Firebird pickups...

Jaded

How does the output of vintage style firebird pickups compare to say, a tele/strat/jaguar bridge pickup? 

Are they likely to push your dirt pedals a bit harder or be in the same ballpark?

benecol

Vintage style ones aren't particularly hot, but they're the most Fender-y pickups you'll find in a Gibson. I found them pretty similar to a tele bridge. 

p90fool

I find them more like a Broadcaster bridge, plenty of bite when you dig in, but a bit warmer than typical later Teles. 

Winny_Pooh

Kinda strat output, a bit smoother on the highs with a similar slight hollow mids.

Alegree

Wind count is about that of a vintage hot Strat, with a slightly weaker magnetic field. Strat output is a good approximation.

Jaded

This is all great news! Exactly what I was hoping to hear! 

I was finding the mini-humbucker in my Les Paul Deluxe a bit hotter than I’d like so something a bit twangier and Fender like is perfect... now just to find the money for one! 

Fatfred

I have a 2016 Firebird. The guitar in general is a delight to play, but the stock pickups really don't do it justice. The neck one wa ok'ish, but the bridge pickup had zero tone quality. Both wound to truly mad resistance levels and, if I remember rightly, ceramic magnets.
THere are plenty of really good replacement pickups knocking about but, being the idiot that I am I had some made to my specific design. One Alnico-2 blade for the side nearest the bridge and one Alnico-5 blade for the side nearest the neck. The idea being that the Alnico-2 blade would deal with any harsh bits and the Alnico-5 would provide focus. Aso 4 wire for all the switching possibilities.
The control cavity is not deep enough for push-pull CTS pots so I had micro switches put in the pickguard under each pickup.
They were wound to just slightly hotter that vintage (there's not a lot of space under those covers) and came out in the mid 7k ohms range.
An immediate improvement in tone (helped by the Callaham bridge and tailpiece I also put on the beast) although I was a bit underwhelmed until I heard a live recording of a small solo section on them - Wow!. After that I stopped fretting about them and just got on with playing the thing.
I really like the neck and the playing action and I think the tuners are really good.

The only remaining gripe I have is that the pickup rings are flat to the body and don't present the face of the pickup to the strings properly. I asked Gibson several time if they would sell me the spacers from a 2017 model so I could put this right but they refused - not the best customer servicee frankly. I will probably have to resort to designing and 3d printing a set of my own which seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a spare part they could just sell me. If anyone has the spacers froma 2017 model going I'll make you a reasonable offer...

roberty

Bit of an old thread but good post @Fatfred. It always pays to listen to recordings of pickups etc before making an assessment. My experience is that it can feel one way and sound completely the other

OilCityPickups

For clarification ... since their original 60s Firebird pickups Gibson have never done an accurate re issue. The first re issue pickup was a strange 'sidewinder' design like a tiny 'mudbucker' ... then more recently they 're issued' a very high output ceramic version. @Alegree ; is right that the original 60s ones were about Strat winding level ... not very powerful, but with as others have said, a chewy Broadcaster Tele style tone. 

Jota

p90fool said:

I find them more like a Broadcaster bridge, plenty of bite when you dig in, but a bit warmer than typical later Teles. 

I never played a vintage one but the Bonamassa sig I had was exactly like this, compared to the SD Broadcaster on my tele.
It sounded fabulous and I sold it because I really need 2 pickups in my guitars.

Funkfingers

I have a pair of Ash's Winterizer II pickups in a Paul Reed Smith S2 Singlecut. 

From several posts above, I cherry pick the following words: Tele, Broadcaster, warmer, chewy, bite, dig in. My additions are slide, blues. 

My abiding memory of vintage FB pickups is that the neck/Rhythm position unit is lovely whilst the bridge/Treble is always ever so slightly weaker than one might have wished ... until you begin using dual volume pots to blend both pickups. That is when the combination makes sense - especially through overdriven valve amplification.

Exorcist

I had some klein firebird pickups in a Gibson Firebird (stock were terrible mini humbuckers) and it was night and day difference. They sounded glorious and I desperately wish I had taken them out when I sold the firebird. I would like some in an SG at some point... or another firebird...

Teacherphil

I have a 2016 firebird and the stock pickups were far too hot for me. I bought some mini humbuckers from the creamery. Never looked back.

bbill335

I asked in another thread but, has anyone here tried firebird pickups with 250k pots + .047uF  caps and decided that it was better or right? a lot of talk of tele tones in this thread.

OilCityPickups

Teacherphil said:

I have a 2016 firebird and the stock pickups were far too hot for me. I bought some mini humbuckers from the creamery. Never looked back.

The design of mini humbuckers and vintage Firebird pickups are very different: a mini humbucker has only one magnet, located under the bobbins in the same place you'd expect a magnet in a full size humbucker. A Firebird pickup has two magnets, one in the centre of each coil, and also a steel inductance plate under the magnets like a Tele ... all this produces a much different sound.