Mighty Mite 1300 Humbucker Pickup

The MM1300 (the “1300′) goes back over 4 decades. Along with the 1400 Model, it’s ground zero for many aspiring guitarists wanting to hot-rod their axe. Where the 1400 is more of a hot-PAF, the 1300 is a more modern over-wound option to push your tube amp into total overdrive.

Any Mighty Mite aficionado could tell you about an up-and-coming Pasadena-based guitarist known to use the 1300 in the mid-to-late 1970s. Taking it much further than that can open up a can of worms! LOL! But if you’re in to tweaking and modding your guitar, you’re sure to have used this Dutch-born player’s experiments as a blueprint. Most likely while listening to music that he recorded with the 1300! HaHa!

Looking at the 1300 Model, it falls squarely in the same distortion class pickup as the DiMarzio Super D, for example. High output is the goalpost of the era, which makes sense. High-energy high-octane rock music is breaking disco loose from the perch, but the choices of amp and pedals are still limited. At least by comparison to the gear choices of today. Tube amps are the preference and players needs all the ‘oomph’ they can get to drive those tubes.

Pedigree

This release of the legendary 1300 Model is like a highlight reel of all the best parts of what this pickup means to players in the years it’s been available. The ultimate apex 1300, if you will. When Mighty Mite decided to go with a different vendor, a tip o’ the hat goes to MM’s in-house pickup R&D team for providing a next-level recipe. This is one of those instances when it was the right move to tell the pickup winder exactly what to do.

Installation

For this evaluation, I’m using the Mirage Deluxe ’87. Guitar specs are: Alder body. Maple neck with 25-1/2″ scale ebony board and a Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo system. The tuning is E standard with 09-42 strings.

The harness has a CTS 500k pot with a 15% taper and an Oak Grigsby 5-way Super Switch. The result is as follows: Bridge, series. Bridge and Neck, split to inner coils. Middle position is Neck and Bridge, series. Neck, parallel. Neck, series. This is a great setup for a 2-hum guitar for incredible versatility.

Evaluation

The 1300 comes out of the gate swinging hard, with punchy solid lows and a complex high end. It’s a massive riff-monster with character and powerful crunch for rock and metal players. This is a classic blend of harmonically rich sustain and a hard-hitting voice. Each bobbin is pretty full, suggesting a 43 AWG. Given the range of that gauge on a bobbin, it’s right at that sweet spot that is a blend of power and tone. Balanced mids, fat highs, and chunky lows.

Riffing is powerful and precise. There is a load of attitude at work here to fill up the space. Yet the focus of the voicing is accurate enough to really show off intricacies of complex licks. You put in all that work, so you want a humbucker that’s going to show it off! Know what I mean?! LOL! Cleaning up is easily achievable by rolling back the guitar volume knob or hitting the amp’s clean channel.

An intense ceramic-based magnetic field captures every nuance of your playing style. That means changes to both right and left hand technique can yield a range from heavy blues to metal thrash. The power is focused by 12 (i.e., a dozen!) hex poles. You should be able to tell by the photos that these hex pole are more in-line with a socket set screw style. That means the poles are more like the Super D poles than a socket head type pole.

Demo

Go find your favorite example of the 1300 and THAT is what you have here. For real, the pickup peeps at MM worked this one out to have all the best qualities of what makes the 1300 one of the most sought-after tones for late-80s rock and more.

Specs

Conclusion

The 1300 is great for hard rock, grunge, punk, prog rock, fusion, shred, 80s metal, garage, heavy rock, blues rock, thrash, hardcore, prog metal, classic rock, alt rock, and more!

For a 2-hum guitar, maybe consider the vintage-hot 9k 1400 Model in the neck for an excellent pairing. A spicy PAF and a barn-burning flamethrower is an outstanding combination for a versatile rock-and-roll setup. Working the right blends of switching and amp setting give you a solid working-man’s guitar rig.

The pickup is potted, so high amp levels and microphonic squeals are not an issue. The 4-con lead offers access to split and parallel setups for multiple wiring options. The baseplate has short legs, so it’s a little more adaptable if you’re working with a shallow pickup cavity. You can get your 1300 Model humbucker directly from the Mighty Mite website.

For reference, this Mighty Mite 1300 Model bridge humbucker pickup evaluation was conducted with the following: Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller. ADA MP-1 Tube Pre-Amp loaded with Tube Amp Doctor ECC83 Premium Selected tubes, using the ADA MC-1 MIDI Controller. Fryette LX II Stereo Tube Power Amplifier. Physical cabs use are Marshall 1960B, Mojotone British, and Peavey 6505 cabs loaded with Celestion Classic Series Vintage 30s and Classic Series G12M Greenbacks.

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