Gibson Mini Humbucker Neck

I love this pickup. Period. I find the Gibson Mini-humbuckers to be a work of art, to be one of the most important designs in guitar pickup history. I've had them on a couple of Epiphone Wilshire guitars, as well as on a Les Paul Deluxe, and I've also played a friend's Telecaster that had this pickup in the neck position, and the Mini sounded utterly fantastic in all of them.

The basic feel, in any of the guitars or positions, reminds me of a Telecaster, only bigger and quieter. In the neck of whatever guitar, it sounds like the smaller lipstick-style Tele pickup, and in the bridge of any of the guitars, it sounds like the slanted bridge pickup of a Tele. It offers a similar warmth in the neck, and a similar cut in the bridge as a Telecaster, yet it feels like it carries more sonic weight, and is a bit glassier. I think if I were to analyze it and graph it out, the response curves would be similar, just with a more pronounced low-midrange area and a larger high-end spike in the Mini.

For someone that likes the Telecaster tone, this pickup may make a more attractive choice than a stock Tele single coil, because it cancels out most of the 60 cycle hum that plagues most singles. The one drawback to attempting to install this pickup in particular is that most guitars are not routed out specifically for this size or shape - if the guitar is originally a full-sized humbucker, one might have to get a new pickguard or create a special bracket to avoid any large holes in the top. If the guitar originally had single coil, then a wood rout would need to be carved.

All in all, I feel that this is one of the best-sounding, best-feeling, and downright coolest guitar pickups ever made. Perfect 10.