Mini vs Normal Humbuckers

Richy11 · Post by **Richy11** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 11:28 am

What the hell is the differance/advantage/disadvantage of mini humbuckers

angry_young_poet · Post by **angry_young_poet** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 11:46 am

there's a smaller hole to cut on the body???

gregtarr · Post by **gregtarr** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 1:27 pm

I had a SD mini humbucker in my strat, and it didn't sound all that good, kind of like a mini sound.

Post by **GrantB** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 1:31 pm

On the older Mini's the sound was indeed, more mini than a full size h/b. I personally love their sound - more P-90 feel to them. Modern ones though can sound like the full h/b - just in a smaller form factor. Early 60's N/Reverse Firebird with three mini's...mmm

Richy11 · Post by **Richy11** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 12:53 am

What about the mini's that come on the Gibson Explorer Studio?

Post by **GrantB** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 7:03 pm

Is there such a thing as a Studio Explorer? I guess if there is, and it's a newer design, then they might be "hotter" than the older ones with more of a true humbucker sound. I just know that the old Firebirds had quite a low output compatred with the current mini's...Sky p/ups (Kent Armstrong) did quite a nice Mini h.bucker some time back. Damn, I'd love a Firebird...

Richy11 · Post by **Richy11** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 8:54 pm

Ok flag that idea then. I want massive output and Mini's obviusly arn't going to cut it.

B45-12 · Post by **B45-12** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 1:45 am

Well my Epi Firebird has minis plus I've played the older 70's Gibson LP's with minis (think they were called LP deluxes) - in my view this is the difference. You know how the normal Humbucker has a sort of bassy/middy sound to it - any individual note has a bass end, middy bit and treble bit - well on the minis you get a moderate bass end but the middy bit is pitched higher - nowhere near a strat but certainly higher than a normal Humbucker. Neither normal nor mini HB's have a lot of top end (unlike say a strat single coil).

What this means is that mid range/higher solos on mini equipped guitars stand out from accompanying guitars with normal HB's a bit like a strat does. So 'eight miles high, while my guitar gently weeps, crossroads, sweet chile O mine' solos are fine but don't expect to do Fleetwood Mac's 'oh yeah' Blue Oyster Cults 'Dont fear the reaper' or just about any of Korn/Pantera on them.

On the other hand. to ritchy11 I'd say don't write them off until you've amped one up really high with the right gear - say a tube Marshall amp/pedals etc. I've never used something to get the sustain of say Slash of G & R on one and I find you cannot allways predict what you'll get. Could be worth borrowing one and experimenting. Sadly I don't have a superdistorting/sustaining tube amp (only a Park G15 RCD which I feed through a Fender Twin for medium level distortion) or I'd try it myself just out of curiosity.

B45-12 · Post by **B45-12** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 1:56 am

Oh richy11 - just had a thought for you along the high output line - if you want high output there's an older Gibson model no longer made called an L6 that you might find out there in secondhandworld for around the 1 to 1.5 grand. Now when they came out they had humbuckers with high output ceramic magnets - supposedly the highest at the time (mid 70's).

They were a good guitar (still have one myself - you can see it in my photogallery) but had 2 strikes against them - 1) a rotary switch for selecting pickup combos which turned most people off - I liked it and have kept the one on mine but they are easily replaced with the more common toggle switch 2) more seriously - despite a nice fat neck, the body was SG thickness although roughly LP shape. This means the bottom is not as pronounced (don't know what Gibson were thinking - if anything was a candidate for a big LP style body this guitar was) so think SG rather than LP - but do think 'balls to the wall' SG i.e. AC/DC or better.