The P90 is not only a classic and well-loved pickup, it’s also a crucial piece of electric guitar history. This soapbar (and sometimes dog-eared) shaped pickup’s origins go back to some of the first pickups ever installed in a guitar.

Many guitarists and pickup builders still consider the P90 to be one of the most versatile pickups out there. Just ask the blues-rock dynamo and P90 disciple, Jared James Nichols. His signature Epiphone “Old Glory” Les Paul Custom, with its single, dog-eared Seymour Duncan P90 bridge pickup, packs all of the tones the bluesman ever needs—from clean rhythms to howling leads.

But along with its versatile tone, the P90 also has a reputation for a different kind of sound: the dreaded 60-cycle hum. Players often feel that attempts to fix the hum come at the expense of the quintessential P90 tone, and so the noise is accepted as a necessary evil.

That’s where the SD P90 Silencer™ comes in. It’s a new take on the noiseless P90 that kills the hum without losing an ounce of that classic sound.

Given its longevity, the P90 has inevitably gone through slight tonal changes over the years. Which style of P90 is best depends on the player and their preferences, which is why the P90  Silencer™ comes in three flavors: Vintage, Hot, and the Jared James Nichols Signature bridge pickup.

Why Do P90s Hum?

For those who don’t know, a P90 is a single coil pickup—a magnet with a metal wire wrapped thousands of times around it. But unlike single coils found in Strats or Teles, P90s have a shorter and wider bobbin (hence their characteristic soapbar look), which creates a warmer sound than the bright and jangly Fender-style single coils.

Pickups create a small electromagnetic field that converts your stings’ vibrations into electrical signals and produces sound through a speaker. Unfortunately, all electronics (like lights or amps) give off trace amounts of radiation, which create electromagnetic fields of their own that oscillate around 60 Hz or 50 Hz depending on where in the world you live. Traditional pickups like single coils are incredibly sensitive to electronic interferences, so they will often capture any nearby currents and emit the eponymous hum.

P90s are particularly notorious hummers since they tend to have higher output than other single-coils. The PAF humbucker was specifically invented to solve this issue way back in the 1950s, and while humbuckers are great, they offer a completely different tone than the P90.

How the P90  Silencer™ Works

The typical solution for a hum-free P90 is a “noiseless” stacked coil design. A stack has a reverse-wound second coil placed vertically underneath the main coil. When wired in series or parallel with the main coil, hum is canceled.

But some P90 purists are skeptical of noiseless models—they are technically humbuckers, after all. That’s why we invite those skeptics to give the new Seymour Duncan P90  Silencer™ a spin. This fresh take on the stacked P90 design accurately emulates the articulate high end, warmer bottom, and unbeatable versatility of a traditional P90.

The P90 Silencer uses a unique multicoil design that maintains the mid-range snarl, low end punch, and high end presence that has been difficult to emulate in prior noiseless P90 designs. Unlike traditional noiseless pickups, the P90 Silencer™ contains not two, but three coils under the hood: two “outrigger” coils wired in series, placed on either side of the center coil. With plenty of output and a full frequency response on both ends, the only thing that gives the P90 Silencer™ away is the inspiration for its name: Silence.

Jared James Nichols P90 Silencer™ Signature Pickup

Whether he’s backing living guitar legends or tearing up the stage himself, Jared James Nichols almost always has a guitar loaded with a bridge P90 on hand. “A P90 is like an unfiltered single coil, in a way where it’s like the perfect mesh between what you find on a Strat or Tele and then going into humbucker territory,” he told Peach Guitars. “You can get all the dynamics and clarity, but it can get really aggressive and big.”

The Seymour Duncan JJN Silencer™ P90 came out of Nichols’ love for all things P90—except for the hum. There are a lot of different noise-inducing sources out on stage and the road, and Nichols has seen them all over the years. When it came time to design his “Blues Power” signature Epiphone, Nichols wanted it to have all of the range and versatility of his favorite vintage P90s with a slightly modern bump in output and, of course, no hum.

The JJN Silencer tone profile perfectly suits Nichols’ unique playing style: always articulate, smooth when it needs to be, hot but never scorching. Or, as the man himself described it, “Delicate and strong, like a grizzly bear and a paper airplane landing.”

As you might expect, the JJN Silencer™ only comes as a bridge pickup—it’s designed to be the only pickup you’ll ever need. With some help from your volume and tone knobs, you can achieve a expanded range of tone without touching a toggle switch.

P90  Silencer™: Vintage

Given its longevity, the P90 has inevitably gone through slight tonal changes over the years. Which style of P90 is up to the player and their preferences, and that’s why the P90  Silencer™ comes in three flavors: Vintage, Hot, and the Jared James Nichols Signature bridge pickup. The Vintage P90 Silencer Neck is the only neck pickup option in the series. It was designed to work with each of the bridge Silencers as part of a balanced set.

The vintage-style P90 Silencer™ brings all the tonality and dexterity that made P90 a beloved pickup with none of the extra noise—a particularly noticeable issue with a lot of true vintage P90s. The early days of guitar pickups were infamously inconsistent, so two P90s made in the same factory on the same day could sound completely different. But the consensus “vintage” P90 sound is lower output, prominent warmth and mids, and high end that’s slightly dialed back but still easily cuts through a mix. The P90 Silencer™ Vintage offers all of that on top of the modern benefit of no hum, taming even the noisiest guitars while preserving all of the tone.

P90 Silencer™: Hot

For players looking for a little more oomph from their P90 pickups without bringing up the hum in the process, the P90 Silencer™ Hot is a must-try. With more windings than the vintage version, the hot variant brings a more present and saturated sound with additional high end and faster breakup. Whether you play punk, classic rock or high-powered blues, this pickup offers all of the tone and none of the noise.

Enjoy P90 Tone Without the Hum

The P90 is here to stay, but that doesn’t mean the hum has to stick around too. No matter which of our three versions you drop into your guitar, the P90 Silencer™ is another notable entry in the P90’s long and winding history.

Ready to try out the P90 Silencer™ for yourself? Find the one that’s right for you here, and check out the rest of our blog for more pickup tips and guides.