Are Firebird pickups cool? a quick pickup comparison
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- You don't see many guitars these days with firebird mini-humbuckers, and I had certainly never played one before. So I decided to wind a pair and try them out.
So here's a comparison of telecaster style pickups, firebird style pickups, and regular PAF style hum buckers. All three guitars going into the same rig with no changes in between.
dang, thanks for reminding me that i still need to find a tele
Wow they sound so similar the Firebird and telecaster
I agree. They’re like tele pickups with a bit more heft behind them. And they’re dead quiet too 🤓
I just installed a pair of Lollar Firebird pickups in my 2021 Epiphone Crestwood. What a difference to the factory’s lackluster mini humbuckers.
Thanks for the stellar demos!
I have a firebird in the neck of a tele. Sounds great.
Very cool. That's what I plan on doing this year to one of my teles.
Hello Simon! What Tele pickups are those and what is your amp? The middle position on the Tele is insanely beautiful!! I'd like to try those pickups
Hi! and thank you. Those pickups are a pair I wound myself. The slugs are 0.25"s opposed to the more conventional 0.187".
Dammit! My favourites: Firebird bridge, Tele middle, LP neck…
I agree on the middle. But I’m in love with firebird neck. I want them on all my guitars now lol
Thankyou!
Difficult to wind them yourself?? What kind of set up and tools are needed ?? The comparison sounds great.... and firebird pups are definitely needed in life. 🍻
I'm glad you liked the sound comparison! When it came down to it, they weren't very hard to make. The fun part was building the machine to do it, which is really just a motor and something to stick the pickup bobbin to. Try my other video on that machine: ruclips.net/video/da3B76YiMu4/видео.html
@@hotglassbottles Oh great man thank you.
Are the pickups used mini humbuckers or actual Firebird style design pickups? I like mini humbuckers but they are just smaller versions of the PAF style humbucker; Firebird style pickups are very different:
"Mini Humbuckers use a single bar magnet that sits between and below the coils. The magnet physically touches each set of posts and creates an opposite magnetic field in each set.
A Firebird pickup uses two “rail” style bar magnets, one of which is placed in the center of each of the bobbins that the coils are wound around. This design does not use steel posts because, the rail magnets are able to pick up the string vibrations.
This design leads to a completely different magnetic field than the one produced by mini humbuckers, and it also means that less coil can be wound around each bobbin. Fewer windings lead to a pickup with lower output and brighter tone, which helps Firebird pickups sound much more like “silent” single coil pickups than the Mini Humbuckers do"
Yes, these are the large full width magnets inside the coils as opposed to the mini hum-buckers that have the magnet underneath touching the steel slugs.
@@hotglassbottles thanks for the fast response! I like the sound of yours although I'm definitely surprised at how close it was to the sounds of the telecaster (if this is a typically configured pup) - clearly less aggressive than a mini humbucker or a P90. I'm not planning on building my own Firebird pickup do do you know of any decent budget producer of these? Lollars might be quality but I'm not paying £350 for a set when an entire Epiphone Firebird costs £600!
@@donw.k.6877 I agree that each bridge pickup sounds largely similar. I find the biggest difference with the neck pickups, with the firebird being my favorite. It’s a perfect combo of the heft of a PAF but the bite of a narrow single coil. Love it!
I don’t know of anyone making these cheaply.
@@hotglassbottles why are they expensive to buy? I am no guitar tech but I am not sure they are exponentially dearer to make than say mini humbuckers.. Just a lack of demand?
@@donw.k.6877 precisely lack of demand. I can buy PAF parts for half what I can Firebird pickup parts. And I’m not about to start injection mounding my own bobbins or pressing the steel parts.
Spoilers: they sound cool!
Yes
Hi Simon, apologies if you've said somewhere already, but what Firebird pickups are these? They sound killer! Cheers 🤘🏻
I made them myself! I’ve been building a winding machine to satisfy my need to understand things. SO I’ve wound regular humbuckers and tele pickups. Here’s my video on that ruclips.net/video/da3B76YiMu4/видео.html
@@hotglassbottles Very nice, I'd love to make my own pickups one day! Did you wind these with A5 mags?
@@MarkB.Guitar yes. They’re Alnico 5 magnets. But i used 43AWG wire which is more typical for a tele neck pickup. I am very pleased with how they sound.
@@hotglassbottles Interesting, the neck definitely has a very Tele-ish vibe to it. Nice work!
@@MarkB.Guitar thank you so much. I love their tone….right between tele and les paul.
Yes…yes they are
By the way.. may I ask what pickup set you have in that Tele? Thanks
I wound them myself. They are 1/4" Alnico 5 slugs, wound with 43AWG Remington copper.
@@hotglassbottles thanks mate. So comparable to Seymour Duncan quarter pounders then maybe..?
@@jaseyraw8843 Yes, they'd probably be similar to those. Although I do not know if SD winds with 43AWG
@@hotglassbottles May I also ask Simon (and sorry for all the questions).. I know these pickups are classicly unwaxed and microphonic, and I can hear that I think yours may be too from the sound when you switch the pickup selector.. I primarily use heavy fuzz from a maxed mkii tone bender. Would FB pickups squeel uncontrollably?
@@jaseyraw8843 Not at all, I definitely wax potted all these pickups. Fender always potted theirs in something. Initially lacquer, but then later wax. Gibson were the ones that never did. Any unpotted pickup will squeal like a pig in a high-gain setting. I do not mind questions at all :)
What that Gibson is...? 💕💘
You’re confused, Mr Riddle. That’s not a Gibson.
TOOOOONS OF TONE