Excellent vid comparing P90s and Humbuckers

[I'MAPUNKROCKERDAMNIT]

Check it out...

[greatmutah]

Pretty cool video! Yeah the P90 tone is closer to a PAF than most folks think. In most cases they are similar but I find P90s to be a little more rude and brash than a PAF. But a good PAF style pickup will sound close and vice versa. My P90 SG is a favorite for this reason.

[Guitarbilly]

Yeah the original PAF purpose was to remove the noise of the P90s Gibson had been using, not change the sound. So they're pretty close, especially when played clean. Once players started to use distortion, the difference became more apparent and Gibson realized they were onto something and started to create humbuckers that emphasized the difference like the T Tops.
But the original PAF is very single coil like.

[Marc G]

P90s are my favorite pickup... it funny how many people think they can't do higher gain tones, which I think they excel at... as long as you don't need super tight tones.... so not the best for metal... but anything else with lots of gain is on the table... I just ordered a set of Fralin noiseless P90s for my SG Special.. the Gibson P90s are good, but the Fralins really take it to another level IMO