Mighty Mite 1400

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fiesta Red
  • Start date Start date
So a little while back I bought both the 1300 and 1400 from Fiesta Red (great deal btw). It took a while but I recently got around to trying them each out in the bridge position of an HSS partscaster I put together.

I started out with the nominally higher output 1300. It really does live up to the claim of being an improved super distortion in my opinion. If you ever wanted a super distortion to have more clarity as well as tighter in the bottom without sacrificing the high output feel and the midrange chunk, it really fits the bill.

I liked it enough it took me a while to get around to swapping it out for the 1400. As others have said, the 1400 is not as high output on paper but it feels a lot closer to the 1300 than you think it should. It pushes the front end of a JCM 800 pretty well - however the big difference is in a much more open top end and less compressed feel. I really can’t think of another pickup that does what it does.

It’s hard to say which one I like more, but I’m in no hurry to pull the 1400. It’s a killer rock pickup in a strat and I bet it would really shine in a Gibson.
 
Bardagh said:
I liked it enough it took me a while to get around to swapping it out for the 1400. As others have said, the 1400 is not as high output on paper but it feels a lot closer to the 1300 than you think it should. It pushes the front end of a JCM 800 pretty well - however the big difference is in a much more open top end and less compressed feel. I really can’t think of another pickup that does what it does.

It’s hard to say which one I like more, but I’m in no hurry to pull the 1400. It’s a killer rock pickup in a strat and I bet it would really shine in a Gibson.
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Exactly where I am at as well:2thumbsup::yes:.....I have not pulled my 1400 to try out the 1300 I also bought because the 1400 is so nicely aggressive crunchy and nasty yet retains a hint of PAF spank and clank whereas the 1300 is pretty much like a Dimarzio Super Distortion judging from clips and others descriptions.
 
harddriver said:
Exactly where I am at as well:2thumbsup::yes:.....I have not pulled my 1400 to try out the 1300 I also bought because the 1400 is so nicely aggressive crunchy and nasty yet retains a hint of PAF spank and clank whereas the 1300 is pretty much like a Dimarzio Super Distortion judging from clips and others descriptions.
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It is, but better than a Super Distortion to me because like most Dimarzios I always found them a little too compressed and soft sounding, a little too fat in the low mids and upper bass territory.
 
After listening to Van Halen 1 again(many times)Eddie had the same sound-tone using both of the guitars he used the Ibanez Destroyer used on all non- trem songs and the black and white franky on all trem songs so did Eddie have mighty mite pickups in each guitar( just saying). The amp and the studio had on ton to do with Eddie’s sound especially the reverb on that album had alot to do with that first album sound.I believe Eddie used paf pickups in both guitars.I searched all old photos( high res) of the Van Halen club days from 1976-1977-1978 and found no evidence of Mighty Mite pickup,the club day photos of Edward with the bare wood strat with a zebra pickup which was a PAF looking at the high res photos I know Edward had a cream color mighty mite pickup in the shark guitar(before he cut up his Ibanez Destroyer)but that was after Van Halen 1 was recorded anyway unless there’s something I missed.
 
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Anyway just installed a mighty mite 1400 in zebra for the hell of it and it’s very very good so I’ll play with it for awhile and see
 
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