Just bought a super real se 700 strat, opinions??

[Udonitron]

I know what a regular P90 is man lol, I own a few guitars with them thanks
According to Maxon, these were a condensed P90 and made to be as such.

It is like calling a tapped coil a single coil only due to its shape when in reality it is a stacked humbucker. Same principle here where they have condensed a P90 into a single coil shape and just because it is missing screw poles means nothing. If that were the case, are rail type humbuckers not humbucker since they are missing the screw pole pieces?

EDIT :: I gather that they are are known as Maxon PU3's but very little info can be found on them. Once it arrives I will take em apart for us to see

 

[JVsearch]

I know what a regular P90 is man lol, I own a few guitars with them thanks
According to Maxon, these were a condensed P90 and made to be as such.

It is like calling a tapped coil a single coil only due to its shape when in reality it is a stacked humbucker. Same principle here where they have condensed a P90 into a single coil shape and just because it is missing screw poles means nothing. If that were the case, are rail type humbuckers not humbucker since they are missing the screw pole pieces?

EDIT :: I gather that they are are known as Maxon PU3's but very little info can be found on them. Once it arrives I will take em apart for us to see

Should be interesting!

I would never refer to a stacked humbucker as a single coil pickup! But you know some noiseless single coils have stacked coils, but one of them isn't connected and it just operates as a dummy coil to cancel hum. Are they still single coils? I guess they are noiseless single coils!

Key feature of a humbucker: two coils in parallel to cancel hum.
Key feature of a P90: single wide flat coil with two magnets under it.

If we're talking about looks, which we sort of were, then the screw pole pieces are essential for the P90 look, and sure they're unlikely to have an effect on the tone if they're not screws. But here's the thing, the pole pieces on that Maxon pickup look like they are the magnets (construction like a regular Fender single coil pickup) and even though it may have an oversize coil, it surely can't be called a P90 if it is constructed like that?

 

[Udonitron]

Who knows man...the Japanese call stuff some pretty weird sh1t LOL. They very well could be noise cancelling single coils I suppose. A P90 essentially is a single coil pickup made to fit a wider pup cavity is all, perhaps a little more wound vs. a standard single coil on a Strat type guitar.

 

[Anonymous]

A P90 essentially is a single coil pickup made to fit a wider pup cavity is all, perhaps a little more wound vs. a standard single coil on a Strat type guitar.

Well that's not true either! By the "standard single coil" you seem to be referring to a Strat pickup, but the P90 pre-dates the Strat pickup by many years, so it would be nearer the truth (though still wrong :lol: ) to say that a Strat pickup is a P90 made to fit into a Strat size case, & with fewer windings!

In fact, the only thing that P90s & standard Strat pickups have in common is that they are single coil pickups - so it's probably better not to compare them in this way.

 

[Udonitron]

So it is like comparing a tangerine to a Mandarin orange then...still an orange. OK you are right man...happy? :wink:

 

[marcusnieman]

So it is like comparing a tangerine to a Mandarin orange then

And they to a Clementine

 

[Udonitron]

Haha indeed. Still round, orange, grow on a tree, and taste like a different variation of the same fruit with the same basic anatomy

 

[AlanN]

Not quite. You haven't opened these up, so to extend your analogy, you have a round, orange coloured piece of fruit that someone told you was a tangerine

 

[greco_burst]

Who knows man...the Japanese call stuff some pretty weird sh1t LOL. They very well could be noise cancelling single coils I suppose. A P90 essentially is a single coil pickup made to fit a wider pup cavity is all, perhaps a little more wound vs. a standard single coil on a Strat type guitar.

You do know your pickups.
My understanding is...

The P-90 is in fact the original pre-war 'metal covered' pickup that has the same pair of M55 Gibson named magnets, same 10,000 turns using #42 gauge wired and a DC resistance of about 8kOhms (+ or - 20%) created in 1940

The P-90 is that same pickup but had the contruction modified to fit a plastic cover.... and was called P-90 after WWII
The first cover was with the dog ear around 1946 ...then the soap bar cover around 1952....
The P-90 has a pair of magnets, and a single coil.

The original metal covered unit was smaller in size than the P-90, and the cover was sealed.

The pickups in the Greco strat look very much like Gibson Bar pickups...

Apples and Oranges?

 

[Udonitron]

Interesting stuff, thanks man. Yeah we should know here in about a week I suspect I think people are too programmed (myself included to a point) with P90's being only what they see in a Les Paul or similar guitar, the typical "Soap Bar" pickup and it is hard to fathom the same ideal in a narrower package but honestly, why is that? I think it is plausible and having a chunkier or fatter sounding single coil x 3 in a Strat would be fun to play.

 

[greco_burst]

You right mate, afterall...Don Lace came up with the active Lace Sensor, that can produce that humbucker fat sound, in one of the models.
I think that Greco have some really interesting pickups from Maxon, for a very wide range of guitars and sounds.
Anythings possible...looking forward to hearing about them after they arrive.. 8)

 

[Udonitron]

I will take lots of pics for us to look over and discuss I have seen a few set of those PU3's either in Greco's or for sale on their own but NEVER the same sized pups in a rail config. They should be pretty hot I suspect

 

[Udonitron]

Check out the pups on the Greco Boogie...same ones! Those Boogies normally came with active or noiseless Dry pickups but the seller must have swapped them or perhaps not? They are bigger pups for sure.

http://page5.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/e104168476

 

[Udonitron]

So it finally arrived today as I was waiting for a few others to arrive and be shipped. Had 2 Strats, a Tele, and a killer mid 70's Roland Wah Fuzz pedal shipped all at once. The body on this is made of of 7 strips of Alder wow...LOL

The pickups are REALLY interesting! They are permanently embedded in what looks to be Lucite, they cannot be removed and the metal baseplate extends up both sides of the pickup inside the Lucite. Maxon made and dated 1981, the same year as the guitar. I am looking forward to hearing them but for now, a few pics

Penny for size reference:

You can see the metal baseplate running up the inside of the Lucite here:

And a shot of the lovely fretboard

 

[greco_burst]

Nice guitar, I thought I had seen a similar type of looking pickup in a Tokai MAT guitar, albeit they were the humbucker type, but look the same, with the thick'ish rail.