters or with any bridge having saddle spread of 54+mm.
- 50mm for Gibsons or bridges having saddle spread of 50mm ~ 54mm.
- 47.5mm for neck position of Gibsons and Epiphones (NOTE: not all Epiphones have 47.5mm neck pole spread, please measure it).
Hook-up cable
- The P-90 Hx has 2 conductor cable. 3 conductor optional.
- Length is 380mm / 15″.
Mounting hardware
- 2 Long mounting screws.
- 2 Silicon Rubber tube springs.
- handy drill guide template for positioning the screw holes in the virgin floor of the pickup cavity of a project guitar or guitars with freshly deepened cavities.
- OPTIONAL extra: Soap-bar cavity mounting plate, including all screws and springs. It’s non-magnetic and won’t interfere with hum cancellation.
- OPTIONAL extra: Bracket for mounting under Dog-Ear covers in Arch-top f-hole guitars. It’s non-magnetic and won’t interfere with hum cancellation.
Covers
- Kinman’s Universal Soapbar cover in Genuine Gibson Cream, Warm White, Old Ivory and Black, click the option when ordering. A must for Gibson guitars!
- Gibson replica Nickel-Silver Soapbar covers in 47.5mm, 50 and 53mm.
- Generic Plastic Soapbar cover available for 47.5mm, 50 and 53mm pole spreads available in Black, & Cream only.
- Generic Plastic Soapbar covers with 50mm pole spread available in White, Black, Cream and Chrome.
- Dog-Ear covers (Nickel-Silver) with hole spread of 50mm & 47.5mm to suit Epiphone
Youtube
The 580 plays a jazzy version of Sleepwalk with finger style.
Reviews
Lukas Kuipers
01-Aug-2019
Be careful using this pickup in the neck position – it will ruin every strat in your collection to your ears! It really does have the glass like clangy quality of fender pickups, but with so much warmth, bass, and dynamics. Chords have a room-filling quality to them. Especially pretty on the low lows and high highs, I can highly recommend this for d-standard tuning. I could imagine it sounding great on a baritone as well.
Important to note is: it’s really sensitive. I thought something was wrong at first, but after playing around with the pickp height and knobs I was able to change the sound quite significantly.
I have it paired with a kinman twangbucker in the bridge, and in both series and parralel position it sounds fantastic, and you can definately hear it dominate the low wound strings. Because of the higher output and lack of any noise (however that’s even possible) you can put the dirt on as well, and after some experimenting I’ve found some nice dirty tones as well.
All in all: great sounding versatile pickup with beautiful clean tones, and it has a few tricks up its sleeve for heavy genres as well.
Ken
I installed the 580 and can’t stop playing. It’s perfect. I really can’t imagine a better P90 guitar, and I can’t imagine NOT having a 580 in the neck of any P90 guitar I own in the future. I shouldn’t be up this late, but I can’t help it. I will neither confirm nor deny that I was hopping up and down in my chair like a 6-year-old girl. Thanks a lot for putting this pickup together for me, and at such a crazy reasonable price. Is this pickup considered super-secret R&D, or I can I tell other folks about it? Thanks again!
