McCarty Soapbar - Possible to replace P90s with Narrowfields?

[lchender]

I have a Korina McCarty Soapbar that I love, but I'm wanting to try something different from the P90s.

I'm entertaining the idea of swapping in Narrowfields like I've seen on some Anniversary SAS guitars. I know the NF3 is a Korina body and I love the sound of the Narrowfields in that guitar, so I was thinking Narrowfields might sound great in my guitar.

I've never swapped pickups in any guitar before and I'm not sure what the size of the routs are on this guitar. Does anybody know if it would be a direct swap with respect to pickup size? Or would I need to possibly check out some P90 sized humbuckers in order for the new pickups to fit without any alterations?

Thanks!

 

[justmund]

Definitely not a drop in replacement, and finding NFs by themselves on the 2nd market is VERY hard. I've only even seen 2 sets for sale.

Best bet is different P90s or P90 sized buckers. Heaps of boutique options out there, Thorn Staple-tops get a lot of good reviews as do Lollars. I'd love to try some Kinman Nasty 90s noiseless but yeah, sold my P90 equipped guitar.

 

[justmund]

Oh forgot to mention you need to check the depth first, e.g. I read somewhere Kinman's were too deep for PRS rout.

 

[John Beef]

You might look at a company that makes mini-humbuckers that mount in a P-90 pickup ring - look at a Les Paul Deluxe for reference here. Same routing as a soapbar/P90 but the pickup mounts a little bit differently, and it's sort of a similar concept to a narrowfield. Maybe like a Rio Grande Babybucker?

https://www.riograndepickups.com/scart/ProductPage.asp?ImageLink=BYHZ/B&ProductName=For+P-90s

I have no direct experience with narrowfield pickups, so I really don't know how they're similar or different from the mini-humbuckers that have been around since the early '60s.

 

[Egads]

+1 on the mini humbuckers. This will sound crazy, but look at he Taylor HD minis. These are by far my favorite minis. They can be barky like a P-90 or throatier like an HB. The output feels like a medium to slightly high HB, but with a lot of definition.