Player...... P 90s or Jaguar?

[mysticguitar]

I have played my friends Fender Player Mustang with P 90s and I like it but there is a Fender Player Jaguar that also looks interesting and I wanted to what your opinion of that guitar is and for thoughts who have played both, how do they compare?, thanks.

[601210]

I tried a couple of Player Jags in a couple different stores. I liked the pickup situation a lot more than I thought I would; there's obviously a huge volume difference between humbuckers and split/single coils so the way I'd set it up is to match the output between the single coil and the coil split and use the humbucker for a big jump in level, and I feel like it's quite versatile in that way. Also tidepool is such a cool finish IMO.

I didn't like the neck as much as I wanted to. It might be down to the specific ones I tried (although I did try several at several stores), but the fret ends were a bit rough and overall it didn't feel much better than a top-of-the-line Squier. I wouldn't say it was *bad*, just not *great*.

[Beltone]

This is probably the only question on the forum I have any qualifications to answer. My #1 is a Godin Summit Classic with Seymour Duncan P90s and my 1a is my Player Jag. I play the #1 every day but the Jag's mileage varies between 4-7 times a week. Now to your question. Do you LOVE the P90s? If you do, it's a no brainer. For my guitar I find the P90s offers 3 main sounds--bridge for twang, both for clean, neck for mellow--but I play the neck the most. I avoid playing either single coil alone at volumes where the P90's famous background hiss becomes an issue. For any music which I loosely describe as garage inspired (surf, punk, indie etc.) the Jaguar is my go to. Yesterday I kind of got lost playing the Jag and running it through my pedals in different combinations. It's definitely my fun guitar. While the P90 guitar takes pedals well, my love for its tones has me playing it clean through my amp 90% of the time, 9% using the amp's overdrive, and 1% through pedals.

To sum up:

Go with P90s - If love is blind. Your playing tends to jazz, rock, or country. Clean tones are your friend.
Go with Player Jag - If you think guitar playing should put a smile on your face, whammy bars are for shimmers, and you like shaping your sound with pedals.

[mysticguitar]

I tried a couple of Player Jags in a couple different stores. I liked the pickup situation a lot more than I thought I would; there's obviously a huge volume difference between humbuckers and split/single coils so the way I'd set it up is to match the output between the single coil and the coil split and use the humbucker for a big jump in level, and I feel like it's quite versatile in that way. Also tidepool is such a cool finish IMO.

I didn't like the neck as much as I wanted to. It might be down to the specific ones I tried (although I did try several at several stores), but the fret ends were a bit rough and overall it didn't feel much better than a top-of-the-line Squier. I wouldn't say it was *bad*, just not *great*.

Thanks, good information and the heads up.

[mysticguitar]

This is probably the only question on the forum I have any qualifications to answer. My #1 is a Godin Summit Classic with Seymour Duncan P90s and my 1a is my Player Jag. I play the #1 every day but the Jag's mileage varies between 4-7 times a week. Now to your question. Do you LOVE the P90s? If you do, it's a no brainer. For my guitar I find the P90s offers 3 main sounds--bridge for twang, both for clean, neck for mellow--but I play the neck the most. I avoid playing either single coil alone at volumes where the P90's famous background hiss becomes an issue. For any music which I loosely describe as garage inspired (surf, punk, indie etc.) the Jaguar is my go to. Yesterday I kind of got lost playing the Jag and running it through my pedals in different combinations. It's definitely my fun guitar. While the P90 guitar takes pedals well, my love for its tones has me playing it clean through my amp 90% of the time, 9% using the amp's overdrive, and 1% through pedals.

To sum up:

Go with P90s - If love is blind. Your playing tends to jazz, rock, or country. Clean tones are your friend.
Go with Player Jag - If you think guitar playing should put a smile on your face, whammy bars are for shimmers, and you like shaping your sound with pedals.

Wonderful reply....P 90s it is.

[jvin248]

.

P90s are like a bar room brawl you are excited about getting in the second night.
George Thoroughgood Bad To The Bone kind of tone.

Remember that P90s were the benchmark that humbuckers tried to emulate while providing noise reduction ... so they lost some fantastic tones that P90s have.

.

[Embenny]

Remember that P90s were the benchmark that humbuckers tried to emulate while providing noise reduction ... so they lost some fantastic tones that P90s have.

That's not true at all. By 1952, Gibson asked Seth Lover to design them a new pickup because they felt the DeArmond 2000 performed so much better than the P90, which is when he invented the "staple" pickup with the rectangular magnets and individual elevator mechanisms. For whatever combination of factors (probably cost/complexity of design), the staple pickup didn't really catch on with then.

The PAF was then considered an improvement in every possible way, because it had higher output and no noise. Those were the design goals. The P90 was just the pickup they had, not some gold standard they wanted to emulate.

This is all from interviews with Seth Lover himself.

The P90 has developed devotees like every design from the early days of the electric guitar, but it was already viewed as somewhat outdated by Gibson themselves by the early 1950's. That's why the relegated it to their lowest-end guitars after the PAF was developed, and basically phased it out of existence by the 1970's, when Norlin was still trying to innovate. It then became clear that guitarists were a backward and not forward-thinking bunch, and the obsession with guitars from the birth of rock'n'roll drove the P90's resurgence.

Really, until boomers had their retro Renaissance in the 80's, the P90 was pretty much a dead pickup design.

[Beltone]

Wonderful reply....P 90s it is.

Cool. Update us after 1 week / 1 month / 1 year with the guitar. Hope it works out for you.