Humbucker-sized P90 for neck position?

[Chad]

^The bulk of the guitars in our band's upcoming new CD were recorded with a P-Rails (regular version) in the bridge in humbucking mode.

[Newc]

The P-Rail has no more switching options than a JB or Jazz. You don't have to connect them to a TripleShot or Push-Pull rig, unless you intend to split them. Even with just one switch, you can specify which coil gets split to.

As for a Gibson neck P90 being surprisingly hot, back in Ye Olden Days, that's how it was done. The neck pickup was hotter than the bridge. When guitars first went electric, they only had neck pickups. When the bridge pickup concept was introduced, the sound was so much brighter that the only way to tame it was to have a weaker pickup, as the amps only had on and off. No EQ, maybe a Master Volume.

[Devotee]

The GFS Mean 90 arrived today, i'll install it over the weekend and do a full review after putting it through its paces.

[sully]

I'd go duncan phat cat or p-rails. The GFS stuff can get you out of a jam, but they definitely fall into the "for the money" category.

[Newc]

"Generic Finicky Shit"

Give it a week, then get the P-Rail neck, Bridge, or Hot Bridge (yes, for the neck). The general consensus on the SD forum is that they shoulda put the rails to the outside and the P-90 to the inside, since many who have mounted them backwards swear it sounds better that way. The P-90 is big enough to still get the best tones from their respective positions without the bridge sounding too dark or the neck turning to mud, but the rails get a nice Stratty kick by being on the outer edges, especially on 22 fretters (not that your KV has 22, though).

And again, you wire it like a standard SD pickup - green and bare to ground, black to hot, red+white together and free, and you get nothing but P90. Leave the Black free and put the R+W to hot and you get the rail. It's literally 2 2-conductor pickups in one casing.