Product: Agile P-90 Soapbar
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
11/22/2007
at
01:05am
by
Old Blues Guy
Features
:
These Gibson-style "soapbar" P-90's that come stock on some of the Agile Al-2000 LP-style guitars have ceramic (ferrite) magnets and have a DC impedance around 8.5K
Instrument
:
My Agile AL-2000 Goldtop LP came stock with a pair of these cream P-90 Soapbar pickups. I'm writing this review in case any of you out there who really love the sound of the vintage Gibson P-90's should ever need to find replacements, hey, do a search on ebay. Sooner or later you'll find somebody who bought An Agile LP and then (foolishly) changed out the stock P-90's for some really pricey "boutique" P-90's that probably don't sound any better. You may be able to find them for under $30 for the pair.
Sound
:
10
Back in 1969, I had a '68 Gibson Goldtop with the P-90's. That guitar today sells for over 30 grand. My 2005 P-90-equipped Agile Goldtop plays and sounds every bit as good as that Gibson did. Sweet clear glassy lows and highs, controlled mids, overall very even sound across all 6 strings with a great response to every nuance of my picking styles (fom finger-picking to flailing and flat-picking).
I play mostly 1960's Buddy Guy style Blues and some classic rock and country rock. These pickups sound great through good tube and solid-state amps as long as you take the time to dial in your sound. I don't know how they'd fare on "death metal" super-distortion because that ain't my style.
Overall Rating
:
10
I wish I knew who makes these pickups for Agile. It'd be great to be able to buy them new without having to try to find them on ebay. Considering that Agile sells their Al-series P-90 equipped LP copies, made of solid mahogany, set neck, beautiful finish, Grover tuners, etc., for under $200, I'm sure these pickups would probably retail for under $50 new for the pair (are you listening, Rondo Music?).
I've bought a couple of MightyMite P-90's and they're ok, but they don't compare to the sweet articulate sounds I get from the Agiles.
BTW, Agile also makes an AL-3000 (premium) series LP copy that retails for around $379, fitted with Alnico-5 P-90's. I imagine these would probably sound even better!
