Railhammer Gnarly 90 Pickup

Railhammer expands their humbucker pickup series with the new Gnarly 90 pickup, based on P90 pickups.

Railhammer Gnarly 90 Pickup

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This new pickup mixes Railhammer’s distinctive rail and pole pickup design to a vintage P90 build, resulting in a pickup with vintage tones and modern punch.

The Gnarly 90 is designed to carefully reproduce the tone of vintage P90s, Railhammer used 44-gauge wire and dual alnico 5 magnets to get the sound as close as they possibly can.

The tone signature is described as having “the lower mid whine and raw attack typical of a classic P90”. They also made sure that the pickup fits perfectly on standard humbucker equipped guitars.

The new pickup is available in bridge and neck versions especially designed for each position. The bridge model has more windings for added “gnarl”, while the neck pickup has reduced windings for improved note clarity. The neck is reverse wound/reverse polarity so it’s hum-canceling when used together with the bridge pickups.

Like the other Railhammer pickups, Gnarly 90 features thin rails under the thicker strings. These rails allow the pickup to “sense a narrow section of string, producing a tight, clear tone”. The large poles under the plain strings sense a wider section of string, which results in fatter and thicker tone. Railhammer summarizes their design by saying that it will let you “dial in a tight clear tone on the wound strings without the plain strings sounding thin or sterile.” This design improves the clarity and balance across the strings, effectively modernizing the P90 tone.

Touch sensitivity, sustain and harmonic content are said to be enhanced by the pickup’s no-moving-parts magnetic structure. This strong magnetic field helps in preventing dead spots when bending strings (including on the round pole side). Another modern addition to this pickup design is the use of a full metal cover, this helps reduce hum levels when compared to vintage P90 pickups.

Other features unique to Railhammer pickups include universal spacing, German silver baseplate, two-conductor wiring with independent ground (allows custom wiring such as phase, series/parallel, etc.) and a height-tapered rail that contributes to consistent volume across all the strings.

The Gnarly 90 is designed to please blues, classic rock and old-school punk players, it is meant for those that prefer vintage tones with modern clarity. For more information, you can head over to Railhammer.

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