Mini Humbuckers

Mini humbuckers are a smaller model of the usual designed humbucker guitar pickup, the PAF type. They produce a mildly lower output when compared to the normal, and stand somewhere somewhere in between the full two coil humbuckers and the single coils, in terms of sound. This is not easy to describe with words, but is the best comparison to do. Mini humbuckers were created by Gibson, and integrated primarily in epiphones, which now Gibson is proprietary, and have a lot of uses, but the most common are for jazz guitars and archtops.

In the seventies, they were substitutes of the original single coil that used to come along with the gibson les paul´s. And now they can be easily be found in thousands guitar types, including firebirds, which Neil Young used one of his gibson les paul goldtop pickups, and the result of this was a pretty unique sound, clean and warm.

Lots of guitar brands produce these as of today, which confirms the capability, quality, and somewhat versatility, of these little pickups. By versatility, I mean that because that they exactly get either advantages they have to offer. No 60/50hz humming, and a somewhat cristalized tone that reminds of the singles.. Greatness in my singular opinion, Definitely worth trying, for any music type you´re currently playing.

Some of the Mini humbucker pickups factories are Gibson, Kent Armstrong, Dimarzio and Seymour duncan.

For Kent Armstrong, we might state it´s output is not that "punchy". it sounds sweet, but not as hard as it´s concurrents, perfect for any jazzy-like music styles, and it´s richness of tonal properties is what makes of it a real nice sounding mini humbucker.

As for Dimarzio, the kind I reviewed was the hot mini humbucker, and I might say that it makes it up for it´s "hot" definition, as it delivers a little bit hotter than a common mini humbucker, and I´d say it´s best placement would be the bridge position. Resulted nice both when distorted and clean, aims for 80´s heavy metal. It´s just a pity that it doesn´t makes it up for the levels of low frequencies wanted of those who play more recent heavy styles.

As for Gibson, I played it in the neck, and it sounds lower than the previous fifty-seven type, yet hotter than a fender strat single coil. Suits fine my les paul, I have been using them for a long time now. I could say you will not regret these.