Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

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muttley
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by muttley »

Particularly interested in the "clean thru crunch" stuff cos thats what a p90 is...:)
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by Greg_L »

muttley wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2017 9:02 pm Particularly interested in the "clean thru crunch" stuff cos thats what a p90 is...:)
I probably don't do any pickup justice when playing clean. I'm not a clean kind of guy.

But P90s do sound awesome with the gain wound up. The only problem is noise.
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by Greg_L »

Shit I just realized I'm gonna have to scrounge up some mounting screws and springs to mount the existing P90 into the neck position. I guess I'll just leave the mini-bucker in there for now. The Mutt is going in regardless!
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by Minerman »

Great looking p'ups!!! I'd actually forgot about Mutt's p'ups, but this has got my attention again...Pretty damn impressive!!!

Just curious, how much was the final cost for you Greg??? Lemme know, I haven't bought anything this month & may order a set...

Post us some clips when you get around to it dude...
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by Lt. Bob »

lol .... you need to contact muttley directly for prices ..... check out muttleys thread about that ....
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by Greg_L »

Sorry for the delay mutt. I should be doing the install and clips today/tomorrow.
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by WhiskeyJack »

I'm stoked for this.
:happytrees:
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by Greg_L »

I'm gonna change out the vol pots before I do the pickup, record some clips with new pots/old P90, then install the Mutt and do clips with new pickup/new pots.
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by muttley »

No problem gerg, we are all busy people. I'm still trying to catch up from 3 days away last week....

Look forward to hearing them but life comes first.:)
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by Greg_L »

Ok the Mutt90 is in it's new home!

Perfect pole/string alignment.
Image


First thing I did was put a new vol pot in the guitar to get better roll-offs. I never liked the taper of the original pot. It was a linear pot, and that don't fly with me. So in went a CTS 500k audio taper pot. That's my preferred pot of choice. And I converted it to "50s wiring". I like that setup. Then I did a basic test clip with the old Gibson P90 and a cranked 100w Plexi.

So then it was time to put in the Mutt90. I had one problem with the install. The corners of the Mutt90 cover are a little too square and they binded in the pickup rout. I could press it down in there, but it would stick and wouldn't slide up and down on it's adjustment screws. So that wouldn't work.
Image

Image

So my best option was to take the cover off the original P90 which fit perfectly and use it on the Mutt pickup. But then the pole piece holes didn't line up exactly. I got the cover on with a little muscular persuasion, but the two mounting screws wouldn't slide freely through the cover/pickup body. The center pole pieces lined up fine, but the outer Es, the A, and the B, were a little wide. A couple swipes with a rat tail file elongated the cover holes and the cover went right on. No problem. Then it dropped right in and I wired it up.

So Mutt, I don't know if it's my guitar rout, or the cover you used is too square, but there was a slight mismatch there. Just something to think about for future customers. No problem for me, but it might be an issue for someone else.

So how does it sound? It sounds fantastic. Truly amazing. And that aint just confirmation bias. I've spent enough time with my old P90 to immediately have been blown away with the Mutt90. The highs are clearer but not harsh. The mids seem to punch better without being muddy. The low end is tight and controlled. Very good pickup. The modest output definitely suits my style and sound. You've done very well Mutt. Thank you. :like: :coolstorybro:

So I have some sound clips. Do I put them in this thread or start a new thread?
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by muttley »

Stick the clips in here mate we can always link across to them in another thread later if we want, or load them up again.

Glad it came together. I shall look into the radius of the corners thing. Can you measure the actual width and depth of both covers. I suspect that maybe where the issue lies.???

It's a thing in the guitar world as you know that very very few parts are drop in replacements even within brands. There is always a mismatch with screw holes and things lining up. If I'm honest I would have expected it to be the mounting screws rather than the actual route. It's normally existing screw holes that dont line up. I swapped out a set of machine heads today that were supposed to be like for like Fender and they were at least a mm off each screw...
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by Greg_L »

muttley wrote: Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:34 pm Stick the clips in here mate we can always link across to them in another thread later if we want, or load them up again.

Glad it came together. I shall look into the radius of the corners thing. Can you measure the actual width and depth of both covers. I suspect that maybe where the issue lies.???

It's a thing in the guitar world as you know that very very few parts are drop in replacements even within brands. There is always a mismatch with screw holes and things lining up. If I'm honest I would have expected it to be the mounting screws rather than the actual route. It's normally existing screw holes that dont line up. I swapped out a set of machine heads today that were supposed to be like for like Fender and they were at least a mm off each screw...
The actual dimensions of the cover are right. It's just the radius in the corners that was comparatively off. Length, width, depth, all good. Just the corners didn't match the rout.

The mounting screws were dead on. You nailed that part. The pole spacing and alignment was dead on too. It's perfect. The cover was the only issue. And I only had to very slightly modify the old cover to fit your pickup. That wasn't a big deal at all. The corners are the only reason I couldn't use your supplied cover.

I'll put the clips up in a bit.
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by muttley »

OK, I shall look into it. The covers I use are not the cheapest either... Thanks for the heads up and I'm glad you like the tonzz it has. Look forward to hearing them.
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by Greg_L »

The site attachment function is fubar right now. So here's the clips via Dropbox.

This is the Gibson P90:
P90

Here's the Mutt90.
Mutt90

Both clips using the exact same amp, settings, cab and mic. Cranked 100w Marshall Plexi. :coolstorybro:

I went a little extra with the Mutt clip, just goofing around. All of the clean/dirty is just from guitar vol rolling.
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by rayc »

Well, if it were me I'd have stayed with the original purely because it sounds great.
THEN
I hear the new one and I forgot all about the originals.
It feeds back nicely as well.
Cheers
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by muttley »

Excellent. I'm on pc speakers right now but have a nice Monitor Audio speaker set in the workshop/office at the moment so will give it a proper listen when I get there. What is the rest of the chain gerg?
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by muttley »

Also whats up with the attachment thing? I can upload fine, maybe we could ask WJ to take a look as he set up separate mod privilege on this board so I could keep it in check. Maybe it's that. Have you tried in the other boards?
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by Greg_L »

muttley wrote: Fri Apr 21, 2017 7:16 am Excellent. I'm on pc speakers right now but have a nice Monitor Audio speaker set in the workshop/office at the moment so will give it a proper listen when I get there. What is the rest of the chain gerg?
The native site attachment function was not working last night. It's since been fixed. I can re-upload later.

The chain was...
Gibson SG Special
Marshall Plexi 1959 SLP
I don't remember where the amp EQ knobs were, but volume was cranked to 10. You said you wanted something loud. :coolstorybro:
Marshall 1960A 4x12 - Celestion Greenbacks
Shure SM57 on axis, on grill, halfway to edge of speaker
Straight into Reaper, no EQ or FX in DAW.

rayc wrote: Fri Apr 21, 2017 1:28 am Well, if it were me I'd have stayed with the original purely because it sounds great.
THEN
I hear the new one and I forgot all about the originals.
It feeds back nicely as well.
Thanks Ray. Yeah I really like it's slightly rolled off and wide open sound. It gets feedback really nicely without any ugly kind of squealing. When rolled way back to clean the two pickups are similar, but when wound back up the Mutt90 seems to be punchier and definitely clearer to me. I could really tell in the room with the amp. The interaction between pickup and amp was very nice in person.
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by muttley »

OK, Ive just listened to them on a decent set of monitors. To my ears the Mutt90 definitely sounds tighter with more separation and clarity especially in the mids. Punchy in the low end too without stomping all over the mid and highs. I'm definitely liking the balanced range as well. I'm thinking that extra separation and clarity comes mainly from the scatter wind and tension on the wire. All Gibbies p90's are machine wound to a set tension and very little if any scatter wind they are all wound transverse. It's the scatter that makes the most difference imho.. that and careful wax potting.

Last question for my notes.What strings do you have on there?

I'm gonna go look into p90 cover sizes now and try and check on the radius of as many as I can.
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Re: Mutt90 Soapbar - Vintage spec - Gerg

Post by muttley »

Greg_L wrote: Fri Apr 21, 2017 7:30 am

The chain was...
Gibson SG Special
Marshall Plexi 1959 SLP
I don't remember where the amp EQ knobs were, but volume was cranked to 10. You said you wanted something loud. :coolstorybro:
Marshall 1960A 4x12 - Celestion Greenbacks
Shure SM57 on axis, on grill, halfway to edge of speaker
Straight into Reaper, no EQ or FX in DAW.
Thanks for that. All and any soundclips and feedback are massively appreciated.
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