Anyone try a P-90 in the 594 neck position???

Well, thanks for all of the fine suggestions, but this ended up being an academic question. Turns out having a third guitar with P90s, and just a pretty good guitar but not an amazing one, is gonna provide the service / do the job I THOUGHT the strat was gonna do when I bought it not long ago. My hope was that the strat was gonna be the clear #2 that provided a contrast to the 594 but ALSO was a clear couple of steps below the 594 and would be the reminder and perspective check on just what a sublime and amazing guitar the 594 really is. But the strat didn't do that. It mostly reminded me how much I've always loved, and evidently always WILL love strats too. And it quickly rose to co-#1 status. Gave me a very different sound and playing experience than the 594, but I sure don't look at it as a #2 in any respect.

BUT, after playing both the Ibanez semi-hollow and the late arriving (late yesterday afternoon) Modern Player Thinline Tele, both with P90s, late into the evening last night. I then picked up the strat and then the 594 and played both for about 15 minutes each. And was instantly reminded of just what incredible guitars they both are. Did the same thing this morning - played the P90 guitars for about an hour each, followed by the 594 and strat. Same overwhelming reaction. Both of these P90 guitars are a LOT of fun, and considering they were both $450-500 guitars when new and neither was gonna cost me more than $350, they're incredibly good guitars. But then when I put either of them down in favor of the 594 or strat, it's just an immediate and strong reminder of what incredible instruments they are.

And my first reaction when I started playing the 594 was, "no way in HELL I'm gonna do ANYTHING to mess with this little bundle of refined perfection right here". I'm just not gonna start messing with the chemistry that makes it what it is. I'm gonna keep one of these cheap P90 options to give me that P90 thang when I want it AND to serve as the perspective check I want relative to the 594 and strat. And I'll just have to learn to live with having too many options and get over myself on that. Pretty sure I'm gonna keep the thinline tele and return the Ibanez hollow-body to Guitar Center. Both are really fun guitars and I don't think I could decide based on liking one more than the other. But the tele makes more sense for me for a number of practical reasons I won't bore you with. And that despite being advertised as a "used - floor model", it was basically brand spanking new, with all of the plastic still on it. I guess having a hollow body just doesn't matter that much to me once I had a chance to A-B one against a basically solid body guitar. The tele is a thinline, but I don't think that affects the sound. The weight a little bit, but everything about it feels like a solid body, not like a semi-hollow or definitely not like a hollow. So the 594 is gonna stay whole after all.

-Ray
 
Well, thanks for all of the fine suggestions, but this ended up being an academic question. Turns out having a third guitar with P90s, and just a pretty good guitar but not an amazing one, is gonna provide the service / do the job I THOUGHT the strat was gonna do when I bought it not long ago. My hope was that the strat was gonna be the clear #2 that provided a contrast to the 594 but ALSO was a clear couple of steps below the 594 and would be the reminder and perspective check on just what a sublime and amazing guitar the 594 really is. But the strat didn't do that. It mostly reminded me how much I've always loved, and evidently always WILL love strats too. And it quickly rose to co-#1 status. Gave me a very different sound and playing experience than the 594, but I sure don't look at it as a #2 in any respect.

BUT, after playing both the Ibanez semi-hollow and the late arriving (late yesterday afternoon) Modern Player Thinline Tele, both with P90s, late into the evening last night. I then picked up the strat and then the 594 and played both for about 15 minutes each. And was instantly reminded of just what incredible guitars they both are. Did the same thing this morning - played the P90 guitars for about an hour each, followed by the 594 and strat. Same overwhelming reaction. Both of these P90 guitars are a LOT of fun, and considering they were both $450-500 guitars when new and neither was gonna cost me more than $350, they're incredibly good guitars. But then when I put either of them down in favor of the 594 or strat, it's just an immediate and strong reminder of what incredible instruments they are.

And my first reaction when I started playing the 594 was, "no way in HELL I'm gonna do ANYTHING to mess with this little bundle of refined perfection right here". I'm just not gonna start messing with the chemistry that makes it what it is. I'm gonna keep one of these cheap P90 options to give me that P90 thang when I want it AND to serve as the perspective check I want relative to the 594 and strat. And I'll just have to learn to live with having too many options and get over myself on that. Pretty sure I'm gonna keep the thinline tele and return the Ibanez hollow-body to Guitar Center. Both are really fun guitars and I don't think I could decide based on liking one more than the other. But the tele makes more sense for me for a number of practical reasons I won't bore you with. And that despite being advertised as a "used - floor model", it was basically brand spanking new, with all of the plastic still on it. I guess having a hollow body just doesn't matter that much to me once I had a chance to A-B one against a basically solid body guitar. The tele is a thinline, but I don't think that affects the sound. The weight a little bit, but everything about it feels like a solid body, not like a semi-hollow or definitely not like a hollow. So the 594 is gonna stay whole after all.

-Ray

Sound decision!
 
Well, thanks for all of the fine suggestions, but this ended up being an academic question. Turns out having a third guitar with P90s, and just a pretty good guitar but not an amazing one, is gonna provide the service / do the job I THOUGHT the strat was gonna do when I bought it not long ago. My hope was that the strat was gonna be the clear #2 that provided a contrast to the 594 but ALSO was a clear couple of steps below the 594 and would be the reminder and perspective check on just what a sublime and amazing guitar the 594 really is. But the strat didn't do that. It mostly reminded me how much I've always loved, and evidently always WILL love strats too. And it quickly rose to co-#1 status. Gave me a very different sound and playing experience than the 594, but I sure don't look at it as a #2 in any respect.

BUT, after playing both the Ibanez semi-hollow and the late arriving (late yesterday afternoon) Modern Player Thinline Tele, both with P90s, late into the evening last night. I then picked up the strat and then the 594 and played both for about 15 minutes each. And was instantly reminded of just what incredible guitars they both are. Did the same thing this morning - played the P90 guitars for about an hour each, followed by the 594 and strat. Same overwhelming reaction. Both of these P90 guitars are a LOT of fun, and considering they were both $450-500 guitars when new and neither was gonna cost me more than $350, they're incredibly good guitars. But then when I put either of them down in favor of the 594 or strat, it's just an immediate and strong reminder of what incredible instruments they are.

And my first reaction when I started playing the 594 was, "no way in HELL I'm gonna do ANYTHING to mess with this little bundle of refined perfection right here". I'm just not gonna start messing with the chemistry that makes it what it is. I'm gonna keep one of these cheap P90 options to give me that P90 thang when I want it AND to serve as the perspective check I want relative to the 594 and strat. And I'll just have to learn to live with having too many options and get over myself on that. Pretty sure I'm gonna keep the thinline tele and return the Ibanez hollow-body to Guitar Center. Both are really fun guitars and I don't think I could decide based on liking one more than the other. But the tele makes more sense for me for a number of practical reasons I won't bore you with. And that despite being advertised as a "used - floor model", it was basically brand spanking new, with all of the plastic still on it. I guess having a hollow body just doesn't matter that much to me once I had a chance to A-B one against a basically solid body guitar. The tele is a thinline, but I don't think that affects the sound. The weight a little bit, but everything about it feels like a solid body, not like a semi-hollow or definitely not like a hollow. So the 594 is gonna stay whole after all.

-Ray

Wise.

Also, spoken like a true future 594 Soapbar owner.

I know, you aren't going to. Or so you think.... ;)
 
Wise.

Also, spoken like a true future 594 Soapbar owner.

I know, you aren't going to. Or so you think.... ;)
In 6-8 years, when my wife and I are both on whatever’s left of Social Security and Medicare, we SHOULD have a lot more disposable income than we have today. And if I’m still playing a lot then, I might buy just about anything, including whatever amazing models PRS is making then. In the more foreseeable future, however, having a 594 and a great strat (and a Martin) as my mainstays is already an embarrassment of riches. And if I can occasionally keep something like a cheap P90 option or a cheap parlor acoustic moving in or out as my whims change, so much the better. But any additional instruments of the price of the 594, while they MAY happen someday, aren’t gonna happen soon...

Unless, in the meantime, if you ever tire of your's and feel like taking a huge loss in selling it, let me know! ;)

-Ray
 
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Guitar Shop in Canada has two 594 P-90's, but they've installed mini-humbuckers in them. P-90's included so you can mix and match.

IMG_9773__60293.1518632505.jpg


IMG_9747__98955.1518628271.jpg


https://www.theguitarshop.ca/mccarty-594/

edit: p.s. No affiliation with the Guitar Shop, just thought it was a cool idea.
 
It'd be nice if someone would make compatible snap in / snap out pickups, so you could get something like this such that the owner would be be able to swap pickups without having to do any soldering. Just loosen the strings and pop one pickup out and the other one in. Either with mini-humbuckers and P90s or regular humbuckers and some of the humbucker sized P90s mentioned earlier in this thread. Now THAT would make me think about selling my humbucker 594 and getting something with both options. I know soldering isn't all that hard to do, but I haven't done it since I was a kid playing with Radio Shack kits and it's just one of those things I don't have ENOUGH reason to get back into doing. I guess the P-Rails are going for something like that with an all-in-one configuration, but it sounds like kind of a hit and miss thing...
 
It'd be nice if someone would make compatible snap in / snap out pickups, so you could get something like this such that the owner would be be able to swap pickups without having to do any soldering. Just loosen the strings and pop one pickup out and the other one in. Either with mini-humbuckers and P90s or regular humbuckers and some of the humbucker sized P90s mentioned earlier in this thread. Now THAT would make me think about selling my humbucker 594 and getting something with both options. I know soldering isn't all that hard to do, but I haven't done it since I was a kid playing with Radio Shack kits and it's just one of those things I don't have ENOUGH reason to get back into doing. I guess the P-Rails are going for something like that with an all-in-one configuration, but it sounds like kind of a hit and miss thing...

You mean like this?

https://www.musicradar.com/news/gui...in-30-seconds-without-removing-strings-641024
 
Yeah, that'd do it! Has anything happened with that? I couldn't find anything more recently than early-ish 2017 when it was still in the crowd-funding stage... I'd love to have that in my 594 with a set of humbuckers and P90s ready to swap in and out. I'd be very happy to just have a guitar like that and a strat. No way it would replace a strat for me, but it could handle my other two pickup choices really well.

After a few days of playing P90s, I'm reminded yet again that to the extent I have a sound in my head I'm trying to get out, that sound is basically P90s. I had that same reaction when I first played that Soapbar II several weeks ago and over the past several days with both the Ibanez hollow body and tele thinline. Which makes it seem kind of silly that I have a VERY expensive 594, a moderately expensive Strat, and a dirt-effing-cheap tele with P90s. And yet the tele, at just over 10% of the cost of the 594, plays insanely well and sounds much better than it plays. I have nothing to complain about - now I have three guitars that are each excellent at what I want them for. And yet something just seems a little out of whack. Being able to easily swap humbuckers and P90s in the 594 would be awesome. But, knowing me, I'd probably still love the tele for it's own funky feel and sound and would probably just leave the humbuckers in the 594 the vast majority of the time...

-Ray
 
There was also the Gibson LP Push Tone. The pickups slid in from the back. I like the concept. Wondered how having the pickups attached to a removeable backplate would affect the sound. That p-link looked like a better idea. Had I seen it, I would have joined in.

And to your dilemma, which you’ve solved, I’m still toying with a similar idea. On my 594 I always use the neck split. It’s just a little too thick and hot in full humbucker. And I have the bridge fairly high. I’ll probably end up swapping the wiring so I pull up to activate the humbucker. But have two guitars with bare knuckle p90’s. So I’m going to set down soon and compare them to the 594 and see if I think one of them may work in the neck. Right now I’m thinking the blue note may be the one. As I have the Nantuckets in one, and the neck is as hot as I would want a neck pickup to be.
 
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