Kinman pickups (zero hum P90's)

Jbird

Kick Henry Jackassowski
Has anyone here ever tried Kinman pickups? They seem to be the darling of noiseless P90s over at TGP.

http://kinman.com/model-products.php?pid=6&products=P-90

I've been wanting a pair of hum-free P90s for my Stu D. Baker, just not sure what to get. I know that Seymour Duncan has some, probably at about half the cost, but they are 'stacked' and may not fit without modification.



 
I have a set in my quilty Warmoth. I always thought they sounded good, but at $180 for 2 Strat pickups, they'd better sound good.
 
They’re good enough that Prince went to Australia—personally—to get them before Kinman had US distribution. That says a lot.
 
I have Kinman noiseless P90s in my Warmoth LPS, their Strat pickups in 2 Strats, and their Tele pickups in my Tele. The Strat and Tele pickups are as quiet as a humbucker, but the P90s are not. They're definitely quieter than regular P90s, though. They're only a bit noisy if you use a lot of gain. A fair amount of crunch (think Live at Leeds), and they're fine.

When I installed them, I emailed back and forth with Kinman, and they seemed to think they were normal. They said the P90s would be noisier than the Strat or Tele pickups because they're so much bigger.

One thing to note is that they're deeper top to bottom than regular P90s. When I ordered my Warmoth body, I had them rout the pickup cavities an extra 1/4" deeper to accommodate them. In most guitars where the neck and body aren't parallel e.g., Les Pauls, the bridge pickup will fit fine, but the neck rout might need to be deepened. In a guitar like a Strat, both cavities would need routing.

I have Fralin noisless P90s in my PRS SE Soapbar II. They're as quiet as a humbucker and not as deep as the Kinmans, and will fit without routing the cavities. However, the Kinmans have a nastier (in a good way) tone with more growl. The Fralins sound tame by comparison.
 
I had a big spat with mr kinman on another forum. He came on there advertising his wares and his basic premise was tha ALL humbuckers are flawed and muddy on the bass side.
Well I never noticed this massive flaw and told him so. He was out his pram and away. Loads of pseudo scientific bollox. I actually dont mind his pups, a bit like Apple really, does what every body else does, just more expensive.
 
So this is another example of the same old snake oil? Nothing different?

I think manufacturers have gotten better at approximating the single coil tone with stacked humbuckers. 20 years of experimentation will do that. But there will still be compromises and the question is whether or not the user cares about them.
 
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