Mighty Mite 1400 Model Humbucker

The 1400 Model humbucker is a pickup with over 40 years of pedigree for players that like to hot-rod their guitars. Starting in the 1970s, Mighty Mite still offers bodies, necks, and bridges, in addition to a classic lineup of humbuckers.

Chances are that you already know some 1400 history. If not, we can save some time and agree that there is a significant amount of lore surrounding Mighty Mite. There might have very well been a So-Cal guitarist that rose to prominence in the late 70s with an association to the 1400.

If that’s too vague, the 1400 is great for when you want to unchain the Trans Am on to the mean street and light up the sky with the beautiful girls! Alright, no one ever said I am subtle. Ha!

The 1400 is a USA-made pickup that clocks in at the vintage-hot range. This ceramic-based humbucker does pair up well in the neck position with a more powerful option such as the Mighty Mite 1300 model in the bridge. For this application, I am using the 1400 in the bridge position. I’ll talk about the 1300-1400 set at another time.

This humbucker comes with 4-con lead wire for plenty of tonal diversity. The “classic” color code is black as hot, green+bare for ground, and red+white joined and taped off for full series operation. The short mounting legs allows for more convenient installation options, especially if you need to direct mount. As such, install is a breeze.

For this evaluation, I’m using a neutral-sounding single-humbucker workhorse. It has a Floyd Rose tremolo system, a Bourns 500k pot, and a Switchcraft 1/4″ jack. The pickup is direct-mounted.

Considering a vintage-hot pickup such as this is a win-win. The 1400 presents clarity and it delivers punch. That’s crucial for both clean and dirty amp tones.

On a clean amp setting, the control is all up to you. Volume control, that is. You can go from a prolific 80s LA Studio Clean to a classic AC/DC edge at the spin of the guitar’s volume knob. Throw in a switching option for split or parallel to really open up the variety. You can easily transition from crunchy rhythm to ethereal ambiance.

The 1400 does like to rock, and that’s what you get on your dirty amp channel. The lows and the low-mids are well-controlled with a bit of natural compression. This is great for aggressive riffing and powerful chords. The high end is very musical with a voice for strong lead playing. Better yet, the character of the 1400 is perfectly paired with harmonic whammy tricks.

Let’s look at some specs:

With those evenly-matched coils, you can play around with splitting options to really customize your personal tone. Plus, with the overall moderate output and design of the 1400 gives you exceptional versatility. It’s great for classic rock, heavy rock, alternative, funk, garage, grunge, blues rock, metal, and fusion.

For reference, this Mighty Mite 1400 model humbucker pickup evaluation was conducted with a Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller.  Real cabs are Marshall 1960B cabs with Celestion Vintage 30s and G12M Greenbacks.

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