We realize we are loosing sales to Lindy Fralin's Hum Cancelling P-90 and Mojotone's Quiet Coil which are their respective popular and affordable Sidewinder hum-cancelling Soapbar style pickups. So Boss Chris decided, after years of procrastination, to design our own low priced Zero-Hum Sidewinder. He knew with his vast pickup making experience and Electrical Engineering know-how he could make a better one.
And here it is, the new Kinman Sidewinder Soapbar. Like all Kinman's it's a very well made pickup using our Anti-Flex bobbin materials and extensive know-how. Inside it's unique construction we put innovative stuff that sets it apart and above the competition by raising the Inductance and Q Factor and decreasing the resistance of the coils to 9.8K Ohms which is where the other two struggle (Lindy's is 15.5K Ohms and we all know that's not good).
Outwardly it is a deceptively simple design and being made in our modern and well equipped Philippines factory it's manufacturing cost is very low, and so it is budget priced below the competition at $109 (the Mojotone is $130.95 and Fralins is $159) so we think we'll sell more of ours. We have been testing it for a few months now and constantly making improvements, working it up to the best it can possibly be.
Our new Kinman Zero-Hum Sidewinder* without it's baseplate so you can appreciate what's inside.
But there's patented stuff in there that you can't see and it makes it sound better.
Now you might have noticed we call it a Soapbar and not a P-90, that's because we don't want to deceive our customers into believing it sounds and performs like a real P-90 just because it looks like the real thing. See, even though it's much improved over the Fralin and Mojotone, it is not a real P-90 (and neither is their's). It has a pleasant sound and it's louder and more dynamic than the competition, but .... Sidewinders are a flawed design and their downfall is the lack of Mutual Inductance which results in loss of presence and bite on the plain strings and general lack of power and expression. Nothing we did inside the coils changed that short coming.
On the other hand our Zero-Hum P-90 Hx true-single-coil models are powerful and have incredible presence and sweet bite on the plain strings and lots of intense piano mid tones on the low wounds.
This tone chart shows what a really good P-90 should sound like, and what our real single coil P-90 Hx does sound like.
Note the strong output and treble response of our Gen-2 v2 models and the off-the-chart dynamic response.
We know it's hard to believe so read the Report Card on this page from a consummate guitarist.
And from Lindy's website his tone chart shows what his Fralin Sidewinder sounds like. It sounds better than Mojotone's Quiet Coil but our Sidewinder sounds better than both of those.
And here's our improved Sidewinder, it's louder and has better treble and dynamic response than either the Fralin or Mojotone
It's a pity Sidewinders have no hope of rivaling the much desired attributes of our single coil P-90 Hx design and that's why we call it a Soapbar and not a P-90 pickup. But, at $109, it is the cheapest noiseless Soapbar in existence and for those players who don't want the same output power or satisfying attack and expression or presence and bite on the plain strings as our P-90 Hx models .... it's an ideal way to save money.
UPDATE: Our Budget Soapbar Let us know if you want one of these much improved Budget Soapbar pickups by sending a Message from the CONTACT button on the main Nav menu.
*Sidewinder aka Middle Point Humbucker