Godin Kingpin II: P90's or Humbuckers?

[SausageCreature]

Been looking for a good deal on a Godin Kingpin, and I believe I've found one. Well, two actually.

The first is the "normal" CW Kingpin II with the P90 pickups. The other is for sale at Musician's Friend and has dual Humbuckers instead of P90's. According to the MF website, it's a special model that Godin made for MF.

I've played a P90 version a few times at Guitar Center, so I know pretty much what I'm getting. Being the polite sort, I didn't really crank the amp and put it through it's paces. So my experience with P90's is rather limited. The pickups in the Humbucker version are Godin's own, and I don't really have much experience with those (or humbuckers in general) either.

I play mostly rock, metal, punk and blues, but I've sometimes tried other genre's and don't mind going wherever a particular guitar leads me. And the two models are nearly identical in price, so that's not really a determining factor either.

Opinions on which to choose?

[ronbo]

I've played the P90 version and really liked it...nice tone that would be great for blues, jazz or really any of the styles you list. It is feedback prone at higher volume, (so some types of rock/metal/punk might be interesting on it, but such is the nature of most hollowbodies in general. Haven't played the HB version, and am more a fan of P90's (and single coils in general) than HB's, especially on hollowbody's, but that is a personal preference. I came pretty close to buying that Kingpin, but ultimately opted for a Reverend Pete Anderson P90 Hollowbody, because it was designed to have more feedback resistance and I was playing more rock and heavy blues at louder volumes at the time. That project has gone by the wayside and am now selling that guitar (here on the forum in fact), but may look at the Kingpin P90 again before all is done. Pretty sure you can't go wrong with either choice, those Godins really are quite nice and a good price...good luck!

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by SausageCreature

Been looking for a good deal on a Godin Kingpin, and I believe I've found one...I've played a P90 version a few times at Guitar Center, so I know pretty much what I'm getting. Being the polite sort, I didn't really crank the amp and put it through its paces...

If you're afraid to wail away in the store buy both on the 30-day return plan, crank up that Blues Junior, see which one does it for you, and return the other one in 24 hours. Personally, I'm also partial to the P-90 version (I own one) - IMO as long as you're not doing death metal through a wall of Marshalls it's as close as you're going to get to a "Swiss Army" archtop...

[louparte]

I already own an archtop with a floating HB. So I'd go P90's too.

But I like the warm sound of a HB better for the music I play, mostly sliding around
on jazzy, unvoiced chords, using tremolo. My KA floating mini-HB sounds perfect for that.