Why are the Mini Humbuckers

[tele4tone]

In my Starfire so much lower output than my more modern S-100 and Bluesbird?

Thanks, Jeff

 

[Walter Broes]

Really? I had an early SFIV for a while, and I was impressed with how loud those pickups were. Do you have them adjusted close to the strings?

 

[tele4tone]

I have adjusted them a few times in the past. Maybe I need to clean the switches, but my S-100 and Bluebird with Seymour duncans are way hotter. I have a 65 SFIV

 

[Los Angeles]

In my limited experience, if the distance from the pickup to the strings is the same, then HB-1's will sound "bigger" than the minis. But it shouldn't be a huge difference. My guess is that your minis might be farther away from the strings than the full size HB1s are on your S-100.

 

[teleharmonium]

the old minis are not particularly high output, the later Guild humbuckers and the Duncans should be hotter.

There is a frequency response difference as well as an output difference, so comparison is not an exact science and can be skewed by the amp, pedals, the way you play, the way you hear things, and expectations. Some people evaluate loudness based more on midrange, others more on the attack or crisp treble, or where the amp breaks up (which is also frequency and amp and speaker dependent). The minis are brighter while the later humbuckers have a lot more mids (there is a relationship between pickup output and frequency response).

 

[tele4tone]

It's a little bit of work to switch guitars in the set and get the volume similar. I really don't like to use Compressors and boosters do funny things to gain pedals and the front end of an amp.