randythoades Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Hi chaps, just wondered if anyone had any experience of changing / replacing mini humbuckers? I use, and love the versatility of, a Parkwood PWH2 hybrid guitar, which is essentially a semi hollow (335type) thinline with 2 Duncan designed mini humbuckers and a Fishman powerbridge for electro acoustic tones. Overall brilliant but the more I use it I am coming to the conclusion that I would prefer a more rounded / balanced tone from the pickups. I know the DD are reasonable for the price pickups but I am not averse to putting higher quality electronics in to get a smoother sound. I find them a bit too powerful and touch brittle on the bridge pickup and a bit woolly on the neck pickup a bit 'modern blues' like. I play jive, jump blues, 50s rock and roll, country. Not really raucous rockabilly but more like Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry,early Elvis, a mix between vamping chords, background melody lines and straight boogie solos . I can get a perfectly good sound from my telecaster but I like the semi look and the Powerbridge functions from the Parkwood. My question is this: has anyone got any experience of replacement mini humbuckers with less aggressive ones, any that would be recommended or avoided? There Seymour Duncan Vintage / Antiquity ones, some Fralin ones or I can get them made Bare Knuckle etc but no where near as much choice as regular pickups. Or maybe is it a reasonable job to change them out for P90's or TV Jones Gretsch pickups? If it were solid construction I would be getting my router and soldering iron out but I am a lot more nervous about it being semi hollow. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I'd go for P90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randythoades Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 Thanks BigRedX, I have to say that I do like P90s and there is certainly more choice, but not sure how they would actually fit. I did have a measure up last night and a soapbar P90 seems to be within about 2mm the same size as my mini-humbucker if you include the surround. I might buy a cheap Wilkinson one or similar and spend an evening with a screwdriver and a ruler and see if I can get one to fit. I reason that the aperture in the top is smaller than the surround though so it may have to be a dogear and screw to the top if there is enough string clearance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 All I would say is pick your replacement P90 carefully. Because the description has enlarged to encompass any large format single coil pickup rather than just the original spec Gibson model. IME some of the cheaper ones seem to have all the less desirable qualities of both humbuckers (less toppy sound) and single coils Hum). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randythoades Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 Thanks, I will do some research then into the sound I am looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 (edited) If you have a humbucker sized hole and want P90s, you can get humbucker sized P90s. If you'd care to take some advice, check out Warman guitars...Josi has been in the parts game for yonks. I have no idea where his parts are made, but I dropped a pair of his P90s in one of my guitars and it came alive. Reasonably priced too. Edited January 21, 2016 by NancyJohnson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbyrne Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 I read that mini humbuckers were designed (by Epiphone) to fit into the hole used by P90's, so, conversely, a P90 in a plastic shell (not dogeared) *ought* to fit straight in. G. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul h Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Going by the music you play I would go for TV Jones Filter'trons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 [quote name='geoffbyrne' timestamp='1454060200' post='2965819'] I read that mini humbuckers were designed (by Epiphone) to fit into the hole used by P90's, so, conversely, a P90 in a plastic shell (not dogeared) *ought* to fit straight in. G. [/quote] Yes it's true - Mini humbuckers fit in P-90 holes. As long as you don't use the Dog Ear P-90s they should fit in the hole - but beware that these P-90s have the screw holes through the centre of the pickup, not around the edge like Mini-humbuckers do - so you will make new screw holes in your guitar fitting a P-90 - although they are in the pickup cavity, so won't be seen if you do go back to Mini-humbuckers. Alternatively, you could look at Creamery Pickups or indeed Kent Armstrong (who you already seem to be familiar with), both of whom can make a pickup to suit you for a pretty reasonable price. e.g. a less hot (powerful) mini humbucker. Jaime at Creamery also makes pickups with threaded pole pieces so in theory you could get the best of both worlds by having a mini-humbucker with threaded pole pieces to get the single coil attack but without the hum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randythoades Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 Thanks guys. I don't think I can use regular P90s as it is a hollow guitar and nothing to screw onto unless I can make a frame underneath. I like the idea of TV Jones, but have just had a look at Creamery and Kent Armstrong. Seems I can spec something for less than I can get a set of SD Antiquities so that may be the best option. I will drop them an email and tell them what I want to do and see if they have suggestions but still use the mini humbucker format for convenience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 I've got SD mini humbuckers on my custom Fretking Esprit. They sound great to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts