Agile AL-3000 to Neil Young "Old Black" LP

[RustyDude]

I am helping my son build a lower cost clone of Neil Young's LP "old black" from a new Agile AL-3000 (Can't afford 56 goldtop reissue). We're more interested in guitar/pickup tone than the exact look of Neil's guitar. I haven't purchased the guitar yet so I'm wondering if I should get one with 2 p-90s or 2 LP style regular Humbuckers. Which would make the conversion the easiest?

The pickups I plan to use are SD Antiquity Firebird for bridge and SD Antiquity p-90 for neck.

Questions:
-Does SD Antiquity p-90 fit under a standard p-90 cover?
-Does the SD Antiquity Mini-Humbucker soapbar cover-style mounting ring come with the SD Antiquity Mini-Humbucker?
-Does the SD Antiquity Firebird Mini-Hum fit instide the soapbar cover-style mounting ring?
-Can the soapbar cover-style mounting ring pictured with the SD Mini-Humbuckers be purchased separately to use with the Firebird Mini-Hum?

Basicly, I want the Antiquity Firebird Mini-Hum and Antiquity p-90 on the guitar but don't know how difficult the conversion is. Can I place the Antiquity Firebird in the soarbar cover-style mounting ring and then put that into standard P-90 opening of the guitar. Also can I place the Antiquity P-90 underneath the Agile P-90 cover and replace in guitar for any easy all around fit? Or should I buy the Agile Al-3000 Humbucker model but then what would I have to do to mount the 2 pickups?

For the Bigsby, I was going the cheap route with a B-70 licensed Bigsby made in Korea ( Agile guitar is Korean also ).

Can the existing wiring handle this conversion or do I have to do some fancy footwork to get all of this to work together?

Any comments or tips are welcome.

 

[LesPaulMan]

Re: Agile AL-3000 to Neil Young "Old Black" LP

I have an Agile AL-3000 with stock full size humbuckers and an AL-2000 that had P-90's. If you are still deciding between P-90's and humbuckers, it is really what type of tone you are looking for. The stock full size humbuckers have much more bass and the P-90's have much more high end. The P-90's pick up some hum. I love the full size humbuckers. They will not fit into the P-90 hole without some additional routing so be prepared.

You can get SD P-90's with the soapbars. The screws are in slightly different positions so I don't think the covers will fit but they do fit into the hole.

I tried the SD P-90's but it didn't have the sound I was looking for but found it with the Seymourized mini-humbuckers which fit in just fine. They are in between a P-90 sound and a full hum. Great sound!

I have been researching the Bigsby trems and found an adaptor kit that I plan on getting. Check out www.vibramate.com. They have adaptors that fit a B-5 or B-7 using existing holes and no drilling. So check them out. Good luck!

 

[lemonman]

Re: Agile AL-3000 to Neil Young "Old Black" LP

Welcome to the forum! You want the P90 model. The minibucker & ring fits a P90 route.

That's how Gibson made the Deluxe models during the 70s- after they finally realized no one wanted P90 guitars but had a backlog of already-routed LPs ready to go. They took the minibuckers from Epiphone and made a mounting ring to fit the P90 opening, and a new model was born.

 

[theboatcandream]

Re: Agile AL-3000 to Neil Young "Old Black" LP

Do you mean his studio sound or his live sound?