Nasty 90 Pickups

From Wikipedia Bob Spencer

The new Nasty 90 & C&B Neck Gen-3 v2 Soapbar pups .....

.... are fabulous. They are in fact disconcertedly and extraordinarily responsive to touch and velocity. Honestly, I've not played another pickup like them (and I've been playing professionally for 49 years) and I have not been able to put that guitar down for a week now. Compared with the other pups I have (various single coil and humbucking types) it's as though they have an expander built in. Their dynamic range is simply incredible. The string separation is fantastic, and there is no mush when playing chords, which remain more clearly articulated than should be legal.

Playing softly produces the most beautiful clean tones, and digging in, without changing my amp's settings, produces the classic P90 "snap" and growl, AND something else that I can't quite put my finger on. A "bigness", without mud, which remains focussed. The tone of the single strings is juicy and thick and they have strength and authority without any harshness that I can detect. Enough to make other P90's bloody embarrassed!

Something else I've noticed is that my tone control (of the Stellartone "Tone Styler" type) seems to be more interesting and useful. Is it my imagination? Maybe. Dunno! Don't care, really, as the tone is so good that I just want to keep playing and listening to them

The balance of front and rear pups is as close to perfect as I have ever encountered. Volumes are evenly matched, and, and this is the exciting part, there is no excess bottom end on the front pup!! It remains full, articulate and clear, without flub, giving no reason to leap towards the amp's "bass" knob.

 

And the middle position! (expletive) I almost forgot about that. I have never EVER wanted to use the middle position as much!!  The middle position is (honestly) like nothing I've ever heard before. It's fabulous even with the guitar's volume on full! I've previously shied away from that combination.  It sounds like you've spent a serious amount of time balancing two different mic's at two distances from a speaker.

Really, Chris, these pickups are on their own level.  I have no (expletive) idea what you did, but, bloody hell, these things are terrific.

 

Thanks a million, Bob S.

 

Reply from Chris Kinman ....thanks for your detailed report Bob, it's really great to have my efforts confirmed and appreciated in such a detailed descriptive way by a player of your caliber.  All the great aspects you experienced ,,,, they are no accident.  I have devoted many years to developing my P-90 Hx to the point of the Gen-3 v2 incarnation.  The technology in these pickups is unique, highly advanced and like nothing the pickup world has ever seen.  It started way way back in 2001 with a promise to my fans that I would deliver a great P-90 with Zero-Hum.  That promise took 9 years to fulfil because of the many technical challenges I encountered.  Despite those second generation P-90 Hx models being 3mm deeper than most pickup cavities catered for, we sold a ton of them over the years. 

 

Last year in 2020, after running the original version unchanged for 11 years, I decided to shave 3mm off the height so the P-90 Hx would install into the great majority of existing pickup cavities.  Well, that was easier said than done, and I soon found I had again bitten off more than I could chew.  But, I seem to come alive when faced with impossible challenges and pretty soon I was getting into solving the considerable Electrical Engineering problems I encountered.  It turns out I had to design a hum sensor with 1/4 the coil space of the original but must produce the same 1,000** millivolts of hum.  On top of that excessive capacitance had to be minimized to negligible proportions so as not to rob high frequencies and dynamics from the pickup.  This quest lasted some 9 months until I eventually met success.  And then I had to figure out how to manufacture and tool up to make this complicated and highly advanced sensor that has a mere 40 component parts (the original H-Core sensor has 153 parts).  Having made this huge effort your appreciation really pleases me, so thank you for your Report Card.  CK

 

** as measured in our high precision Hum Measuring Apparatus.

 

UPDATE:  We checked back with Bob after a few months to see if he felt the same way.  He replied he still feels as strong as the first day he experienced our P-90 Hx.

I couldn't be more happier with these Nasty 90 pickups!!!!!  I've seen a few YouTube videos of people who have installed these on their guitars and they said that although they were quieter there was still some noise ... I call bullshit!!!!  Mine are dead silent.  I just installed them in a walnut strat with a maple neck that I built and they sound beautiful and are 100% Noiseless.  I thought the price was too high at first but, I now think different.  Thanks

ED:  sometimes players confuse electrical buzz with hum.  Our Gen-3 models are dead silent but when the guitar doesn't have effective shielding there will be buzz when the player is not in contact with stuff that's grounded like strings and bridge.

8-Dec-2019  From a customer who thought his pickup was microphonic:

I was wrong, I misdiagnosed, in fact I now embrace this characteristic of this amazing pickup {a sustaining feedback, not microphonic}, love the gorgeous tone too. I've been using P90's for a long time recorded gold albums with them ,but these are incredible. I also appreciate the wide 53mm pole version, suites my vintage Strat bridge.  Sorry for my false alarm and tardiness in coming back.  Cheers Patrick Drummond

Greetings, Just wanted to shoot you a quick msg regarding your P90's. I bought a Sweet Neck & Nasty 90 bridge from you guys a couple of months ago and waited until now to msg you as I wanted the honeymoon period to pass before finalising my thoughts. The difference these pickups make to my Reverend Jetstream 390 is unbelievable! The stock pickups weren't bad (they weren't awesome but they did the job) but I couldn't use the guitar because the P90's in it were so noisy that they overpowered my playing and you could always here the hum, they were also abit woofy and overly focused in the mids and lower mids so the guitar had a nasal, strangled kind of sound. I loved the feel of it but not the sound. These Kinman pickups are amazing. They have absolutely brought this guitar to life so that now it sounds as good as it feels. The neck pickup is warm, smooth and sweet without being overly dark or muddy, it's the most beautiful neck pickup I've ever heard. The bridge is fantastic by itself, it's got the perfect balance of depth and bite that where I used to primarily play with the bridge combined with another position, I'm finding myself playing a lot more on just the bridge pickup, it sits perfectly in the mix with just enough edge that I can drive break up with pick attack while still coaxing sweet cleaner sounds with lighter picking that just wash perfectly and fill out space with delay and reverb. Both together is absolute bliss. The perfect balance I've always wanted and for how I play, an amazing combination. So much warmer than a Tele in the middle position but still incredibly articulate and responsive to my picking. I've been able to use this guitar now without issue (and have played it continuously for weeks now without picking up another guitar) plus I've gotten more comments on how killer it sounds than any of my other guitars. Chris, thank you so much, I love P90's but never could use them because of the noise and interference, these are absolutely glorious!!!!! Thank you!!!

I always seem to wind up with the most exquisite pickups imaginable when I buy from you guys. The Nasty 90 Heavy is the best pickup I've ever heard, let alone played. Kinman really is King! Thanks! My first studio session since installing the Nasty 90s has produced a few more Kinman fans. I'm very happy with my "new" Les Paul, thanks Chris. Er... as if that's not enough. The pickups are stellar. My Studio Les Paul is now an object of desire despite the fact that it's Arctic White!