Lollar DC-90

Jason Lollar’s P-90 was one of the pickups that first put us on the map. For many years it has been a consistent favorite of builders and players and is one of our best-selling pickups. Over the decades we’ve been building pickups, a frequent request has been for us to offer a hum-cancelling/noiseless P-90—something that keeps our P-90’s character, while eliminating the hum. We work with many studio artists, session players, and musicians on the road where inconsistent power and environmental factors—such as interference from stage lights and other equipment—can lead to a lot of unwanted noise from single-coils. After fielding countless customer requests, we were inspired to take on the task.

The idea is an interesting one and presents a few challenges. To build a hum-cancelling pickup that is true to the tone of the single-coil pickup on which it was based means altering the design in a significant, fundamental way. And of course, that can change the voice of the pickup just as fundamentally. When experimenting with existing designs like stacked pickups and “sidewinders,” we found that we weren’t quite satisfied with the results, so went back to the drawing board.

Lollar pickup designer Kevin Moe worked on numerous iterations over a lengthy period of trial and error and ultimately landed on the design for the Lollar DC-90: a new P-90-inspired hum-cancelling pickup in a Soapbar size. It checked the boxes we set out to check and was deserving of its own place in our product line. It sounds very similar to our 50s Wind P-90, but with much quieter operation at idle. The name DC-90 is a nod to both its dual-coil (DC) design and its tonal inspiration, the P-90 (90).

The DC-90’s inherent voice is musical and expressive, and of course, much quieter than a single-coil. It shares plenty with the tonal profile of a P-90 with its midrange-forward voice, snap, and natural grind. We’re very pleased to offer this unique model, available now.

The soapbar-size DC-90 is a hum-cancelling pickup designed to share many of the tonal characteristics of our '50s Wind P-90. For players who want a midrange-forward, articulate pickup that can produce the snap and growl of a P-90—without the 60-cycle hum and noise common with single-coil pickups—the DC-90 fits the bill.

Avg. DC: Neck 11K, Bridge 12.3K
Recommended Capacitor: 0.022μF
Recommended Potentiometers: 250K or 500K 

Tech Note: The DC-90 will fit in any guitar routed for a standard-size P-90. However, due to the position of the DC-90’s dual coils, it mounts to a guitar differently than a P-90. Instead of using mounting screws between pole pieces, the DC-90 mounts like a mini-humbucker with mounting screws toward the outer edges of the pickup. To help you align and drill new holes for mounting the pickup, we offer an acrylic mounting template, available above as an Optional Add-on.