considering mini humbucker

I have two guitars I am considering putting a mini humbucker in. I am not leaning toward the firebird style but the actual mini humbucker with adjustable polepieces. The two I am considering is the Gibson or the Antiquity II. Both of these are alnico II. (another thought was the GSF Mini 59 but unless someone has a very strong argument for this pickup and its voicing and A5 magents I am definately leaning toward the two above with A2 magnets).

The two guitars I am looking at is my Highway One tele neck (need a bridge match) and my Epi 56 RI. I always liked the mini tone as it sort of got a brighter more articulate tone. Still like P90s but sometime the hum is a killer but still love the tone.

Anyway I was wondering what your eperience is with both the SD Ant and the Gibson version.

Some recordings of the mini humbuckers seem thin somtimes and others seem outstanding. The two clips that got me thinking about doing this are these:

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I like the tone he is getting from the neck here:

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Anyway I was wondering which of the two pickups the SD ant ii or gibson mini humbucker is the better sounding pickup? Also a good tele bridge match. Right now I have the Dimarzio Chopper (not in love with this pickup) but looking for a good match for the tele bridge.

Any argument over the mini hum for the firbird version? I am pretty set on the mini but I am listening.

I am also torn though to keep P90s but I do like the mini humbucker. I played a Gibson 70s tribute through a blues Jr yesterday to see how the mini hums sounded and quite liked it. With some OD it is not far from the P90 in tone in my opinion. I really gravitate toward blues playing and clean warm blues/jazz tones.

I'd go with the SD Antiquity II.

However, you might want to give a listen to the Allparts mini humbucker. That thing is like butta.

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I really like minis.
They are a great, and under appreciated pickup, in both positions.
My MIJ 96 Epi Sheraton has em'.
I'd vote for the "genuine article" here.
Gibson's own.

Seymourized Mini is pretty sweet in my Les Paul, neck pickup through a Electroharmonix 22cal stompbox amp and single 12" speaker

http://soundcloud.com/rusty-lovell/rusty-on-lead

Here is my 2012 challenge build that has an early Gibson mini hum.

This recording was plugged direct into a 49 Deluxe and recorded with a DR-05.

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Has anyone used anything other than 250K pots for the mini humbucker in a tele?

Looks liek a split here for the SD ant and the Gibson. What is a good balance bridge pickup for the mini humbucker in a tele?

I think I am going to give it a try in both guitars. Anyone regret putting mini humuckers in place of P90s in a Les Paul style guitar? I want to try it but the ones I am looking at arn't cheap.

I have a 76 LP Deluxe and switch between a set of Lollar Std wind P-90's and a set of regular SD mini's about every 6 months. An SM-3 in the neck and an SM-1 in the bridge. I've had the SM-1 since 84 and the SM-3 since 2000.
The SD's sound fantastic, but so do the P-90's.
I tried a GFS miini w/ A5's in the neck position of a MIM Tele Nashville and it was too dark sounding for me. Robbed the guitar of the classic Tele soul.
Beware of trying to install mini's in an Epi 56 LP, because the pup routs are real shallow. You will have to route them a bit deeper.
Good luck.

I'm using a Tom Short undercover mini - true minihumbucker but in a regular HB sized case - in a partscaster tele, neck position. A4 magnets. It's become one of my favorite p/us. Not dark at all. In fact, the neck only position sounds perfect with a little tone rolled off.

Haven't tried Tom's regular sized minis, but they are no doubt just as good.
MD

Are the regular SD SM-1 thru SM-3 pickups really more of a Firebird pickup?

I noticed the new Gibson 70s Tributes have mini humbuckers with no adjustable polepieces. Those are different than the ones they sell individually.

I am curious your thoughts on the voicing for the SM-3 in the neck vs SM-1 for the bridge?

Are the regular SD SM-1 thru SM-3 pickups really more of a Firebird pickup?

Not necessarily. The Fender '52 Hot Rod Tele has an SM-1 in the neck position and it's a pretty popular model (fun too!).

Are the regular SD SM-1 thru SM-3 pickups really more of a Firebird pickup?

I noticed the new Gibson 70s Tributes have mini humbuckers with no adjustable polepieces. Those are different than the ones they sell individually.

I am curious your thoughts on the voicing for the SM-3 in the neck vs SM-1 for the bridge?

The Duncan SM's do look like FB pups, but that's the style Seymour offers on all his mini's, except the Antiquities. I had a 2010 Firebird V and the stock ceramic pups were awful! Ice pick city all around. I took the advise of Bird expert and replaced them w/a set of SD SM-1's and it was night and day.
I like SD SM- series mini HB's. They sound really good for their $$ range.
I've been using them for 28 years.

Well I am considering the SD Antiquity or the Gibson mini. Has anyone A/B'd these two? Would one being A5 vs A2 be a noticeable difference in tone?

I am probably first going to put a set in my Epi 56 LP. I will most likely put a neck one on my tele if all sounds good.

I think minis in the neck position are really cool. I like antiquities.

With Gibson minis, things can get kind of complicated because they have changed so much over time. I have Gibson minis in a couple of Nighthawks and a Firebird VII. The Firebird was made some time in the 2000s (I think 2001). The Nighthawks were both built in the 90s. I really dislike the minis on the Firebird. Not a single position or combination sounds good. They are all pretty thin and pretty harsh to my ears. The Nighthawks have minis in the neck position, which are OK, but nothing special.

I also have an older set of Gibson minis from the early 60s that were pulled out of a "Chris Isaak" guitar. They are nothing like the later Gibson minis. Though they are brighter than the pafs made at the same time, they don't have that nasally kind of thin tone that I associate with modern minis.

I would think that the Chris Isaak minis would be more like the old Firebird minis in that the magnets are turned on their edge, perpendicular to the usual placement of magnets in a humbucker. The Chris Isaak pickups are clear and strong, and I think they are pretty special.

I don't profess to be an expert on minihumbuckers, and my contribution to this discussion is kind of limited, in that the only thing I can really say about Gibson minis that I can back up with experience is that the Gibson minis changed significantly over time. To me, the early minis and the later minis sound like two totally different animals. My point of comparison, though, is between early 60s minis and mid-90s to early 2000 minis. I have no idea what the minis that went into the Norlin era Deluxes are like. All I know about them is that I kinda dig what Pete Townsend did with a Deluxe.

I like all of the antiquities, but I'm not a fan of degaussed magnets. I don't dislike them. I just think degaussing is kind of a knish. I have not yet heard an Antiquity mini, but I have heard every other Antiquity, and they've never sounded bad (though my Antiquity P90 in the bridge position of a Les Paul sounded better when I replaced the magnet with an A4).

By the way, the Chris Isaak pickups are in an old beat up Burny Les Paul (or "Super Grade" I thin the headstock says, which is a surprisingly good guitar--kind of a sleeper) with 500k pots. They sound strong, clear with enough fatness to have some heft, and they compress a bit when you dig in. I don't know how this would translate to a tele, but in the Burny LP, the 500K pots work well with the minis. They don't sound harsh at all, and they don't sound thin at all.

I personally like the Chris Isaak minis better than I like Antiquity P90s. Just a matter of personal preference, though, as I have no criticism of the P90s. A buddy loaned me a thrashed out old Epiphone Olympian (or something like that) modded with a single dogear P90 from the 50s in the bridge, and that beat up old thing sounds awesome and can pretty much anything. But other than that and another Les Paul with P90s from the 50s in it, I'm not a huge fan of P90s in the bridge. I feel like they often sound brittle and thin, but that's just my taste. The Chris Isaak mini in the bridge doesn't offend my taste the way most, but not all, P90s do. The bottom line for me is that the couple of old 50s P-90s in the bridge position that I have played sound fat and cool, and I like them slightly more than the mini in the bridge. My Antiquity P-90 with an A4 magnet gestures toward the same tone as the older P90s , and it's a push between the mini and that Antiquity P90 in the bridge.

In the neck, I really like P90s. I like the Chris Isaak mini better, though. Again, it's a matter of my taste. The Chris Isaak minis don't sound as thick in the low-mids and as smokey as the P90s do in the neck position, which is a tone a lot of people love. The neck position pickup I am currently in love with on a Les Paul is an old Byrdland paf, rotated so that the pole screw side of the pickup is facing the bridge, with 50's wiring and 1 meg volume and tone pots, with a .015 Grey Tiger or Tiger Cub (I can't remember which) cap. It's pretty chirpy for a neck pickup. That might give you a point of reference for where my taste lies for a neck pickup and why I favor the old mini over the Antiquity P90 (and even a P90 from the 50s) in the neck position.

the new Gibson minis are great. Sounds like a PAf bucker

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p161/cgravier_bucket/baked14.jpg

Thanks for the feed back. Lots to consider.

I recently tried an Antiquity Firebird in the neck of a tele, and it was one of the best sounding neck pickups I've tried. I preferred it over the SM-1 that I used to have in my tele.