guildman63
Senior Member
On an archtop which do you all prefer and why? How does their tone differ? Thanks!
70's HB's vs 60's Mini HB's...
- Thread starter guildman63
- Start date
Zelja
Senior Member
Bump. I'd like to hear some opinions on this as well. Of course, once I get my 66 SFV in my hands I can compare it to my 97 SFIV with retrofitted HB-1s.
guildman63
Senior Member
I didn't think there was any topic people out here had no opinion on :shock:
Kslam
Member
I didn't respond because I was certain someone was going to post a link to where this has been talked about before, but when I did a quick search I couldn't find a previous discussion, though I'm certain that I've read through more than one thread on the topic on this site. It's a tricky subject to search for because we use a few different term to describe the 60s humbuckers -- minis, minihums, mini-hbs, and a few others, I'm sure.
Anyway, on a Starfire, I have a strong preference for the minis over the HB1s. They can get a lot brighter than the HB1s. In the bridge position on my my Starfires I can coax an almost Tele like twang from the minis. With the tone rolled back in the neck or middle position the pickups sound warm and full, but never venture close to muddiness. The 70s (and later) HB1s are great pickups too, but very different from their predecessors. They're louder and more muscular, but to my ear they're a little less refined. I like the HB1s on a rock machine like an S100 or an M75, but on an archtop, I think the minis are perfect.
Anyway, on a Starfire, I have a strong preference for the minis over the HB1s. They can get a lot brighter than the HB1s. In the bridge position on my my Starfires I can coax an almost Tele like twang from the minis. With the tone rolled back in the neck or middle position the pickups sound warm and full, but never venture close to muddiness. The 70s (and later) HB1s are great pickups too, but very different from their predecessors. They're louder and more muscular, but to my ear they're a little less refined. I like the HB1s on a rock machine like an S100 or an M75, but on an archtop, I think the minis are perfect.
Kslam
Member
guildman63
Senior Member
Thanks KSLAM. The reason I liked the X-175 with Franz pups so much is because they were very articulate and didn't get very muddy with the tone rolled off a bit. I play mostly jazz these days, and I just bought a 1966 X-175 with mini's. It sounds like I am going to be very happy with it.
guildman63
Senior Member
After receiving and playing my 1966 X-175 with mini humbuckers my impression is that compared to the HB-1 humbuckers the mini bucker is a little brighter and more articulate. It is like a cross between the Franz and the HB-1 pickups. This is all assuming it is set up correctly. When my recently purchased X-175 came to me the neck pickup was initially very muddy with little clarity at all. By dropping the pickup slightly, and adjusting the individual pole pieces accordingly so as to balance the string to string output they really opened up and blew me away. Given what I paid for the guitar you would expect the shop to do a proper setup prior to shipping, but unfortunately that was not the case.
I highly recommend the mini humbuckers on a Guild archtop and assuming everything else with this guitar checks out today when I bring it in for a full inspection I expect to be playing it quite a bit.
I highly recommend the mini humbuckers on a Guild archtop and assuming everything else with this guitar checks out today when I bring it in for a full inspection I expect to be playing it quite a bit.