$189.00
P90-Bucker
At last, Seth Lovers brief has been fulfilled 57 years after the event, a Humbucker that sounds like Gibson intended it to sound, like a P-90 …. but actually it’s much, much better than a P-90. This is one hell of a humbucker, actually a good name would be the “Humbucker From Heaven” because it’s lush sonic purity, gorgeous rich and beautiful tone, outstanding clarity and inspirational dynamics is breathtaking to experience. If you are chasing better clarity and note definition from the low wounds our regular humbuckers are pretty darn good but the P90-Bucker represents a quantum leap into the superlative….
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Description
P90-Bucker ….. Wallow in Rich, Lush DYNAMIC TONE
1957 Les Paul with Gibson’s new humbucker that was supposed to sound like a P-90. The P90-Bucker sounds better than a P-90 but has regular humbucker format.
Beautiful, clear and highly dynamic sounds
At last, Seth Lovers brief has been fulfilled 57 years after the event, a Humbucker that sounds like Gibson intended it to sound, like a P-90 …. but actually it’s much, much better than a P-90. This is one hell of a humbucker, actually a good name would be the “Humbucker From Heaven” because it’s lush sonic purity, gorgeous rich and beautiful tone, outstanding clarity and inspirational dynamics is breathtaking to experience. If you are chasing better clarity and note definition from the low wounds our regular humbuckers are pretty darn good but the P90-Bucker represents a quantum leap into the superlative. That’s because single coils ‘own’ clarity and note definition on the low wound strings and the P90-Bucker has a genuine, 100% authentic single coil sound. Actually it sounds far better than a P-90 because it has vastly improved dynamic range. And it is set apart from similar looking humbuckers of other brands by our Patented magnetic technology that gives our’s a huge advantage and in a side-by-side shoot-out the Kinman will win by a county mile ,,, guaranteed.
Read the Report Cards (4th Tab to the right)
P90-Bucker This beyond excellent pickup for the neck position produces gorgeous, highly transparent, lush piano tones from the wound strings and delivered with a nice, expressive whack attack. Over endowed with even order harmonics the plain strings sound can only be described as “beautiful”. Similar to our P-90 Hx Sweet Neck model, it is designed to minimize the messy sound from the neck pickup when the low wound strings are played together in a chord. In the neck position it balances well in terms of loudness and sonic character with most PAF type of pickups in the bridge. Can also be used in the bridge position if for some reason the Clean Bridge model is not suitable. An out-of-the-box pickup that sounds wonderful for Jazz and any music with melody lines (for Surf and twangy instrumentals checkout our sharp Twang-Bucker).
P90-Bucker Clean Bridge Another excellent pickup that sounds similar to a regular neck model does in the bridge slot. A little bit louder and a little bit less treble to complement the regular neck model in the neck position. Choose both for a set that has an overall cleaner sound than the dirty P90-Bucker Heavy. The Clean Bridge works very very well in the neck position to provide easy crunch, along with the Heavy model in the bridge.
P90-Bucker C&B Neck with Crunch & Bite it’s the perfect companion for a P90-Bucker Heavy in the bridge. Both break into crunch easily with moderately loud room volume and both have a nice bite.
P90-Bucker Heavy Designed for bridge position but works in the neck for big fat sound not too trebly. Similar to our P-90 Hx model the Nasty 90 produces fat growl with nice sweet biting highs pretty much like (but better sounding than) a regular Gibson P-90. It’s about as loud as our PAF Astound and 59 LPS models. The perfect companion neck pickup is the (above) C&B
Since the P90-Bucker is available only with 50mm & 47.5mm pole spreads it is suitable only for narrow spaced bridges that have saddle spreads of between 52mm and 53.4mm (I.E. Gibson Tune-O-Matic and copies, Mastery, modern Twin Pivot vibrato bridges such as Fender, Wilkinson and a bunch of others).
For reverse offset pole configuration ask for Left Hand in the Additional Notes box.
Various colored top plates are available under the open top hand buffed Nickel-Silver covers. See Technical Stuff Tab header above or the What’s New section >Open-top humbuckers with new decorative top plates
- Totally immune to microphonic screech.
- Absolutely Zero-Hum (more silent than regular humbuckers)
Our Humbuckers cancel hum better than any other humbucker but there is another type of noise called ‘buzz which can only be minimized by shielding the wiring cavities (refer to >Technical >Perfect Guitar >Shielding for newer guitars)
Patent number 8,791,351
Kinman Humbuckers can be ordered with the optional 2 wire and 5 wire Gibson Quick Connect circuit board connectors shown below. Check inside the control cavity.
Number of parts in this pickup: 42
Number of parts in normal pickup: 23
Some people will call these “noiseless P-90 pickups in a humbucker cover” but Kinman prefers to describe them correctly as Zero-Hum P-90 pickups in a humbucker cover. 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
Technical Stuff
Distinctive Kinman ‘240’ Gold cover & Cream top-plate The Baseplate is Laser engraved with all Identity info
Introduced August ’14. When Gibson’s President Ted McCarty told Seth Lover to silence the P-90 in 1955 I took that to mean keep the P-90 sound and get rid of the hum. Well Seth got rid of the hum (almost) but the sound of his humbucker was nothing like a P-90. Gone were the expressive whack attack and the piano tones of the low wound strings. Gibson sat on the pickup for 2 years for that reason and only released it in 1957 under pressure in response to Gretsch’s silent Filtertron pickup. Meanwhile a whole generation of guitar players has grown up not experiencing the wonderful sonic attributes of a gorgeous P-90. They don’t know what it means to have expressive whack attack and piano tones coming from the low wound strings. That’s because the P-90 was relegated to the back burner due to the massive amount of 60Hz mains hum it produces and it died a death at the hands of Gibson’s marketing team and Seth’s humbucker.
Some 57 years later in 2013 and Chris Kinman discovers the obscure Law of Electrical Physics that prevents humbuckers from sounding anything like a P-90, especially on the low wound strings. This Law of Electrical Physics is relatively unknown since one of the few places it operates is in the side-by-side coil arrangement of a humbucker. From an understanding of the actual problem Kinman devised a solution using our recently Patented technology to allow the coils to produce a more natural string sound free from that destructive Law of Electrical Physics in the coils. The revolutionary P90-Bucker is the result and gorgeous, transparent, lush piano tones delivered with a highly expressive whack attack is the sound it produces.
Direct replacement for conventional humbuckers such as Gibson, Duncan etc. Some guitars (a few Ibanez, some Fender Strat and one or two others) have pickups with excessively rounded corners. If a pickguard is fitted (for example Fender Strat Deluxe) a small modification to the pickguard opening to accommodate a Kinman humbucker is well worth the effort since Kinman’s sound so much better. The cavity in the body is suitable as it is.
Hook-up cable
- Can not be split so has a 2 conductor hook-up cable. 380mm / 15″ long
- upon request: 3 conductor with outer shield for phase reversal.
Connection means available
- Bare wires for soldering.
- Kinman connectors for plugging into any Kinman Goodbye-Soldering Harness.- including the 2 pickup KHP-90 for Gibsons.
- 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
Pot & Capacitor values
- Best with 500k Ohm for Volume & Tone. Many Gibson’s have 300k which makes a darker, less dynamic sound.
- Normal tone cap value of 0.022µF in 63 ~ 100 volt Polyester. Smaller value lessen the severity of Treble cut, higher values increase it.
Pole spread
- 50mm only, so suitable for all applications except bridge position of a Strat with vintage 6 point bridge, Telecaster bridge and other guitars with a bridge saddle spread greater than 54mm.
- For bridge position in Strats with a vintage 6 point bridge which requires pole spread of 53mm an Extra Vintage Astound is good companion pickup.
- Suitable for all neck position applications.
Covers and colors
- Open top Natural Nickel-Silver, Kin-Chrome and Gold plated covers. Our exclusive Kin-Chrome covers have Zero impact on sonic performance and Zero microphonics (a world first)
- Various colored top plates are available (Black, Cream, White, Blue & Green). Or visit the What’s New section >Open-top humbuckers with new decorative top plates
- Kinman humbuckers are engineered differently without molded plastic bobbins. Removing covers will not reveal bobbins and we advise against it.
Youtube
Report Cards
Peter Steiner
SWITZERLAND | 25-Sep-2021
When I first played my SG with the P90 Buckers, it was like a revelation. I played quite a lot of pickups in the course of time and the P90 Buckers were the first pickups to make me feel that I finally found what I was looking for – after 40 years of playing guitar :-)
Thanks to all at Kinman for producing such extraordinary pickups and especially to Chris for putting such effort in developping these.
Best regards, Peter
Doug Bills
UNITED STATES | 26-Aug-2021
The P90-Bucker neck and Twang-Bucker bridge is an ideal combination that can take you from jazz thru rock all the way to country with a lot of stops in between.
There is really nothing to compare these pickups with, and the swamp ash body and mahogany neck of my custom SG makes them sing.
Thanks for your great products that make great sounds that we haven’t heard before.
Paul Sellick
AUSTRALIA | 16-Sep-2019
I am a senior professional musician, a qualified sound engineer and I play smooth jazz guitar. I wanted new pickups for my Japanese Ibanez AS200 slimline hollowbody guitar, as I couldn’t quite achieve the levels of inspiration I was seeking from the tone I was getting from my guitar. I play a lot in the lower and mid registers but always found that conventional PAF’s lacked the tonal clarity I was desiring in those registers. I came to Kinman with a list of characteristics I was looking for in my tone, and to be frank, looking through the well laid out catalogue on the website , I was like a kid in a candy store! There are so many models of pickups in the Kinman range that would have been excellent choices, but I had to pick just one set, and that was the hardest part. With Joe’s knowledgeable and patient guidance, I investigated the P90-Bucker set, which piqued my interest, as P90’s have delicious tonal characteristics that I love, yet the humbucker tone is synonymous with jazz, so I simply HAD to have a set. I am also fussy about my guitars presentation, and there is a great selection of options to get an eye catching custom styled look. My order was completed, and I had the pickups in my hands just a couple of days after they were shipped. When I opened up the beautiful cases that the pickups are presented in, I could see nothing but precison and quality. These are indeed the finest engineered pickups I have ever seen.
Normally,hollow body guitars present time consuming problems for pickup change overs, but Kinman have a solution. An accessory they call their Easy Install Kit for f-hole guitars. It simply solders into the guitars wiring without removing the entire wiring harness and pots. The P90-Buckers have the matching plug fitted to them and the pickup change over was completed very quickly and easily, instead of the alternate nightmare. I had put up with my old pickups because changing them was a job that I dreaded, but the Easy Install kit is an ingenious solution to the problem.
After the ridiculously simple installation, I strung up my guitar,tunedup and then took it into my music studio to test it through my stage system and with my backing tracks. Oh man! I could not believe how good my guitar sounded! All my performing life I have craved this level detail and character in my guitar. I could hear every note as clear as a piano, right down to the lowest open E. I could not stop playing. There were tonal characteristics I had not heard before from my guitar, and when my ears are happy, that’s when the magic happens. I played non-stop for about 5 hours, completely immersed in the music. I have owned this guitar for many years, but this was the most inspired and enjoyable session I’d ever had. What a great choice these P90-Buckers were. Just for fun, I tried some overdriven tones and the definition of each string was truly remarkable. Very versatile. They just feel great to play.
In every field, there is always someone who finds innovative ways to push the boundaries and limitations of conventional designs, and through utter dedication and persistence discovers something new and extremely desirable. For me, these pickups have liberated my guitar, and me at the same time. I can feel and hear how the pickups releases previously hinderedtonalcharcteristics from the strings. A singer needs to relax the areas where there is tension, to allow their voice to be liberated and produce a full, rich and open vocal tonality, with no restrictions. I feel that these Kinmans P90-Buckers do exactly this for the strings. My guitar now has a full, rich and open tonality that I just adore. Without a doubt, switching to Kinman’s is the best thing I have ever done for my music since I bought my guitar.
I have just installed a set of PAF’s from the KinmanPAF Suite, to my jazz fusion set neck dual humbucker guitar and once again, I am over the moon. I will soon have my Stratocaster and my Telcaster Thinline “Kinmanised”. Warning – Kinman’s are addictive! I thoroughly recommend that guitarists take the time to familiarise themselves with the Kinman website, study each pickup carefully as you may find the pickup you need is not the one you thought you needed. There is an enormous amount of very useful information for guitarist that will clear up a lot of the myths and mystery about pickups and great guitar tone. Chris Kinman’s obsessive passion for pickups, and his scientific knowledge, pushed him to research and experiment to find the answers to the many problems. The amount of energy he has put into the art and craft of pickups could run a small city indefinitely. I am in awe of his commitment, it is so far above what I personally could achieve. He is a very special human being, and a very important one for all tone-seeking guitarists. I tip my hat to you Mr Kinman.
They say that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. So don’t just buy yet another set of conventional pickups for your beloved guitar, only to achieve a marginal improvement, if any. Go for the top shelf, you will thank yourself for it every time you play. Here’s my little secret for guitar players-
High inspiration levels are where the magic happens.
High inspiration levels come from great tone and feel.
Great tone and feel comes from Kinman.
Dustin
19-Nov-2018
I can say with enthusiasm that the sound of the P90-Bucker is spectacular! It’s better than I hoped it would be, and any trepidation I had about switching to a single coil is gone. I had a feeling that I wasn’t a Humbucker guy at heart and I’m glad to discover that I’m right (although to be fair, as you said, it may not be completely accurate to call this pickup a P90) I’ve got the pickup set as far from the strings as the screws will allow. The highs and lows are clear and extremely beautiful.
Thanks again for your help and advice – this pickup sounds like a different species altogether. The previous humbucker veil has lifted, revealing beautifull articulate tone. It sounds clear but with an analog warmth as if the signal was going through tubes.
Matthias
2017-Feb-01
Hello, this is Matthias from Germany. I put P-90 Buckers into my ES335 style Guitar. The old Set was P-90 made by Kent Armstrong. BÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄMM…. the sound is magic. really more than 100% better, far more than i expected. I did like my old PU but there was this hum… Thanx for your great Pick ups,
Dario Chiazzolino
2015-Sep-05
Dear Chris. I am so glad I bought your pickups. My experience with Kinman humbuckers in my Gibsons is simply amazing. I love the sound and the total absence of noise the P90-Bucker produces. When I play in live performances or during recording sessions I always feel comfortable since I am certain of their performance. These Pick ups are without question the best ever. I am really proud to endorse your products. Dario Chiazzolino (international jazz guitarist – composer. Awarded “Best Guitar Player” Umbria Jazz Festival. Nominated Best Guitarist in Italian jazz magazine Guitar List. Nomination for Artist of the year in D-Mag)
Ed Hamilton
New York City | 2014-Jul-15
Chris, Joe – Holy shit balls dudes. I have the P90-Bucker, the Big-Nine-0, and your P-90Hx wired in three guitars. (neck pos). Unbelievable. I’m an old dog at this point. 30 years making a living as a player and the last 20 hitting 300-400 dates year in nyc. I rave about nothing. I’m never happy about tone. Ever. (except my Kinman mkII strat set!) These three pups are slight variations of awesome. The Big-Nine-O and the P90-bucker are dreams come true. Your P90 Hx was probably my favorite pickup on the planet and to have that family of tone in a strat size and a bucker size is just killer. The BigNine-O is a bit more scooped, still in the strat family but imo better. The P90-Bucker is a tad thicker but still having that sweet single coil tone. Not sure which I like better but, holy shit amazing. I’ll do some video demo’s for you guys as a thank you.
