The P-90's reign as the Gibson standard pickup was short-lived, as a new design of pickup, the humbucker, was introduced in 1957. They were initially used to replace Gibson's original "bar" or "blade" pickup, also known as the Charlie Christian pickup, on models such as the ES-150, and by the end of the 1940s it was the standard pickup on all models. Officially, P-90 pickups were introduced in 1946, when Gibson resumed guitar production after World War 2. 4 Hum-canceling and humbucker-shaped versionsĪround 1940 Gibson offered a new bridge pickup for ES-100/125 series, as an alternative to the classic Charlie Christian pickup, cased in metal.As with other single-coil pickups, the P-90 is subject to mains hum unless some form of hum cancelling is used. This makes the P-90 produce a different type of tone, somewhat warmer with less edge and brightness. The Fender style single coil is wound in a taller bobbin but the wires are closer to the individual poles. Compared to other single coil designs, such as the ubiquitous Fender single coil, the bobbin for a P-90 is wider but shorter. Gibson is still producing P-90s, and there are outside companies that manufacture replacement versions. The P-90 (sometimes written P90) is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson since 1946. JSTOR ( June 2010) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.