Jason Lollar introduces the new Staple P-90 pickup, based on vintage “Staple” P-90s found on ’50s era Les Paul Custom.
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This pickup adds to Lollar’s growing line of P-90 style pickups, providing players with another voicing option to choose from when upgrading their guitar. It is hand built following the same quality and attention to detail as Lollar’s other boutique pickups.
The company describes this pickup as being a straight reproduction of the sound of the neck pickup of a ’50s Gibson Les Paul Custom. Jason Lollar expounds, “It was the mid-80s, someone loaned me an original late-‘50s Les Paul Custom for a gig. Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated with the sound of the original P-90 staple pickup. We modified the design of the original Gibson P-90 staple pickup so it fits most soapbar routes with no modification to the guitar. Though the design is updated, I voiced it to sound just like the legendary Les Paul Staple pickup that was loaned to me.”
The original “Staple” pickup is different from a standard P-90, specifically because it doesn’t have actual bar magnets, rather it uses the pole pieces themselves as individual magnets, much like a Fender single coil. This pickup features two bar magnets underneath the coil for energizing the steel pole screws. It was usually found in the neck position of ’50s era Les Paul Customs, and are built using alnico V magnets. The sound is described as sitting somewhere between single-coil and a regular P-90, having enough punch while retaining clarity.
Now Jason Lollar has studied this pickup and have designed his own version of it for those who want to get vintage style tones without the maintenance and quality issues that you get from old pickups. The Lollar Staple P-90 comes with 42 gauge coil wire, 8.2K Ohms DCR, hand beveled rectangular alnico bar magnets as non-adjustable pole pieces, and it is designed to be an easy replacement to any Soapbar P-90 rout. You can easily install it to your guitar with just the standard mounting screws and springs, requiring no extra routing to the body of your guitar.
The company describes the sound as a combination of their Alnico Pole P-90 (Clean Fender-ish sound) and their traditional steel pole P-90 (More Grit and grind). It has enough grit when you need it, while having the punch and clarity for clean tones. See Rodney Gene Junior put the Lollar Staple P-90 in action:
The new Lollar Staple P-90 is a recommended for the neck position, and is now available from the company’s online store, priced at $145. For further details, and to check out their line of P-90 pickups, visit Lollar Guitars.
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