Tele neck p/u: Fralin P92 vs minihum

[Aardvark]

I am considering a tele partscaster with either a P92 or a minihum in the neck position. Anybody have an opinion on this? Thanks.

[mainsale]

Here's a picture of my opinion and the best Tele I have from a tone standpoint.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b61/Mainsale/FralinTele004.jpg

[Aardvark]

Here's a picture of my opinion and the best Tele I have from a tone standpoint.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b61/Mainsale/FralinTele004.jpg
Mainsale, thanks for your response. That looks so cool! I am addicted to P92's and love them in the neck position of a lot of guitars. I have never tried a minihum, although Mojocaster's demo of the Fender '52 Hotrod with neck minihum sounded superb. How do you think they might compare, and do you find the P92 to be too loud for the standard tele bridge? Thanks.

[mad dog]

Aardvark: I have the same question. Never heard a minihum in a tele, but have a feeling it's an excellent neck p/u choice. I have heard that P92 (at least I think it was that one) in the neck slot of several Linholf teles. In which it sounds VERY GOOD, balances out perfectly with a somewhat hot bridge p/u.

[amc]

A Lollar minihum, in the neck position on most any guitar, has 2 glorious sounds.
Full on or split coil are both great with the Lollar minihum.

[mainsale]

The bridge pickup is a Fralin Blues Special and it blends very well with the P-92 at 8,000 turns. The BS is a little hotter than vintage but not so hot as to loose the all important "Tele Twang". I also have 4-way switching for series and parallel giving me four distinct tonal palets. The P-92 also eliminates the mud associated with Tele neck pickups.

[Bob V]

I built a pair of tele partsters using Lindy Fralin pickups with fantastic results. He happened to have some twelve-hole baseplates handy so he could make a regular humbucker (his version, anyway, the "unbucker") with a P-92 cover plate so the polepieces are offset three-and-three. This arrangement is for cosmetic purposes to evoke the vibe and appearance of a Fender Wide Range Humbucker from the '72 Custom and Deluxe Teles. Ask for "an unbucker in a P-92 cover." You can see it in my avatar over on the TDPRI forum (look for my posts there as Vizcaster).

Mine is an 8K (5K + 3K) unbucker coupled with a Fralin tele blues bridge single coil pickup. When you shunt the humbucker, leaving the stronger 5K coil, it is a nice matchup with the bridge pickup in parallel and in series. As a regular humbucker it also couples nicely with the bridge pickup in parallel (which is what I figured Keith Richards was doing with a PAF in the neck position of McCawber).

Another advantage is that humbucker routed pickguards are commonly available and you have some freedom in that you can easily swap out any other humbucker (although I wouldn't want to since the Fralins sound great). Once you get to a minihumbucker or a reproduction wide range humbucker, you've got nonstandard sizes for the pickguard and body routing.

I've got a five way super strat switch which gives me 1. bridge, 2. bridge and single coil from the neck in parallel (kind of sounds like the middle position on a proper tele), 3. same combination as 2 but in series (louder, more midrangey), 4. bridge and neck humbucker in parallel, and 5. neck humbucker.

[Aardvark]

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Anyone else want to chime in, especially if you have compared the minihum to the P92?