More attention for the Goldtop

In my recent P90 shootout I decided there was something amiss with the output of the bridge pickup in the Vintage goldtop. Obvious options were that the neck and bridge were the wrong way round or more simply that it just wasn't close enough to the strings.

The original Wilkinson pickups were stacked humbucking P90 style ones and twice the height of the real P90 Bareknuckles. Even after I'd fitted springs to replace the foam the previous owner had used to support the pickups, to my eyes the bridge one was still too far from the strings. Even if it wasn't, at its present height the screws didn't go very far into the body and it was a bit loose.

So this afternoon I had a look at it to try and sort the problem out. A quick wave of the multimeter ruled out the pickups being swapped so I screwed a small block of wood into the pickup cavity to give the bridge mounting screws more wood to bite into.

I then put it all back together and set the action/intonation as it was a bit too low on the treble strings for my liking.

The moment I played it through the Peavey it was obvious the issue I had with the output of the bridge pickup was sorted and it now does a very good dirty rock sound, just like the Indie semi-hollow. This means at some point in the future I think I need to redo the P90 shootout.

I can only assume these pickups are very sensitive to how far from the strings they are.