Mini humbucker height adjustement

[Lordude042]

Hi everyone,

I ordered recently a seymour duncan mini humbucker antiquity II, from the way I heard it, mini-humbucker can be use as p90 replacement (in term of pickup size, I'm not worried about the wiring).

Now that I received it, I'm realizing this will be an issue ; even though the mini humbucker is put in p90 cover, so width & length fit, the actual "humbucker" part sticks out quite a lot from the plastic casing, making it much higher than just a p90 where the pole piece are flush(-ish) with the plastic cover. I haven't put the strings back together because the height of the mini humbucker, once in, is pretty much the same height as the bridge and I'm pretty sure the strings would physically touch the humbucker.

The mounting screws are soldered to the metal case, the 6 pole pieces don't alter the height of the pickup ... Sooooooo, my question is ; is there a way to adjust the height of a mini-humbucker, without having to carve into my guitar cavity ? Or anyone had the mini-humbucker antiquity II and know what to do ?

-Geoffroy

[GuitarDoc]

What guitar are you putting it into?

[AlexR]

I don't know about the Duncan one, but the fitting of the typical mini inside the cutout p90 ring is wholly adjustable.....so you can fit it at any height inside the ring you choose (however once you do that it is set at that adjustment). Then the whole ring+pickup fixed ensemble then adjusts for height after that.

[bhr]

Hi everyone,

I ordered recently a seymour duncan mini humbucker antiquity II, from the way I heard it, mini-humbucker can be use as p90 replacement (in term of pickup size, I'm not worried about the wiring).

Now that I received it, I'm realizing this will be an issue ; even though the mini humbucker is put in p90 cover, so width & length fit, the actual "humbucker" part sticks out quite a lot from the plastic casing, making it much higher than just a p90 where the pole piece are flush(-ish) with the plastic cover. I haven't put the strings back together because the height of the mini humbucker, once in, is pretty much the same height as the bridge and I'm pretty sure the strings would physically touch the humbucker.

The mounting screws are soldered to the metal case, the 6 pole pieces don't alter the height of the pickup ... Sooooooo, my question is ; is there a way to adjust the height of a mini-humbucker, without having to carve into my guitar cavity ? Or anyone had the mini-humbucker antiquity II and know what to do ?

-Geoffroy

You can get examples by searching YouTube for "mini humbucker p90 swap" (if you haven't already done that). Looking at YouTube videos is a key part of my learning how to make changes to my guitars. And how to not make changes.

[Lordude042]

What guitar are you putting it into?

An Ibanez JTK30. I had this guitar for about 9-10 years, I ordered some seymour duncan p90 from sweetwater some 7-8 years ago. I always had some problems with the sound diffrence between the neck and the bridge (obviously they're supposed to sound different, but the bass cut on the bridge and the volume boost on the neck felt weird). At the time, I was young, I just told myself to get used to it because they were good quality pickups so I had to be the crazy one ... Well, 8 years later, I decided to change the wiring to make it les paul-like, 2-volume & 2-tone instead of just 1 volume & 1 tone, when I took everything out, I found out that sweetwater sent me 2 neck pickups, and the guitar tech who installed it never told me either (there is a very clear and readable sticker saying "neck" on both pickups XD).

I'm including a picture ; the mounting screws on both side of the pickups are soldered to the metal casing, they turn so they can be screwed-in in the guitar's body, but they are at fixer height, so once the plastic cover sits on the guitar's cavity, I can't change the height.


bhr, I've looked at some youtube video titled "mini humbucker p90 swap", but they all used gibson mini-humbucker, and those look like the mounting screws aren't soldered in, they actually take them off to first put the pickup in place, then screw it in. But thanks for the tip, I haven't checked it before reading your post.

[AlexR]

FYI, vintage p90's (plus PAF's) had 2 of the nominally same pickup in them, so everybody who played the iconic p90 music had to get used to the same thing you did.


Ok, your minis have the same mounts as the Gibson ones. As I said before, the pickup is fixed within the frame, and the pickup is adjusted by screwing the whole assembly into the body.

But of course as the Duncans are pre-assembled their heights are non adjustable now within the frame.
And typically they are set up so that the bridge has the height above the plastic to get the vintage low output pickup close enough to the strings on a Les Paul (which is what they are primarily designed around) without the screws being completely backed out of a typical p90 rout. The neck is probably level with the frame if they have done the homework on how neck pickups typically sit.

If your guitar is not routed enough to get them low enough then you have to do more routing, completely redo the adjustment with new screws/soldering joint......or sell the pickups.

[Lordude042]

FYI, vintage p90's (plus PAF's) had 2 of the nominally same pickup in them, so everybody who played the iconic p90 music had to get used to the same thing you did.


Ok, your minis have the same mounts as the Gibson ones. As I said before, the pickup is fixed within the frame, and the pickup is adjusted by screwing the whole assembly into the body.

But of course as the Duncans are pre-assembled their heights are non adjustable now within the frame.
And typically they are set up so that the bridge has the height above the plastic to get the vintage low output pickup close enough to the strings on a Les Paul (which is what they are primarily designed around) without the screws being completely backed out of a typical p90 rout. The neck is probably level with the frame if they have done the homework on how neck pickups typically sit.

If your guitar is not routed enough to get them low enough then you have to do more routing, completely redo the adjustment with new screws/soldering joint......or sell the pickups.

Thanks for all the info, I think that answers pretty much the questions I had ! Thanks also for the little historical context, its appreciated

[AlexR]

No prob,

Let us know how it all turns out - if you need extra info on fitting then some pics of your rout and the fitting within it might be helpful to post.

[ItsaBass]

You need to look online to see how old minis were mounted and adjusted in P90 rings; then you'll "get it." There were spacers between the bottom of the ring and the pickup ears. The mounting ears were not tapped; they were just drilled, and allowed the screws to spin. Then there were nuts tightened up to the bottoms of the pickup rings and soldered to the screws (but not to the ears). And the screws went into a tapped metal bar that was hard mounted to the bottom of the pickup cavity. You need a drilled and tapped bar in your pickup cavity. Stew-Mac sells them, or you can make them yourself. The ring/pickup becomes a "unit," which moves up and down together in the guitar. The pickup does not go up and down in the ring. If you want to adjust how high or low the pickup sits in the ring, then you do it by altering the height of the spacers I mentioned.