Has anyone put Firebird pickups in an SG? I started to think about this and wondered if it was a good idea? It seems to have a lot of potential to.my mind but I've not found any examples so maybe it's not such a good idea?
I haven't yet, but I've been seriously considering it for my '66 G400 Pro. I love the stock bridge pickup but not the neck. I've wired it in parallel and I'm liking it better but still not in love. I do love the neck pickup in my Firebird though, and since the G400 is my #1 I've been very tempted to drop a FB in the neck. I'm wrestling with the added expense, trying to decide if it's really worth it. I can't imagine proper Firebird pickups wouldn't sound good in an SG though.
You guys talking the vintage style FB alnico pickup around 7.5K output or the newer 16-20K output ceramic FB pickups The vintage style would sound way cool!
Mini Humbuckers have little to do with firebird pickups. If you need me to look for the spec's I'll try and find it. New firebirds pickups are 13K ohms but an original firebird pickups are now where near that. Goldtone knows !
There were a couple of AMS exclusives that had a Firebird pickup in the neck. (Don't know if they were vintage-correct pickups or not...) Here's a thread about them: https://www.everythingsg.com/threads/gibson-sg-standard-24-fret-ams-exclusive.31944/
Yes, Gibson itself, on the SGs Deluxe between 1998 and 1999; I've had one ever since, a hellfire red, just like the one you see here in the picture.
I'd be curious to read the opinions of ETSG experts on the differences between the current mini humbuckers that get mounted in SGs and the current Firebird pickups. I'm a Johnny Winter fan, and I always like the tones he got from his old Epiphone Wilshire with mini hums, and from his Firebirds too. I didn't like the tone of those Lazers as much as he did, but he played with so much soul it just didn't matter. And are their other p'ups made by other makers that would answer the OP's question better than what Gibson makes? ...or used to make?
I had a 2012 SG ‘70’s Tribute with mini humbuckers (chrome covers no screws). They were 6.5k ohms and sounded amazing. I also had a 2018 SG Special with the same pickups. Or so I thought. The 2018 mini humbuckers were waaayy hotter. 25k in the bridge and 8.9k in the neck. To me they were not as nice as the 2012 Tributes. Im pretty sure the 2012 Tributes would be closer to Firebird vintage tone than the 2018 model pickups.
I was thinking of the vintage FB. However these look hard to come by. I did observe that some were swapping out their new Gibson Firebirds pick ups for the Lollar Firebird option. I did listen to a few different clean samples and they sounded good to me.
Not only that but if you buy a pair on say ebay you have to make sure seller knows what he's talking about so they're not regular mini humbuckers...
I was just wondering about the SG Specials/70s Tributes - the specs always read to me as Firebird pickups. Derald, I agree the 2012 outputs sound like I would expect from Firebird pickups (those 2018s sound like they would be far to hot for me too, thank you)
Very good point. It's going to have to be a new set I'm in the UK. I've never seen any Lollar FBs on eBay over here. I do like the sound of the Firebird. People put them in Teles. I think they'd sound good in an SG. The red SG in the photo with three pickups is more than what I was thinking of but then again some FBs had three pickups. That red Deluxe looks very good.
You can sometimes find sets of three on ebay though, I got mine there. Personally I think middle pickups are useless but they look cool!
Three p'up fb's are usually P90s. If you are sourcing your pick-ups from ebay there was a seller from Aus doing some very nice sounding fb pickups; for a quick solution Warman have some in stock, although a little hot, they may be worth looking at short-term? https://www.warmanguitars.co.uk/product/firebuckers-pair-of-poleless-chrome-mini-humbuckers/
I've got those in my Gibson SG Special Faded 1970's Tribute, and they give you a nice almost DeArmand pickup sound, like in a Gretsch or Ri c kenba c ker. The rest of c the guutar is a bit of alright, to boot.
I should clarify, they're the type that have the pickup riser that goes up or down with the pickup as you turn the height-adjustment screw. No polepieces visible, metal covers.
Firebird pickups use two blade magnets in the centre of each bobbin, mini humbuckers are built just like humbuckers but smaller. Just because a pickup has a smooth metal cover without polepieces doesn't mean it's a FB. Modern Gibson FB pickups are super hot and use ceramic magnets, nothing like the old ones. There's a few decent options out there at different price points. I have not personally tried any of these yet. Guitar Madness on ebay has proper FB pickups, and they're dirt cheap. I have used some of his other pickups and was quite happy with them. Kent Armstrong make some that get great reviews but can be hard to find in stock at times. Down here there's a builder called Mr. Fabulous that makes proper FB pickups. You can find him on ebay, and I think he sells on reverb too but maybe with a different name. These are the ones I'm most tempted to try myself. He also make full HB size versions. The pickups in my Tokai Firebird are just stock BHC ones, and they sound great, so no reason to spend a bunch.
http://es.gibson.com/Productos/Guitarras-Electricas/2016/USA/SG-Special/High-Performance.aspx < See my icon ? Its a 2016 SG special HP. IMO they have the best mini-humbuckers known to man. In the link, check the pickup specs. Rhythm - 17k, Lead - 26k ohms. On mine, I installed a SG HP II control board that has pull-up switches that enable single coil mode or out of phase switching on each pickup. I have it set to do single coil mode switching on both pickups. I replaced the G-force auto-tuning with standard Gibson deluxe tuners. Mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, titanium nut . Its good to go !
