Upgrading an inexpensive semi-hollowbody with P-90 sound
Minor investment, major upgrade
![Upgrading an inexpensive semi-hollowbody with P-90 sound](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-upgrading-intro.jpg?hash=637613116330000000&quality=80)
My customer, Nathan Moore, loves the way his Epiphone Casino plays, but he’s not so crazy about the sound of its pickups.
Nathan plays in a local band, Sport Fishing USA.
![Sport Fishing USA](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-sport-fishing-usa.jpg?hash=637613116320000000&quality=80)
Talking after one of their gigs, Nathan told me the pickups in this Epi are considerably overwound. They don’t give him the P-90 tones he feels the guitar should have.
He wants to get that sound without sinking a lot of money into this guitar.
We discussed whether to rewind the stock pickups or replace them. Nathan wanted to switch to a StewMac Parsons Street model.
They’d be perfect except that they’re soapbars, not mounted in dog-ear frames like his guitar’s pickups.
![Soap bar 1](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-soapbar-1.jpg?hash=637613116310000000&quality=80)
![Soap bar 1](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-soapbar-2.jpg?hash=637613116310000000&quality=80)
Lucky break:
As it turns out, it’s pretty easy to transplant a Parsons Street into a dog-ear frame if the polepiece spacing matches the holes in the cover. Here’s how I did a quick P-90 transplant:![measuring](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-measuring.jpg?hash=637613116310000000&quality=80)
Out come the stock pickups
They were soldered to their covers, but a quick hit with a soldering iron broke the joint easily:![Unsolder 1](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-unsolder-1.jpg?hash=637613116320000000&quality=80)
![Unsolder 2](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-unsolder-2.jpg?hash=637613116330000000&quality=80)
![Unsolder 3](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-unsolder-3.jpg?hash=637613116330000000&quality=80)
![Unsolder 4](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-unsolder-4.jpg?hash=637613116330000000&quality=80)
The bobbins unscrew from their metal frames
I removed the two screws holding the dog-ear frame to the bobbin and unsoldered the ground wire:
![Removing the pickup](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-removing-the-pickup-1.jpg?hash=637613116300000000&quality=80)
![Removing the pickup 2](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-removing-the-pickup-2.jpg?hash=637613116300000000&quality=80)
![Removing the pickup 3](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-removing-the-pickup-3.jpg?hash=637613116300000000&quality=80)
Parsons Street transplant
Two screws held the P-90’s bottom plate, too. I took those screws out, but didn’t remove the plate:![Disassembling a P-90](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-disassembling.jpg?hash=637613116300000000&quality=80)
![Assembling a P-90](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-assembling.jpg?hash=637613116300000000&quality=80)
I left this plate on to show how simple this swap can be. Removing the plate would be no big deal: I’d just have to resolder a ground wire to the Epiphone’s dog-ear frame. But the P-90 screwed right onto that frame, baseplate and all. It fit tightly, with the metal plates establishing a good ground. Easy!
![P-90 and cover](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-unsolder-4.jpg?hash=637613116330000000&quality=80)
Reassembly
Now it's time to solder the cover back on. Using a couple of spring clamps to hold the frame tight to the cover, I reflowed the solder joints that hold the cover and frame together.
![Soldering the cover](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-soldering-the-cover.jpg?hash=637613116320000000&quality=80)
What about rewinding?
The Epiphone’s neck pickup was way overwound, reading over 12k on my multimeter! It sounded super muddy. Modern Epi P-90 neck pickups use a different string spread than the bridge pickup, even though vintage Gibson P-90's are the same string spread for both neck and bridge positions. This means we can't transplant a Parsons Street P-90 in this dog-ear cover. The polepieces wouldn’t match the holes.
![Finished pickup](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-finished-pickup.jpg?hash=637613116290000000&quality=80)
The thing to do here is to rewind the stock pickup to get a more usable DC resistance. I cut the wire off the coil and broke down the parts. I underwound the coil with about 8,500 winds of AWG wire to give it more clarity and punch.
![Broken-down pickup](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-broken-down-pickup.jpg?hash=637613116290000000&quality=80)
It came out right around the high 6k range; that’s a perfect complement to the 8k Parsons Street bridge pickup. A little less power on the neck pickup has a balancing effect, since there’s so much more string motion at the neck position compared to the bridge.
![Pickup winding](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-pickup-winding.jpg?hash=637613116290000000&quality=80)
Tip:
For details on winding P-90s, check out our free pickup kit instructions.
The P-90 transplant and the rewound pickup dropped right back into the guitar. They look factory, but they don’t sound factory.
![Finished installation](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-finished.jpg?hash=637613116310000000&quality=80)
Since I had the guts out anyway, I took this chance to redo this wiring harness with vintage push-back wire, CTS pots and a Switchcraft jack.
![Wiring](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-wiring.jpg?hash=637613116340000000&quality=80)
Nathan’s stoked: his Casino is finally sounding the way it should. Rock it, man!
![Nathan Moore](/globalassets/video-and-ideas/online-resources/pickups-and-electronics/upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound/166-upgrading-an-inexpensive-semi-hollowbody-with-p-90-sound-nathan.jpg?hash=637613116310000000&quality=80)