One type of pickups to rule them all. Without a doubt, it has to be the P90s. When I had my Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Pro, I didn’t really appreciate the beauty of her P90 sounds. After selling her off(which makes money sense), I acquired another P90 guitar in the 2018 Gibson Les Paul Classic and the 2015 Epiphone Casino Hollowbody with her dogear P90s. And the rest is history. I still like the PAF sounds of the vintage Gibson and their reissues in the BurstBuckers and 57 Classics. But I LOVE the P90 sounds.
My number 1 guitar right now has to be the 2018 Gibson Les Paul Classic with her P90s. She looks cool in her all black suit and she sounds easily the best amongst all the guitars I had owned and own right now. I bought her on a discount cos she was B-stock with minor flaws but I could keep her for now. I still harbour the desire of getting the goldtop P90. So I’m planning my business strategy to offload most of my gear to get the goldtop P90 (historic or custom shop). It could be R2, R4 or R6. The market has an R6 now. I’ll see how it goes.
The 2nd favourite guitar is the 2015 Epiphone Casino Hollowbody. She also came at a discount with the Classic as a B-stock. She’s very cheap and she looks gorgeous. More importantly, she has her own set of P90s. It will be hard to replace her. It has to be something with better P90 sounds at the similar price range.
Tied in 3rd place are the 2019 Squier Classic Vibe ’50s Precision Bass and 2020 the Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI. After some fortunate business dealings, I ended up investing only $114 and $200 on both respectively. I need a bass guitar and the pbass fills that spot. I want a baritone and the Bass VI fills that spot. However, the Bass VI could still go as a good profit while the pbass is probably staying.
My 4th favourite guitar is the 2011 Epiphone Les Paul Junior in good condition. She only cost me $67, so not harm keeping her. I might swap her single humbucker with a dogear P90.
The 2015 Gibson Les Paul Less+ is a fantastic les paul with the 57 classics sounding as good as the original PAFs. Yet, her neck is a little too thick for me and she’s not a P90. At the time of this writing, someone is offering me cash + a G&L strat in a trade for the less+. I will let her go in this trade cos it makes more business sense.
The refinished 1974 Fender Precision Bass is the most expensive gear I want to let go. I’m still not a bassist so the Squier bass is more than enough. Besides, the cash from her sales will form the main bulk of the goldtop purchase. It will take a while to sell her but I hope it can happen soon.
Both the 2022 Fender FSR Player Stratocaster and the 2015 Epiphone Sheraton-II PRO are on sale. I still don’t fancy playing a strat too much (the G&L is on the way). The Casino is way more valued than the more versatile Sheraton. So I rest my case for both.
And there’s a little piece of gear called a mandolin. She stays.
I will still continue to do this mini guitar business that can give me little profits. I am also looking for more P90 guitars to explore in this journey.
Today, I tried the Fender Noventa Telecaster and Jazzmaster, the Fender Jim Adkins JA-90 Telecaster Thinline, the Fender Japan Heritage 60s Jazzmaster, the Fender American Professional Jazzmaster, the Squier Classic Vibe 60s Jazzmaster and the Epiphone Blueshawk Deluxe. I could not find any sound amongst them that makes me want to own as much as my Gibson P90s. The closest, surprisingly, comes from the Blueshawk which sports an oddly shaped body. They were all good but not good enough to replace my Gibson.