info on swapping humbuckers for P90s

Swapping real P-90s in is going to be tricky, because they're in a different form factor. But most of the pickup makers now make P-90 equivalents in a humbucker form factor. That's a drop-in replacement.

On a different but related vein ..... that is where mini humbuckers came from ......... a humbucker that fits into a P90 slot. Yes, ther are humbucker sized P90's. Just shop online, they are there.

If you want to save some money, look into the GFS Dream 90 or Mean 90 pickups; both are humbucker-sized. I had a set of Dreams in a semi-hollow Ibanez and really liked them.

Thanks for the info.

I already have the P-90s. They're from a "Casino", so I guess you'd call them dog-ear P-90s. I want to put them on a ES-137 knock-off, but haven't taken the humbuckers out of it yet. My unhandiness is legendary in my house, but I would still like to give it a try. I don't think there would be any cutting, just drilling some holes for mounting the P-90s. Is this the kind of thing that someone that's all thumbs would be able to do? Like I said, the guitar is just a knock-off but I really like the unplugged sound and the feel of the neck and would hate to trash it.

Dogears are for surface mounting, as on hollowbodies with an "acoustic" top. They don't go down into a hollowed out cavity in the guitar. That's what "soap bars" are for. You can exchange the covers on the pickups between the two styles. If you try to mount the dogears over the cavities, they'll be too high to run the strings over. If you want to use those down in a cavity, you'll have to rout out a big enough hole to do so, then when they're screwed down the height won't be adjustable. I'm not sure if the center block in an ES-137 is even wide enough to rout out for dogears. I'd start looking at a Plan B, preferably humbucker-sized "P-90s."

Dogears are for surface mounting, as on hollowbodies with an "acoustic" top. They don't go down into a hollowed out cavity in the guitar. That's what "soap bars" are for. You can exchange the covers on the pickups between the two styles. If you try to mount the dogears over the cavities, they'll be too high to run the strings over. If you want to use those down in a cavity, you'll have to rout out a big enough hole to do so, then when they're screwed down the height won't be adjustable. I'm not sure if the center block in an ES-137 is even wide enough to rout out for dogears. I'd start looking at a Plan B, preferably humbucker-sized "P-90s."

+1

I'm trying to do a similar swap from humbuckers on a Carlo Robellio trasher, but I'm gonna have to swap mine. I was thinking though on yours, you may not need new covers you could use the little frames they make for mounting humbuckers and mount the dog ear underneath the top of the guitar with a spring just like humbuckers giving you adjustability and getting rid of the need to buy more parts. Just a thought though, it might be harder to find a frame like that than to get new covers.

On a similar not, how then do you mount the soapbar into a hollow cavity if they are screwthrough the middle like a solidbody pair of P-90s?

I know you have the dog-ears, but I'd still advise Guitar Fetish brand Mean 90s. I put them in a faux-LP and they sound great. Almost P90 tone, just a little more edge than a real P90, but you can turn down the treble a bit to compensate.