Eywadude
Lunatic Member
I love Gibson mini humbucking and the small Epiphone (Riviera) style as well. The have more articulation, will play cleaner and with all the pedals available are more versatile than a standard. I've had early Deluxes and Epiphones, they won't get that big broad middle but they are fun. BTW they don't sound like the early Firebird pickups at all.
That SG would be a nice rig. Lollar or Seymour Duncan maybe?
Yep, I'm looking for a slightly different sound within the realm of the humbucker sound. I like mini humbuckers and I think they are underrated.
But yeah, minis are definitely different sounding than Firebird pickups for sure. Unfortunately, people call Firebird pickups "mini humbuckers" all the time and it drives me nuts. The Firebird pickups are humbuckers as well and are of a similar size with very close (but not the same) dimensions as true mini humbuckers, but their construction is completely different from mini humbuckers altogether. They are their own animal and are nothing like minis at all. The pole pieces of minis should be enough of a visual distinction between minis and Firebird pickups, but most people don't know they are far from the same, both construction and sound-wise.
There is a really good and highly detailed article in an early 2000s issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine showing the part by part differences between the dimensions and construction of mini humbuckers and Firebird humbuckers. I am not sure which issue it is (I still have it...somewhere), but it's really worth looking for. I'm pretty sure the article was written sometime between 2001 and 2003.
I've been looking at Lollar as well. It's too bad not many pickup makers make mini humbuckers (comparatively to regular sized humbuckers). Again, I've always thought they were underrated and deserve more attention and recognition.
Cheers.
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