Put that router away and say hello to brighter, grittier tone with these drop-in, humbucker-sized single-coils.
Transforming a guitar’s sound with a new set of pickups is exciting, but it’s not always easily doable without routing. We’ve assembled 10 options designed to serve up delicious P-90 tone, but sized to slip right into your humbucker-routed guitar.
H90 Standard
These low-wind pickups offer snappy and brighter single-coil tones for those in need of more chime and less power, and can be ordered with custom wood tops.
P90 – Humbucker
Boasting clear lows, thick mids, and percussive highs, this vintage-voiced P-90 was designed for versatility, clarity, and snarly midrange, and is available in a number of finishes.
Dream 90
These P-90s are reported to provide fat, warm-yet-crunchy body, and can offer full humbucking performance when both pickups are selected, because the neck pickup is reverse wound.
Heavy House P94
Based on the company’s House Special P-90, this pickup brings all the power and tone of a true P-90 but in a humbucker package—measuring 7.4k for the neck and 7.8k for the bridge.
Humbucker Sized P-90
A faithful recreation of a vintage P-90, these pickups feature spec plain enamel wire, alnico 4 magnets for the neck for clear and fat sounds, and alnico 5s for the bridge for bite and grind.
Pro-90
For those chasing authentic tone, these pickups duplicate the construction, materials, and growl of a vintage ’50s-era P-90 by using the company’s proprietary Vintage Core specifications.
Hum-90
Housing alnico 2, 4 , or 5 magnets and 43AWG coil wound around its humbucker-sized P-90 bobbins, these pickups are said to offer single-coil tones with clarity, presence, and a defined voice.
Fat Bastard
These single-coils are designed to offer plenty of crunch by capturing the classic P-90 tone of the 1950s with “a little South Texas funk” thrown in.
V-90
Regardless of your style, these degaussed alnico 5 pickups were made to be touch sensitive, respond well to pick attack, and provide tight lows, grinding mids, and singing highs.
Fender's hallowed vintage humbucker with CuNiFe-magnet pole pieces boasts one-of-a-kind tones. Problem is, it costs $500+ per pickup on the used market.
Wide Range Humbucker
These one-at-a-time handwound versions of the original are made with all-U.S. parts, and are designed to be clean, articulate, and bright for era-specific tone.
WR Humbucker
Built with staggered, alnico-5 magnets—with beveled, exposed poles—these ’buckers are 20 to 30 percent overwound, compared to the company’s regular-sized humbuckers, for bigger, thicker tone.
Classic ’71
For classic, fat, single-coil “doubled-up” sounds, these pickups are made with a warmer midrange sound than standard singles and, with a higher output, intended to break up an amp nicely.
Widerange Humbucker
These vintage-correct Wide Range-style pickups are handwound with threaded-rod magnets using the larger Fender-style frame and cover, and can also be ordered with a Fender logo cover.
Regal Humbucker
For his version of a classic Wide Range, Jason Lollar designed the tooling to accurately produce his pickups to the original specs, and they are available in chrome, nickel, or gold.
’72 Clone Wide Range
Fully vacuum potted, these clones of the original were designed to completely capture historic sound, but include some improvements, like a slightly underwound neck pickup and 4-conductor wiring.
Wide Range Humbucker
Utilizing threaded alnico-5 rod magnets and a period-correct wind pattern, these pickups are designed to get as close to the bark and bite of the vintage originals as possible.
Vintage ’72 Wide Range
Another homage to Seth Lover’s original design, these pickups promise jangle and power with their vintage-correct and -sized bobbins—and to be a great option for indie sounds to blues tones.
WideTone Fat
Ready to fit into Fender Tele Deluxe and Custom guitars from the ’70s, the WideTone Fats are geared for extra sweetness, girth, and beefy overdriven tones.
Wide Range Humbuckers
Using a plastic injection mold to produce the correct-size bobbins for the correct-size wire on the ’72 originals, these pickups also feature a version of alnico-2 and alnico-5 threaded magnets.
[Updated 9/27/21]