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Love them Mini Humbuclers

WRGKMC

By WRGKMC
in Electric Guitars

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WRGKMC Apprentice

WRGKMC

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Wrote and recorded this with my Tele Build this weekend.

 

https://soundcloud.com/wrgkmc/aint-n...-street-master

 

 

Man I sure do love the midrange tones Mini Humbuckers gi8ve me in this walnut and rosewood semi hollow I built.

 

Nothing else I own comes close to it. You can hear clean tones on the left track and driven on the right.

 

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WRGKMC Apprentice

WRGKMC

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Yes...definitely some beef there and good playing.

 

What brand of mini?

 

I found a pickup maker on EBay that makes them with vintage specs using Alnico 5 magnets and have a DC resistance of around 6.3 and 6.4K and 2 Henry.

 

I've tried many of the other generics out there both the Firebird type with 2 blades and LP deluxe type with screws. Most sounded like crap because they were wound too hot or used ceramic magnets that produce nothing but mud tones. You need a vintage wind to get the right sound out of them. The test is when they are gained up, turning down the volume from 10 to 8 should clean them up and sound like a P90. Hot wound don't clean up until 50% or more and produce mud tones with volume that low.

 

I'd rather have actual Gibsons or better yet the set of vintage Epiphone I used to have but these do fairly well so I'm not complaining. Saved myself a couple of hundred bucks too. Seymour makes some decent vintage mini's too.

 

I've been tempted to buy a set of mini's for my 40th anniversary edition LP which has P100's. 100's are a stacked humbucker build with a P90 design. Some people don't like them but I honestly wouldn't know why. I suspect they are just P90 purists who fail to embrace the differences in tone. the 100's have a drive and tone between a P90 and Mini Humbucker. The string attack more compressed like a mini, likely due to the second coil adding more wire but the magnetic field is vertical and centered like a P90. The tone isn't as biting as a P90 but they aren't dark sounding either. Excellent pickup for Jazz and blues, but they don't quite get the violin tones of a mini.

 

I put mini's in my DOT too using full sized to mini ring adaptors. I had tried a half dozen different full sized HB's and hadn't found a set that sounded better then the stock PAF's. I wanted the sound my 60's Epi Rivera used to give me and the Mini's came darn close.

 

Before the Mini's I tried these generic Filteron style pups that use full sized adaptor rings. Had to pot those pickups too because they were fairly microphonic. They weren't horrible but not what I wanted either. I moved these to a Plexiglas Flying V and they've don't OK there.

 

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This is how it wound up with the Mini's. Best sounds I've gotten from the guitar so far. The narrow magnetic fields do wonders getting rid of the unremarkable plywood tones these DOT's produce and give it an excellent upper midrange drive tones. Inexpensive mod too. If I were to stick with full sized HB's I'm pretty convinced Gibson PAF's would be the only worth while solution and since this guitar only cost $350 I couldn't see investing that much in it, especially since the body top began to buckle between the neck pup and neck.

 

It wasn't glued properly from the factory and since arresting the problem by re-gluing the top to the neck block it hasn't gotten any worse. Its simply hasn't got the quality tone of and actual Gibson ES335 so I stuck with budget pups that simply sound good.

 

 

 

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WRGKMC Apprentice

WRGKMC

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I had the same guitar. Think mine might have been a 1970 version. Bought it slightly used in 73 in mint condition for $350. Wish I still had it, they are worth a mint today. The necks has a shallow C shape to them which was very comfortable. I Traded it for a Martin after I wore the frets down to nothing. That was before I learned how to replace frets. The store owner sent it back to the Factory and had it done over like new. A famous guitarist in the NE wound up buying it after that.

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Voltan Newbie

Voltan

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i probably shouldnt tell you, but i paid $150... picked it up from a high school teacher named randy, that i used to go see play when he was still in college... (and i was in jr high sneaking into bars and playing rockabilly before it was a thing...) my old man was a preacher and he would have skinned me... but randy took a liking to me and wanted her to go to a good home. still have her, stainless frets, fretboard leveled, a new bone nut and lots of love from my good friend and luthier last year... i think he made a good choice.

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