P90 Vs. Single Coils

a P90 is a single coil, just not fender style design... there are tons of single coils out there that aren't fender designs from back in the day:

dearmonds (gold foils, dynasonics etc)

dano lipsticks

P90s

Kleenex pickups

staple pickups

hi-lo trons

guild singles

pre-Gibson epi 'NYC' singles

burns trisonics

tons and tons, I could go on but memory fails!

even in humbuggies, before the Gibson format took over there were two other competing dual coils from Gretsch (filtertron) and Guild (HB1) that sound totally different from a PAF or T-Top

a fender pickup has polepiece magnets with 'flaltwork' on either side to form a bobbin and the coils is wound directly on the magnets with the non magnetic flat pieces creating the height of the coil.... the insulation and gauge of the wire give as much of the sound as the dimensions of the bobbin... in teles the baseplate on the bridge plays a big role because they used various steel formulations and various finishes from zinc to copper to raw, changing the magnetic field around the pickup... the saddles and bridge play into it too, more onteles but reallt on all fender guitar as ferrous components near the bridge affect the tone

but there are tons of other pickup ideas... fender's singles and Gibson's bucker have becme the stndards but the field was littered with great sounding ideas in the 40s, 50s and 60s.... I used to own a duo jet with dearmonds that was a studio ac, best sounding pickups ever.... kiinda a P90ish bobbin but with height adjustable magnet polepieces, a reined fender idea so it hyrbided the fat p90 single sound with the snap of a tele, but the coils were medium width and super tall lending a certain mid clarity.... it was magic until I had to play on stage and then the hum was murder LOL

dano lipsticks and burns trisonics are sealed designs with wire would around a abr magnet, but in a dano its a smaller coil directly on an oval ground alnico 8 magnet (mildly unusual magnet material) whereas the burns uses a tape would coil set around a anisotropic bar magnet (weird in pickups), and the slightly diferent contruction gives them a different character... thoughsimilar due to the coil around a bar idea... firebird buckers, interestingly, are small coils on small bars out of phase in series and then peoxied into the smooth cover...

there's a lot to this

how deep do you wanna go? I am an expert.

know that every pickup style, when made with care is special and worth playing

they are kinda like a wider firebird humbucker with bobbins, no cover and not a ton of epoxy linking the coils mechanically, what of them?

they're a sound, other pickups have another sound... decide what you are tryingto do and then think it over...

you're impossibly young, aren't you?

Damn!!! I'm impressed and so concise at that.

yes but i'm just satisfying my curiosity i love customization especially on guitars

I tend to acquire off-the-shelf pickups on the cheap at guitar shows and throw them in a drawer before I even know what guitar they might go in. I will generally have a handful of unused pickups of various types, even stuff that doesn't fit in any of my guitars.... so just buy those hotrails, if you don't like them chuck them in a drawer.... I think right now I have a spare strat, a spare tele set, a few Duncan humbuckers, a couple old gold foils that will get used some day.... you get the idea

if I am looking for a really specific sound I generally call my friend Ken at Angeltone pickups and have a chat about the sound I want, what the guitar is made of and different winding methods, magnets, wire and stuff and then he makes me something. So far all the stuff he's wound me has hit the exact tone I was seeking. But it costs :-( he doesn't charge me the additional custom fee he has on his website but we are still talking about a 100 bucks for 1 pickup

you learn a lot on the phone with a guy like Ken.... the small winders are really knowledgeable and fun to chat with