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Hi
I have a Tokai copy of a '56 Les Paul Goldtop. Here in New Zealand we can buy new Tokais that have the proper Gibson Headstock. In the U.S. these models are not allowed... so the U.S. Tokais have some weird headstock.

Anyway, my guitar is made of solid Alder with a maple cap and has a set neck... the Alder sounds nice and bright like old 1950's mahogany but is still chunky sounding. This is a great guitar.

I successfully installed a Bigsby tail-pice on it, and that, with the p-90's gives a great sounding vibe... although I am looking for a roller bridge for it... as you can imagine, Bigsby with a tune-o-matic.... bad tuning problems!

The pickups sound pretty OK for a stock Korean made guitar. But for me 'O.K' isn't quite good enough.

I have 3 other electric guitars (a P-Bass, Tele and strat) and they are all fitted with s.... I really trust pickups.

Now... I want to replace the pickups in my Goldtop and I've got about 5 or 6 choices from the catalouge:
The Vinatge Soapbar
The Hot Soapbar
The Custom Soapbar
The p-90 stack
The Antiquity one.

To me the Vintage one sounds like a good basic model that should sound like a good P-90 right? It has the 'original' Alnico magnets.

But the Custom... where it says (in the old catalouge) quot;Big, punchy, fun, makes you smilequot;... well that sounds good to me.... but it has ceramic magnets... does this allow for a truly vintage tone? or is it even better?

I like Neil youngs tone... and I know mostly he uses his LesPaul with a Firebird mini humbucker in it... but I really love some of the tones I get from my stock Tokai P-90's... so for now I want to keep the twim P-90 set-up... when playing single note lines or two strings at once these stock pickups have amazing tone... just when a bit of 'crunch' is added and you play 5 or 6 strings in a chord... some of the strings get a bit 'muddy' and 'lost'..

the classic statement to make about a great pickup is: quot;no matter how much gain you put on the amp... you can still hear the definition of each individual stringquot;

So anyone out there who can suggest which P-90 might be right for me?

I have listend to the MP3 audi demos of the P-90's... but that tells me nothing (what kinda guitar? What amp? what microphone?) It gives me no idea at all!

sincerely
Paspallum

if you have the means, the antiquitys are magic in every form. strat, tele, firebird minihumbucker, humbucker, p90... there is just a certain sweetness and complexity to the tone that never sounds anything but amazing

This is a little off topic, but back when I was 16, before 1970, I borrowed a Les Paul '56 Goldtop with P-90s for two weeks. It had sustain like Big Ben. I had to give it back because I couldn't get the $110 (Cdn) to buy it. ... OUCH!!!

So Jeremy, you would recommend the antiquity P-90's over the Vintage soapbar?
They are twice the price (aren't they?) Are they twice the tone of the Vintage soapbar?... yeah, I know it never works quite like that... but do they really sound a hole heap better than the standard vintage soapbar?...

Hey Robert1950... that is one sad story regarding the '56 goldtop... I have a story like that with a sixties Jazzmaster.... the guy who had it could hardly give it away.. but having said that... he wasn't 'giving it away' he was actually asking too much for it... but at the time (1986) no-one was interested in it.... just me.... but sorrowfully I never bought it...

Paspallum