$219.00
Bright Sweet Neck
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Description
Bright Sweet Neck ~ if authentic impolite P-90 sound is what you like, Kinman is the one you want
There is a BIG difference between a single coil and Twin coil sidewinders and humbuckers.
The purist Kinman P-90 Hx is the only true single coil.
The upgraded v2 is here to create a love affair with your guitar, by transforming it into one that you simply can’t put down. If authentic impolite P-90 sound is what you like, Kinman is the one you want.
Bright Sweet Neck – with the recently revised v3 top coil upgrade and it’s beyond excellent sonic character it now rates as the outstanding best P-90 neck pickup.
If you like stellar highs that sizzle with harmonic sweetness, you’ll also love the heavily accented piano mid-tones in the lows. We think you’ll also dig the way every note explodes with liquid fluency under the lightest and fastest pick attack where every note literally rolls off the fretboard and rapidly moves a lot of air in front of the speaker. Consequently the Bright Sweet Neck is one of your most stimulating and satisfying P-90’s to play. We think you will fall in love with it’s lush somewhat 3D Fender-ish sound and excellent note separation and it’s not inclined to break-up easily under heavy pick attack at loud room volume.
Powerful bright & clear, good definition, it’s the only P-90 not inclined to mush and sloppy blurr on the low wound strings on the neck pickup.
It’s exceptional for lively clean sounds but also delivers a great gain/overdrive sound too. The Bright Sweet Neck reports every subtle nuance of your playing to your amplifier like few other P-90 pickups.
The one-of-a-kind Bright Sweet Neck works well with the Bright Clean Bridge. And both-on-together produces amazing and most intense, highly dynamic scooped ‘c-luck’ sound of any known pickup. This pair really packs a wallop.
This is all true, it’s not just our fanciful imagination.
You will have a lot of fun, enjoyment and satisfaction exploring the extended sonic dimensions of these remarkably advanced pickups and we believe you won’t be able to put your guitar down.
For replacing humbuckers with a similar sound please look at our P90-Bucker in the Humbucker section.
NEWS Flash 18-August-2022: We now supply our new ‘Universal’ soapbar covers in genuine Gibson Cream, Warm White, Aged White and Black, click the option when ordering. A must for Gibson guitars!
Big News: No more routing cavity floors, the new shorter Gen-3 version has arrived and fits most P-90 guitars, the exceptions are those with cavities shown in these pictures. Improved sound and performance over the original Gen-2.
More Big NEWS May-2021: Gen-3 upgrade with our new amazing v2 Hum Sensor which unleashes the liveliness of the pickup.
Technical Stuff
The Bright Sweet Neck is a Zero Hum pickup. Some people will call these noiseless P-90 pickups but Kinman prefers to describe them correctly as Zero-Hum P-90 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
Upgrades: Grounded pole screws are now standard on all models as from July-2017
Pickup adjustment
As with all Kinman Gen-2 pickups these are very sensitive to height adjustment. A good starting point, so the neck and bridge pickups balance, is with the two E strings fretted at the 15th fret, adjusted as follows …
- bridge pickup so the string-to-magnet gap is 1.25mm for both E strings
- neck pickup so the string-to-magnet gap is 1.5mm for both E strings
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 Alnico-K** rod magnets, not 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.
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 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
- Gibson replica Nickel-Silver Soapbar covers in 47.5mm, 50 and 53mm.
- Kinman Universal Soapbar covers 47.5mm, 50 and 53mm pole spreads available in genuine Gibson Cream, Warm White, Aged White and Black.
- Generic Plastic Soapbar cover available for 47.5mm, 50 and 53mm pole spreads available in Black & Cream only.
- Generic Plastic Soapbar covers only with 50mm pole spread available in White, Black, Cream and Chrome. (special request only)
- Dog-Ear covers (Nickel-Silver) with hole spread of 50mm & 47.5mm to suit Epiphones.
Youtube
Natural crunch on
Clean Bridge & Sweet Neck
Clean versatility on
Clean Bridge & Sweet Neck
Teeth mashing overdrive on
Clean Bridge & Sweet Neck
Clean boogie on
Clean Bridge & Sweet Neck
Ripping overdrive on the Clean Bridge and Sweet Neck
Report Card
Tom Hassler
UNITED STATES 01-Feb-2022
Tom bought Bright Clean Bridge and bright Sweet Neck Gen-3 v2 for his Gibson Les Paul Special Tribute P-90
The pickups are fantastic! They have great clarity and note-to-note separation, very pure mids. The round “bell tone” sound I was hoping for is there big time. They also have plenty of punch, overdrive is on tap when I just dig in a little.
And the freedom from noise is amazing. The guitar is now dead silent even with no contact with the strings. That added headroom and touch sensitivity do incredible things for the dynamics. As a pair they have added a whole new range of voices to this guitar. I couldn’t be happier, what a great upgrade!
The original Gibson P-90’s were rather harsh by comparison to the sweet sounding Kinmans. Articulation wasn’t as good and it was hard to dial in a sweet spot. In contrast, the Kinman P-90 Hx’s are very versatile and as a pair have a fantastic range of usable tones. And of course there was the loud hum from the originals.
This upgrade was among the best I’ve ever heard, I will definitely recommend Kinman!
Thanks for the great support and answering my questions so promptly. All in all a first-rate experience.
Tom
