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I was finding the mini-humbucker in my Les Paul Deluxe a bit hotter than I’d like so something a bit twangier and Fender like is perfect... now just to find the money for one!
THere are plenty of really good replacement pickups knocking about but, being the idiot that I am I had some made to my specific design. One Alnico-2 blade for the side nearest the bridge and one Alnico-5 blade for the side nearest the neck. The idea being that the Alnico-2 blade would deal with any harsh bits and the Alnico-5 would provide focus. Aso 4 wire for all the switching possibilities.
The control cavity is not deep enough for push-pull CTS pots so I had micro switches put in the pickguard under each pickup.
They were wound to just slightly hotter that vintage (there's not a lot of space under those covers) and came out in the mid 7k ohms range.
An immediate improvement in tone (helped by the Callaham bridge and tailpiece I also put on the beast) although I was a bit underwhelmed until I heard a live recording of a small solo section on them - Wow!. After that I stopped fretting about them and just got on with playing the thing.
I really like the neck and the playing action and I think the tuners are really good.
The only remaining gripe I have is that the pickup rings are flat to the body and don't present the face of the pickup to the strings properly. I asked Gibson several time if they would sell me the spacers from a 2017 model so I could put this right but they refused - not the best customer servicee frankly. I will probably have to resort to designing and 3d printing a set of my own which seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a spare part they could just sell me. If anyone has the spacers froma 2017 model going I'll make you a reasonable offer...
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
It sounded fabulous and I sold it because I really need 2 pickups in my guitars.
From several posts above, I cherry pick the following words: Tele, Broadcaster, warmer, chewy, bite, dig in. My additions are slide, blues.
My abiding memory of vintage FB pickups is that the neck/Rhythm position unit is lovely whilst the bridge/Treble is always ever so slightly weaker than one might have wished ... until you begin using dual volume pots to blend both pickups. That is when the combination makes sense - especially through overdriven valve amplification.
The design of mini humbuckers and vintage Firebird pickups are very different: a mini humbucker has only one magnet, located under the bobbins in the same place you'd expect a magnet in a full size humbucker. A Firebird pickup has two magnets, one in the centre of each coil, and also a steel inductance plate under the magnets like a Tele ... all this produces a much different sound.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message