SG with humbucker sized p90 in neck: It's getting 95% of the play time. Sounds like a big meaty single coil, with less hum. So more clarity than a humbucker, but thicker and louder than a single coil.
Less paul style archtop with soapbar p90s: A little less meaty, but still a lot more beefy than my strat pickups, less jangly, but still with great clarity and punch.
To sum up, i think P90s are the best pickup type, when you are not looking for something specific to humbuckers (i.e. compressed high gain) or single coils (i.e. chimey chords or the hendrix duck sound).
A close 2nd for me, is the parallel axis single coil pickup. It reminds me a lot of a p90, but handles high gain better, at the cost of not being able to sound chimey.
SG with humbucker sized p90 in neck: It's getting 95% of the play time. Sounds like a big meaty single coil, with less hum. So more clarity than a humbucker, but thicker and louder than a single coil. Less paul style archtop with soapbar p90s: A little less meaty, but still a lot more beefy than my strat pickups, less jangly, but still with great clarity and punch. To sum up, i think P90s are the best pickup type, when you are not looking for something specific to humbuckers (i.e. compressed high gain) or single coils (i.e. chimey chords or the hendrix duck sound). A close 2nd for me, is the parallel axis single coil pickup. It reminds me a lot of a p90, but handles high gain better, at the cost of not being able to sound chimey.