HB versus Mini HB

[just strum]

I know I asked the question, but I don't know where. If I did, I probably attached it in an existing thread (read hijack).

So, what is the difference between the two? Where are mini's commonly used?

 

[Rocket]

I have no idea of the sound diffs. I've only seen mini's in a couple of jazz boxes and Seymour Duncan's SM1-N Vintage in some select Tele's like the Vintage Hot Rod '52:

 

[just strum]

Well, I googled and found this:

is a smaller variation of the full size PAF humbucker pickup (used in electric guitars) created by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. It has a thinner, less powerful sound than the full-size version and is frequently used in jazz guitars, mounted under the fingerboard or on the pickguard. The mini-humbucker equipped Gibson Firebird, for example, produces clearer, brighter tones that are quite unlike typical Gibson sounds, and fit well between single coils and full-sized humbuckers in the tonal spectrum.

Mini-humbuckers were originally featured on Epiphone electric guitars (now manufactured under license for Gibson) and several of Gibson's archtop jazz guitars. Mini-humbuckers were also used on Gibson Firebird guitars, thus giving them a very distinctive tone. By the 1970s, mini-humbuckers had replaced Gibson's original P-90 single-coil pickups on several of Gibson's budget guitar models, such as the Les Paul Deluxe. Only select re-issue Gibson models are still made with Mini-Humbuckers, as they are less popular than standard humbuckers. Variations of this design are used in Rickenbacker 650 guitars and 4004 basses.

 

[markb]

They were used in Norlin era Gibsons, e.g. Les Paul Deluxe, SG Deluxe. Originally used in the Firebird V and VII models although these were slightly different from the 70s "deluxe" version. One rumour is that Gibson had a lot of P90 pickup covers in the factory and the mini was designed to use these as a mounting ring. If you look at the shape of the mounting rings on a 70's Deluxe it's easy to believe this story.
The Epiphone New Yorker pickup would appear to be a variant of mini-humbucker but I think it was a single coil design, some 70's Epi's had minis too iirc.

 

[markb]

Oh, I should say that the mini-bucker is a true full-on side-by-side humbucker just in a smaller package. The narrower coils sense less of the string length and thus give a brighter tone somewhere between a full humbucker and a single coil design.

I think I just wore out my "-" key .