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A year or so I bought an Eastwood Sidejack baritone guitar. Ebay'ing while drunk, made a low ball bid, and the next day to my surprise, the seller agreed. I figured a cheap baritone would help me summon the gods of doom...

I'm still not convinced it won't, but I only plugged it in a couple times since I got it, it just seems like too much of a chore to get used to the akward scale/size.
It's just sitting there unused now, and I probably could't sell if for more than a couple bucks. I supect the electronics are a huge part of why it sounds so bland, but I'd rather not spend $250 on *slightly* better pickups on this cheapo either. Than again, if I go with generic GFS-esque pickups that are in the same league as the faux P90 pups that are in the Sidejack now, I might end up with an even worse sounding guitar

It actually plays great acoustically, as far as resonation and feel goes. In my experience, that means a guitar sounds okay plugged in and amplified, UNLESS the pickups are total crap. Since this is my first baritone though, I'm not sure if that rule still applies...

So anyone maybe have experience with this particular baritone and did a pickup upgrade? Anything else I could try to help me bond with this suker, like maybe try a different tuning (not even sure how it's tuned atm), or mess with the setup (ligher gauge strings, lower action, etc, for a more guitar-like feel)?

Or should I just give up and try to trade it for a couple pedals?

Cheers.

A few people around here have these m3's and I have heard that people like them. They are close to what a mosrite would have actually came with and they do make a p90 sized replacement. They used to work at mosrite for a short time and they are pretty reasonably price. http://www.m3california.com/pickups.html They seem to kinda like making them for you, so maybe they could give you a good voicing opinion.

Might be worth checking out but I don't know what kind of pickup you would usually prefer (high output, twangy, etc).

But, yea, the sidejack is a mosrite copy, why not get mosrite pickups?

Other than that, I can't be much help, sorry man.

http://www.m3california.com/rh-90.html is the actual p-90 replacement...they actually mention them as an eastwood replacement haha

A capo on the second or third fret might bring the pickups to life a little more, and the scale/size/action with a capo might be a little easier to adjust to as well.

For what it's worth... I'm super happy with my GFS Mean 90s. I have the Humbucker version and think they sound great. They're not in a baritone guitar but I thought I'd chime in on that aspect.

I accquired a PRS Baritone in the last month. I think I'm going to try to sell/trade it. Just don't jive with the PRS vibe. It has Duncan Pearly gates in it and they sound quite nice. Of course that doesn't really do much for your P90 vibe.