[lttoler]

I have a double humbucker Tele that I am wanting to put P90ish humbuckers in.  I know the Phat Cats are true single coils, but can anyone comment on the tonal differences of the two?  Also, any suggestions to other similar pickups would be great!  Thanks in advance

[oilpit]

The Phat Cat is a LOT more authentic if you want straight up P90 tones

But the Bluesbucker has that distinctive middy growl with a lot of sweet tones available, and it's got no hum.

Personally I'll take the PC every time, simply because I'm picky about my tones. However the BB is still a great pickup.

[slugworth]

I agree.  The Bluesbucker has some PAF-ish flavor to go along with the P90 tone, in a good way IMO.  I love the Bluesbucker.

People around here might turn their nose up, but Kent Armstrong also has a very good humbucker sized P-90.  A set of them should cost you a lot less than the Phat Cats and will sound just as nice.  If you go with Kents, get the regular one in the bridge, and get the lower output (vintage is what it's called) reverse polarity model for your neck.  

Don't forget about Duncan P-Rails.  After a year or so I got bored with mine, but I thought the P-90 tone in it was very good, as well as the parallel tone.  The rail tone was OK for me.  The humbucker series tone... meh.  The thing that made me get rid of it was that it really didn't go welll with what I wanted in the bridge (Tone Zone).... I was surprised about this because the P-90 Tone Zone and Dimarzio Virtual P-90 is maybe my favorite pickup combo ever.  But in the end the Tone Zone stayed and the P-Rails got the boot.  Man, I wish Dimarzio made the Virtual P-90 in humbucker form factor!

Also you can get single coil to humbucker conversion plates which can open up the whole world of strat pickups to you.  I'm using one right now with a Dimarzio Chopper in the spot where the P-Rails came out of.  I bought a couple from an eBay seller called "tricked out guitar" I believe.  They come in black and cream.  The nice thing about those is that you can flip 'em and slant your strat pickup one way or another.

[FeinMusic]

I'll be uploading soon a better recorded demo of the various BB tones you can get through series, parallel, split and out of phase so hopefully that will give more perspective.

[dr. ad]

some interesting points:
>p90s and most vintage tele pickups were wound with 43AWG; presumedly because the phat cat's bobbin is much larger, SD have used A2AWG.  43AWG is also commonly found in 'medium-hot' humbuckers, ie the duncan custom and dimarzio super distortion, where AWG is very much a PAF-type wire
>the metal cover on the phat cat makes it very quiet (for a single-coil pickup)
>the stock 2xA2 magnet set-up in the phat cat makes it too dark for some; as much as i love A2, i prefer the phat cats with 2xA5.  they're not the best pickup for a first-time mag swap, as you have to lift the baseplate out of the cover and there's a chance you'll damage the coils' connections to the cable
>the phat cat kicks arse once you've got it how you like it (which may not be in it's stock form)

i've not owned a bluesbucker but have gathered the following info from pepole who have, and the DMZ site:
>the bluesbucker is basically an underwound 43AWG humbucker with 1 set of poles removed (the dummy poles are not magnetic and are cosmetic in function).  so it's hum-cancelling but only has 1 set of poles; this is presumedly meant to make it sound more like a single-coil in the attack
>the bluesbucker has 3 skinny ceramic magnets, 1 on each side and 1 in the middle.  i believe they're the same type as you'd find on the sides of a 500T or invader, but can't confirm this.
>the bluesbucker is supposedly quite good, from what i've heard

[Xochitl]

>the bluesbucker is basically an underwound 43AWG humbucker with 1 set of poles removed (the dummy poles are not magnetic and are cosmetic in function).  so it's hum-cancelling but only has 1 set of poles; this is presumedly meant to make it sound more like a single-coil in the attack

Hey, really interesting! If I understand it well, it actually makes it a kind of noiseless singlecoil in a HB housing. I'm now wondering how it compares to the higher output VV pups (DP402, DP409 and DP420 and to be more precise to the discontinued DP409 bridge version that I have in my strat).

[buddroyce]

I just installed a Bluesbucker in a brand new Caparison Angelus and it sounded fantastic. It's not 100% P90, but it's very close. It's kinda like a slightly PAF sounding P90 that cuts through the mix very well. It was paired up with a Bare Knuckle Aftermath which is a high gain monster of a pickup and really helped give the guitar a lot of versatility. The client there wanted a guitar to handle raging distortion for really heavy stuff but also be able to deliver fluid lead tones and smooth clean tones for jazzy stuff.

The Duncan Phat Cat, P-Rails and Bare Knuckle Manhattan/Mississippi Queen were all considered but once the high gain distortion was added to the requirements, the Blues Bucker won out as it was hum free and still delivered the versatility.

[JustinL]

I have tons of experience with the Phat Cat pickups and they are seriously awesome. However, once you get into the high gain territory then I feel the PC's fall a bit short. If you're tending towards distortion sounds then the Bluesbucker is definitely a better choice. If vintage style P90 tones is your thing then the PC's all the way.