Mighty Mite USA pickups made by Seymour Duncan??

[Masta' C]

I produce some of the USA bodies in my shop, but I’m not involved with the pickups, but I can say they’re top quality and if someone’s looking for a present-day reissue of the old 70s Mighty Mite pickups then I can recommend them.

Ossie Ahsen of 3 Monkeys Amps is into the old ones and did a shootout recently.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GBN5QzzvhtI&t=1s

Frank! So cool that you're working with Mighty Mite! Glad to see things moving back to the USA, as well!

Thanks for the shootout link. I listened to the pickups and, believe it or not, immediately picked the older ones out upon first listen. However, I was surprised that the differences didn't seem as obvious upon subsequent listening when I clicked back and forth between the various parts. For a new production model trying to replicate the sound of the originals, I think it's excellent!

 

[superpete]

Frank! So cool that you're working with Mighty Mite! Glad to see things moving back to the USA, as well!

Thanks for the shootout link. I listened to the pickups and, believe it or not, immediately picked the older ones out upon first listen. However, I was surprised that the differences didn't seem as obvious upon subsequent listening when I clicked back and forth between the various parts. For a new production model trying to replicate the sound of the originals, I think it's excellent!

i could hear the differences immediately as well...but thankfully for me i thought the new one sounded the best!

 

[Masta' C]

Why would you pay $79 for a Mighty Mite JB clone? You can get a Real JB for $79! :boggled:

Fair point, but I doubt it's a complete clone. There's a clear sweet spot in the 16K-17K range where a "hot rodded" pickup with an A5 just shines, but the flavors can still be noticeably different. For instance, the Dean Equalizer has identical specs to a JB on paper, but it isn't nearly as hot or edgy. The Suhr SSH+ is clearly based on the JB formula, but ends up a bit more open and less compressed than the actual JB. Move up the very similar Aldrich model and things start to get a bit over-the-top, despite only a small difference in winding. There's a good chance the Mighty Mite brings its own thing to table while keeping similar qualities of the JB.

Second, I'm all about supporting USA-based pickup makers, Duncan included. It sounds like these new pickups are top notch and the pricing is fair for a smaller production, USA-made product. If they didn't say "Mighty Mite" on the label, they'd probably go for a lot more, to be honest!