Bluesboy vs. Bluesboy 90. Any recommendations?

[CFG-ASAT]

I’m looking to add an ASAT Bluesboy to my ASAT team and am not sure if I would prefer a Standard BB or a BB 90. I’ve always wanted a P90 gtr but I don’t really have any experience with them. I’m curious if anyone can enlighten me on the differences and general consensus on these two models. Appreciate any input.

[Craig]

I’m looking to add an ASAT Bluesboy to my ASAT team and am not sure if I would prefer a Standard BB or a BB 90. I’ve always wanted a P90 gtr but I don’t really have any experience with them. I’m curious if anyone can enlighten me on the differences and general consensus on these two models. Appreciate any input.

My recommendation is to find a local G&L dealer with both models in their store, so you can try them back to back.
See: GL_Dealers (Link opens in a new tab).

Hope this helps.

[Tooslowhand]

I have an ASAT Bluesboy Semi-hollow with a Seymour Duncan '59 humbucker, and a Tribute ASAT Jr. II with G&L P-90's. They are quite different sounds so you really need to make your own choice. I like them both, but if I could only keep one it would be the Bluesboy with the humbucker.

[sam]

Hey CFG- ASAT,

I’ll take a stab at it, with a little Bluesboy experience.

The Bluesboy 90, I have a Detroit Muscle Series: SS Collection - The P90 is more rock oriented versus the standard IMHO. You can run in neck only for some gritty rock, middle rounds it some but still rich sound, and time tested MFD bridge.

Special build ASAT Classic ‘blues boy’ Mahogany - This has a certain magic. Not a super heavy mahogany but dense enough to give that rich tone and the neck feels excellent. These pickups match well with the wood, as you can see described on Jos' page.
Jos has a great write up on the history of this special build, see below. Even if he thinks the pickups could be better balanced it’s a great sounding guitar.
http://www.yowhatsshakin.com/yowhatssha ... ogany.html

The Roses ASAT Classic Bluesboy - One of the 20 Roses versions. Jos has a great history on the Johnny Garcia custom engraved guitars and his version of The Wrangler. http://www.yowhatsshakin.com/yowhatssha ... ngler.html It has a beautiful voice and the #1 neck is fantastic. The Seth lover neck pup has just enough warmth and enough gain to cover a lot of ground. This may be more what you are comparing with. All around great guitar.

Last option is a ASAT project I put together with a BIG MFD bridge and a Paul Gagon G&L neck humbucker. Had Chandler do a custom guard and this little sucker is sweet! More meat in the bridge than regular small MFD (good ol' ASAT tone), middle position is killer and rolling tone knob or volume knob gets wide range of tone, and lastly the Gagon neck pup has its own sound.

Didn’t do anything other than stir the GAS, but like Craig said get your hands on as many as possible and even see what videos you can find. Keep your eyes open on Reverb, fleabay, GearPage etc. cause ya never know what will pop up.

[CFG-ASAT]

Thanks for all of the input. I love my ASAT Specials and my Classic ASAT Alnico. As much as I like idea of the Bluesboy 90 I think I’d be safer with the regular Bluesboy. A local friend has one and it sounds great but it’s a lefty so I can’t really try it out per se. Or I could just order another Special lol.

[mutts]

I have never tried a Bluesboy. I love my BB90 though. It's my first P90 guitar so I have nothing to compare it too but I find it to be a very good pickup. Nice tone, good sensitivity to pick attack.
Of course it would be nice to compare them but G&L dealers are pretty rare.. in these parts anyway.

[Craig]

Thanks for all of the input. I love my ASAT Specials and my Classic ASAT Alnico. As much as I like idea of the Bluesboy 90 I think I’d be safer with the regular Bluesboy. A local friend has one and it sounds great but it’s a lefty so I can’t really try it out per se. Or I could just order another Special lol.

If you are interested in G&L's versions of the P-90 pickups (all designed by Paul Gagon), check out this post in our G&L Knowledgebase forum:
List of pickups used in G&L guitars. You will see the various models (US and Tribute Series) which have them.
There is also one Tribute Series Limited Edition model which has them, ASAT Deluxe Carved Top P90 (model also designed by Paul Gagon), for
the specifications, see: 2015-present MF/GC Exclusive Tribute & Placentia Series ....

Hope this helps.