T90s – A vintage idea for a modern tone

We’ve had the T90s in production now for about 8 years by my maths – feels like a life time to be honest – most of it spenttrying to explain why they’re different from a traditional Telecaster® pickup! I won’t sit here and claim that it’s a revelation that’s going to change the way we play the guitar – but they’re absolutely exceptional at what they do.

We think of it as a fatter tone then the traditional Tele®, less snap and twang, less chicken friend “countrification” – more your rock-a-billy, swing, jazz, soul sort of pickup. There have always been shades of a proper P90 in there somewhere, and that’s what inspired the name, and it’s a beautiful little setup. It’s still distinctly a Telecaster® tone you’d be proud of, but it’s just bigger, bolder and brasher – really lets you open up the doors to play something a little bit different then your usual fare.

We’ll spare you the science bit for the time being, but essentially, the T90s take huge inspiration from the very first single coil pickups and utilise Alnico 3 magnets (sadly, nowadays, they only seem to turn up on “historic recreations”) – fantastic magnets for single coils like this. They bring in a little more bass, and a lot more lower mid-range without compromising on the top end.

Obviously, the easy route would be to churn out yet another 1950s throw back, scour the web and guitar bibles for the specs, scatter the winds and hey presto – and that’s fine if that your thing – but I can’t say I’ve heard many of the staff here at Axesrus® playing many Boom-Chicka walking lead lines in the last few years, so we’ve tried to take that inspiration and turn it into something we’d actually use! Seems all too easy to make and sell nostalgia at the minute, we’re more interested in making tone!

So we’ve gone warm on the T90s – I won’t say “hot” because it just brings up images of shredder metal and face melting solos – but you’re going to be getting a similar feel, all be it without the lashings of high gain and distortion. The trick there is to wind them pretty heavily – nothing too flash in that regard, but plenty of copper on the bobbins is bringing out those raunchy, sleazy, chubby little overtones, offers up just a little more aggression and a lot more body.

Getting into the specifics now, all of the above absolutely nails the bridge pickup, and that’s what defines the set for us – but the necks sort of its own thing. Still definitely in a similar style, and really well matched to the bridge – but that extra string movement above the poles just takes away a little of that bite. Still nice and warm, but nowhere near as muddy as a more traditional pickup – and that’s something we really did want to avoid. The Telecaster® is all about the bridge! The Strat® is all about the neck – so we wanted to bring a little bit of that to the party – more of a bell like quality, less bottom end, but without losing the overall T90 feel. Just gives those couple of extra options when it comes to style – chords are rich and textured, riffs and lead sections are chewy and full, and ultimately, it’s incredibly usable.