The Blue 90 is a dynamic, clear, balanced P90 pickup set. It has a little less low end push than a traditional P90 but with clearer highs. They’re designed for the player wanting a clean sounding P90 tone but with the ability to push an amp when asked. Ideal for clean tones, jazz, funk and blues.
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Blue 90 Tone
The phrase ‘fat single coil’ is really the essence of this pickup set. They have a full, chiming tone but with the dynamics of a true single coil pickup. They have that distinctive P90 tone but with more clarity. If you ask them they will push your amp into overdrive but less than my Sassy P90 set. They have the magnetic and coil geometry of a P90 but the under wound coil gives a clearer, more dynamic tone.
The Concept
I had been thinking for a while about making another P90 set. Something a little less powerful than the Sassy P90 pickup but with more sparkle than the smooth Cool 90 pickup.
I had experimented a little with under winding the Sassy and really liked the results. I liked the dynamics and how well it worked with modulation effects and delays giving a well balanced platform for these effects to shine. With my prototypes I had reduced the lower mid range ‘clonk’ that traditional P90’s have. It seemed like a pickup with a definite place in then World..
It felt to me like a very useful set of tones and I needed to investigate more. Like with many designs I hadn’t done much about it other than making a prototype, playing around with it, taking it to a gig to hear it next to a drummer and leaving it at that. I always liked this design, I just didn’t get around to putting them up for sale.
The Blue 90 story
Then in September 2024 I received a phone call from guitarist Nick Granville.
Nick has a few of my pickups in various guitars and I have huge admiration for his playing. He knows guitars and he knows tone.
The reason he called was that he had a problem with a P90 loaded guitar (not my P90’s). He wanted a cleaner P90 tone.
Like many pro players he’s very good at describing sound and his requirements. I felt my Sassy P90 set might be a bit grunty for him so after a little think I decided my new P90 idea might suit his needs.
For me this is a great situation where I get to borrow the ears of a top pro player to test out a new pickup. Although I had done a lot of testing myself already I knew that if Nick liked these pickups it would push it over the line and I’d have a new model. I always have prototypes on the go, sometimes it just needs a nudge.
I wound a set, sent them to him and a few days later got a message which read:
“They really do sound good. Have a nice sparkle but still sound like P90’s, and enough push to get it driving enough and vintage in vibe. I like them a lot.”
So that was it, a new pickup set was born. I’m very pleased to welcome this new P90 set to my website.
Available in dogear or Soapbar, black or cream. If you’re ordering Dogear (or even if you aren’t) I’m happy to send you a 3D printing file for height shims.
The Black Sand Humbucker sized P90 has all the clarity, punch and fullness of a P90 but built to fit humbucker guitars.
Perfect for most styles especially Blues, Classic Rock, Punk and even Extreme Metal.
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Black Sand Description
The humbucker sized P90 (HBSP90) is a great pickup – it sits tonally between a humbucker and and a strat type pickup.
If your neck humbucker is a bit thick and woolly sounding, you want more clarity, or just want a different tone, then this versatile pickup may be the answer.
The physical size of this pickup is identical to that of a “normal” humbucker so it will pop straight in to any humbucker guitar. They’re designed to be used with 500k pots too so you don’t need to change anything.
P90 pickups do have a reputation for being noisy but the Black Sand not only comes with shielded cable but is encased in a metal cover. This cover makes a huge difference in reducing interference from outside sources making this a very quiet pickup.
There really is no musical genre the Black Sand Humbucker size P90 is best suited to, from blues to punk, rock or even funk there is a place for this sound just about everywhere. Have a listen to these demos, you’ll hear how well it adapts to any situation.
I don’t guide demo players in any way, I just ask them to do what they feel the pickup wants. That way we get different interpretations of the pickups and in this case it really shown off the versatility.
And scroll down to the picture at the bottom of this page – there are a lot of funky cover options to look cool in any guitar.
Here is Warren Mendonsa aka blackstratblues. He uses a Black Sand set in his Gibson es335. Go check him out, you can thank me later.
P90’s are different to other single coil pickups. They have a wide, flat coil similar to that of a Jazzmaster but the magnetic field is a very different shape. Fender single coil pickups have the coil wound around the magnet giving a focused, precise percussive sound. A P90 has 2 bar magnets underneath the coil; this broadens the magnetic window allowing the pickup to listen to a bit more string and thickens the sound. I chose Alnico V bar magnets for this model to help give some grit and power characteristic of a P90.
Of course, too much power and the pickup would sound too thick and bass heavy which is not its purpose. Too little power and it just won’t snarl. I have aimed this pickup set at the clearer end of the P90 spectrum.
To give you an idea of this pickup’s versatility here it is in drop E tuning:
Leon Todd visited the workshop in February 2024 after which I sent him a pickup set. It’s a Cloud Nine humbucker in the bridge position and a Black Sand humbucker sized-P90 neck pickup. I think you’ll agree they really give an extra dimension to his Les Paul.
The Black Sand Humbucker sized P90 story
The development of my Black Sand Humbucker sized P90 was a bit backwards.
Usually I make a bridge pickup first and work from there but with this one the neck pickup came first.
I had a customer ask for a neck pickup for an es335 to sound clearer than his existing Gibson humbucker. He was finding the lower mids of the humbucker were getting in his way and needed a clearer sound with more character.
I worked on the Black Sand Humbucker sized P90 neck pickup for a while using my Les Paul as a test guitar. There’s a balance to getting the right neck pickup sound. There needs to be a bit of power but a danger of becoming too boomy. It was a case of tweaking the windings until it was right. I sold a few neck pickups before thinking it would be a good idea to have a set. So I started work on the bridge pickup.
I wanted this bridge pickup to have clarity in the lower mids to stand out from humbuckers while having enough power to grit up nicely. I wanted it to be clean when tickled and to growl at you when you dig in. P90’s are all about dynamics. It had to match the existing neck pickup or work well as a stand alone in a HSS situation.
Of all the pickups in my range the Black Sand Humbucker sized P90 came together the quickest. There were only 4 or 5 prototypes and I was happy. Experience and intuition combined with a notebook where I’ve written down details of every experimental pickup I’ve made since 1995.
The main challenge with this pickup was taming the bass. The bass needed to be clean and ringing without a dominant boom. That’s where testing with a band is so useful. A pickup can sound great at home volumes but when its up loud the bass can be overpowering. If the bass is too far forward it walks all over the bass guitar and can ruin a mix.
There were a load of prototypes in and out of a Les Paul, Tele Delux and PRS, through different amps and in the hands of different players. I never trust just my own ears with my pickups. I like to get opinions and suggestions from a few players before making any final decisions. I listen to what players say and I adjust prototypes accordingly, but at the end of the day the final decision is mine. I’m always aware of the phrase “a camel is a horse designed by committee”.
It took a while to get this one right. A pickup would sound great at workshop volume, then I’d play it in a band situation and it would be too boomy, too much like a humbucker. So I’d have a think and make another. In the end persistence paid off.
The pickups I finally settled on went into my Les Paul and off to a gig for the ultimate test, and that’s where they’re staying.
The neck “Black Sand” is a great match for either my “Integrity” or “Cloud Nine” bridge humbuckers or as a set with its equivalent “Black Sand” bridge humbucker sized P90. It is equally happy with Gibson or Fender scale lengths as you can hear from the demos. Currently I gig a Flying V with a Black Sand neck pickup with a Cloud Nine in the bridge position. With the extra clarity from the Black Sand I find I use the neck position a lot more and it’s so good for playing ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’.
Black Sand design
Here is a short video to explain my thinking behind this HBSP90 design. Initially it was just going to be a neck pickup. The aim was to solve the problem of neck humbuckers sounding too wooly in some situations. Then came the Black Sand bridge pickup to match. Now the set has taken on a life of its own live and has become one of my most popular pickup sets.
Naming pickups is not easy, I agonized over what to call this pickup set.
I wanted a name that would reflect the apparent contradiction in P90’s. From the perspective of a humbucker player they are clear and chiming. From the viewpoint of a single coil player they are powerful and gritty. They’re one thing while looking like another. I wanted a oxymoron to reflect this contradiction, one that might include the unique magnetic structure that gives the P90 its character.
So I went for a run along Muriwai beach to think. And there it was staring me in the face (literally). Muriwai has black volcanic sand due to its iron content and it’s also magnetic. So I’ve called this set the Black Sand Humbucker sized P90.
Jimmy Christmas – D4
I’m very happy with this pickup – hopefully you will be too.
I’ve been working on some new funky cover options. This pickup set finds it way into so many different kinds of guitars I felt it needed to have a lot of looks to match.
Black Sand Humbucker sized P90 cover options: sliders, nickel, black, toaster top, open, chrome; or cover in P90 style soapbar or dogear covers in black or cream.
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