PICKUP- CURTIS NOVAK Classic Firebird ....just a mini Humbucker ...total myth!!!

CURTIS NOVAK |CLASSIC FIREBIRD 

Gibson was losing a lot of sales to the Fender Stratocaster. The Strat was considered to look total SciFi space age when it came out. You loved it or you not only hated it but it was ridiculed and dissed by 9 out of 10 players at the time, even Tele Players made fun of it. Hendrix put it on the map and turned it into a serious Rock alternative.

By then Leo had at a NAMM show said to the 

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media that Gibson lived in the past. They had 

no modern ideas.

Gibson decided that they needed to compete with it. 

It had to look more radical than a Strat ...more SciFi not less. It had to have a similar bright and chimey sound but they would have to do that different too.

From much trial and error they changed the the Fender idea of 6 barrel shaped magnets nested in a bobbin to one long magnet sitting on its edge like a 

Hum-Tbird
fits a standard
HB cavity.
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blade and like the Fender magnets it is nested in a bobbin.

They used the Humbucker idea of in effect putting a second single coil attached beside it that acts as a hum cancelling unit.

A mini Humbucker is the same design as the standard Humbucker merely made smaller. It is uses one single large flat magnet laying on its side with both bobbins sitting on top. The magnetic pull on both the Strat and Firebird are vertical. The Humbucker both standard and mini are horizontal. 

In short the Firebird is more Strat than Humbucker. Unlike a noiseless Strat PU where an extra coil is 

attached to the bottom it doesn't lose all those chimey highs.

WHY WOULD YOU WANTONE ???

if you got a the bridge in a Gibson EQ'd to sound huge then when you flip to your neck PU you get a muddy mess. Sure you can compromise with the tone and fix it 'Underline compromise'.

If you had a Firebird in the neck you get a a great chimey near Strat sound that is bright and not so thick but can match up with the bridge PU.  It can even give you a kind of Brian May Burns PU vibe. Think about it? EVH ended up in the beginning only ever using the bridge PU. Ask yourself why???

CONCLUSION

Ol' Curtis has been around since the 80's. He has a rep of getting vintage right. In fact his big clients want PU's for all those defunct guitars from the 50's like Kay, the old Harmony and Mosrite. 

You can't do better for vintage Firebird.