Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

[zwischenzug]

Hello! I have a Samick Les Paul copy (single cutaway mahogany body) with Duncan Designed pickups: http://gregbennettguitars.com/guitars/electric/avion-series/av3/

I would like to find a pickup similar to Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup for my guitar. Yeah, I know, dream on.

Is Seth Lover Model™ SH-55 pickup the one? Vintage P.A.F. tone, not wax potted with a slightly "honky" microphonic quality.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/vintage-output/sh55_seth_lover/

Any other options? Thanks!

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

The obvious suggestion would be this http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/specialized/mini-humbucker/1101409_10_anti/ with some of the secondary potting wax removed.

Money no object, you could request this model http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/custom-shop/specialized-1/12_polemini_hum/ but with reduced wax potting. Make it abundantly clear why you are requesting this and that you accept (and actively seek) the inevitable consequences.

One potential headache. Ordering from the Custom Shop via your national distributor could prove slow and expensive. The impersonal International Customer order form is no substitute for a direct telephone conversation with an experienced pickup winding person. Also, your order will be subject to shipping costs, import duties, the local distributor/retailer's mark up and local purchase tax.

In short, this one pickup will cost you more than the rest of the guitar combined.

Perhaps, a European-built pickup would prove to be better value? :scratchch Bare Knuckle, Catswhisker, Shed, whoever?

 

[zwischenzug]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

Thanks Funkfingers! Sadly, money is an object. I've been considering Antiquity II for Firebird pickup but it doesn't fit my pickup cavity and I don't want to route the body of the guitar. I will keep that in mind as a last resort. Maybe I will find an old dismembered guitar and use its pickups.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

Can you confirm which Duncan Designed humbuckers you have in the Samick? (There should be self-adhesive labels on the baseplates. Black legend on white background.) Most of the range seems to have HB-101n and HB-102b humbuckers. These are loosely based on the American-made SH-1n '59 and SH-4 JB models.

Some of the sound of Old Black is due to the microphonic Firebird 'bucker and its metal mounting surround. Some of the overtones come from the Bigsby vibrato. Most of the overdrive filth comes from the tweed Fender Deluxe amplifier. The outright stage volume comes from the public address system.

Neil's number two stage guitar is a Goldtop LP with P90s. (It's on the cover of Ragged Glory.) P90s would certainly provide you with the "swampy" overdrive that Neil Young and Crazy Horse get. The Avion Series guitar would require humbucker-sized P90s.

At the time of this writing, I have developed a keenness for Bare Knuckle Pickups 'Pig 90 neck and bridge units. These should be available across Europe with none of the additional costs of a specially ordered American pickup set.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

Love Neil. From what I know, the least complicated path would be for the Custom Shop to come up with some sort of A8 Firebird or P-90 or something like that.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

A p90 with magnet polepieces would help to get that bite of a firebird. There should be something which is a humbucker size p90 with alnico poles - just not sure from whom.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

so much of his tone is the old tweed deluxe amp

 

[Amplifuzz]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

Lollar and Duncan make actual Firebird pickups reproductions, built the right way. I'd get one of those.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

For the OP's guitar, the easiest solution for achieving the NY/CH overdriven sound would be to remove some of the secondary potting wax from the HB-102B humbucker and buy a Catalinbread 5F6 or Formula Number 5 pedal.

For dirt, skip to 2:25.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

the formula 5 does a pretty good cranked tweed deluxe tone. a little more controlled but still lots of fun

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

Somebody needs to develop a pedal that digitally models valve rectifier "sag".

 

[Big Mike Blues]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

Gfs does humbucker to mini humbucker adaptor rings.
Id do that and a Duncan sm1

 

[ratiug]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

neil's bridge pickup is highly microphonic , so I would go with the Seymour Duncan Seth Lover which has no wax potting, these are great pups, and if you are trying to emulate Neils Crazy Horse sound , a cool trick is to put a reverb or delay pedal before the distortion pedal,

 

[jtougas]

Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

The Greer Ghetto Stomp does the tweed/Valco amp meltdown thing very well, too...

At full gain, it gets into light fuzz territory.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

antiquity II firebird pup, a seth or any other paf isnt gonna sound like a fb pup

 

[ledzef]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

Neil's old black guitar is actually a Les Paul custom not a Firebird. The custom has P90's as opposed to mini hums like a Firebird.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

^ even the most cursory image search for Neil Young's black LP will show quite clearly a Firebird pickup in the bridge posi.

 

[ledzef]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

I do stand corrected. Thank you.

 

[RayBarbeeMusic]

Re: Neil Young's Old Black Firebird pickup

Are you looking for a firebird that fits in a humbucker route?

Call Kevin at www.smitspickups.com and tell him you want a stealth firebird like the ones he makes for me. He'll know what you mean. You can get any wind, iirc up to a little over 8.2K of 42ga will fit on the bobbins, and alnico or ceramic mags. Even with high windings they are tight/bright like a firebird or single coil. Having experimented with a lot of them I like a ceramic mag and 44ga wire on them a lot, but honestly the differences are subtle between wires and mags on those due to firebird architecture. The 44ga and ceramic give a bit more oomph and high end bite for the neck of a Les Paul, which can tend to be dark by nature, but don't stray at all from standard firebird territory. For other guitars, 42ga and A5 might work fine for you.