Big Little Terror with super duper crunch and wonderful depth-of-field (3D) performance.
We have finally entered the HOT humbucker arena, but, as to be expected from Kinman, our's have some surprising improvements courtesy of the radically different engineering inside. Our Big Little models are something of a Jeckle and Hyde kind of pickup, the clean aspect is surprisingly beautiful with abundant piano mid-tones and sweet n pretty trebles but all hell breaks loose when the volume is rolled up.
2 rows of 6 domed "headless" pole screws made especially for us out of tougher steel. This is a real fun full-sized monster if you love super crunch & growl. Hell, it sounds gooood, so dynamic, and with it's rapid attack and impressive dynamic range it feels great too without Fx devices ..... and like a Ferrari it just wants to get up and go ... it's so exciting. Hear it for yourself in the You-Tube TAB at the top of this page. All strings, top and bottom, break into full-on crunch so easily, without Fx devices, amazing ... that's what it is. Know what you're thinking, the plain strings have a ragged spikey sound like ceramic magnets produce, right? Wrong!!! they are sweet as ... but have all the cutting glass you'd ever want plus super dynamic response and long natural sustain. Puts other (crude) hot humbuckers to shame, even the old original super distortion that started it all. You just gotta get these amazing humbuckers into your guitar.
For a pickup so capable of sonic mayhem it sure sounds pretty darn agreeable.
Big Little Ripper
With super bell cleans and wonderful depth-of-field (3D) performance.
Like our Little Ripper Mini-bucker the Big Little Ripper really rips when you want it to, but with it's bright, chirpy bell-like sound it's mighty pretty down at low clean volumes. This is one dynamic and versatile humbucker with a single row of headless poles screws.
Both models are available with our ESSC (Enhanced Split Single Coil non-noiseless) which is just as loud as the full humbucker and and we show you how it is easily wired to a 5 position Strat switch.
Choose from a wide variety of covers (Durable Black, buffed Nickel-Silver, closed-top and our unique 240 open-top with Black or a choice of 8 Pearloid colored decorative top plates. Check them all out in the Order Form by clicking the big Blue BUY button bottom and top of this page.
Impressive High-Octane demo including Coil Splitting.
SWEDEN | 17-Sep-2025
First report. everything was painted with shielding paint. Apart from that the installation was easy.
When I tried the guitar after picking it up I was stunned by the tone clarity, no mud, no icepick and no hum. There was no volume drop between split and full humbucker and all positions had its own distinctive sound, from full humbucker to single coil. Then the “owner”, my son Joel, woke up and came to try them out. He started to play, neck position full humbucker, rolled down the tone, and didn’t say a word. He kept on playing and I had to ask him about his first impression, he was also stunned by the clarity of the tone.
The next day I went to a friend in the neighborhood that has a studio, as he was interested to hear how the pickups sounded. We used a Fender Deluxe Reverb combo amp and plugged the guitar in, no pedals, nothing, and EQ set to 12 o’clock. He was also impressed by the clarity of the tone in all positions, but was mostly interested in the humbucker mode. So he took his Gibson Les Paul, as he said “custom custom shop”, $10k +, to do a comparison.
So we did like a basic test, no EQ change, same cords, clean sound and switching guitars, just minor volume changes up or down. The Gibson was both muddier and icepick’ier, we could even roll down the tone all the way on Joel’s Sire, in neck position, and the sound was clearer than the Gibson.
Because of the differences we started to change the EQ, to more or less compensate for the Gibson’s mud and icepick sound, which you could tame to a certain level but it was sort of still there, whereas Joel’s Sire sounded ok all the time. What I noticed with Joel’s Sire was that I could actually use the EQ, bass and treble knobs, on the amp to add bass and treble to taste instead of always trying to reduce unpleasant highs and lows.
Then we summarised our impressions. I preferred the Kinman’s over the Gibson’s as to me the sound was still warm, full and rich but with all the mud and icepick gone, even with added bass and treble on the amp :-)
The day after Joel went back to school, up in Östersund, and he’s very happy with the sound. He never “has time” to speak with his old man, but he said that his guitar teacher and all his friends says he’s guitar sounds great :-)
All the best from Uppsala to Joe and Chris K!
Nils
ED: Thanks for your detailed Report Card Nils, your experience confirms our claims about the Converge-3. We love looking at the neat wiring and the new K6 Goodbye Soldering Harness. It's difficult to grasp there are 12 wires leading to the two pickups.
UNITED KINGDOM | 12-Dec-2019
I had half an hour on my hands today, so I adjusted the pickup heights to suit and tried the jangle control (genius). Didn't take long at all to decide on the sound I wanted from each pup. I have to say, yesterday's enthusiasm has actually increased. These pickups are amazing. Cleans are wonderful, even on the bridge pickup, with no hint of harshness.
I have three excellent drive pedals from ThorpyFX and I had a quick blast with each of them. On higher gain settings, the previous Gibson bridge pup quickly became harsh (and frankly unpleasant). Nothing like that with the Converge-3. My Les Paul is now addictive in a way that it never was before. If I didn't have to put my son to bed soon - and actually keep quiet enough for him to sleep - I reckon I'd be playing all night!
AUSTRALIA | 26-Dec-2020
merry christmas guys !!!!! Glenn
ED: Glenn bought one of our pre-release Converge-3 and installed it on his MusicMan Lukather.
AUSTRALIA | 05-Oct-2022
Hi Joe (and Chris),
It's finished ! And it sounds magnificent !! (and looks great too)
The whole project was very much a leap of faith, both in my installation ability and in the sound of the pickups, because I really only bought them based on your reputation. But I LOVE the sound ! The clarity and punch is just astounding, and the range of sounds is just what I was looking for. I particularly love the split sound on the neck pickup, which outdoes my strat, but every sound is wonderful, and I'm finding more by playing with the tone knob - which on all of my other guitars only added mud unless left on 10. I guess I will continue to try tweaking a little after I get used to them, to see if I can balance them any more.
I think your pickups are one of my best ever purchases. Thanks so much for a wonderful product and thanks so much for your help during the process.
Best wishes, Simon
I forgot to mention that I used the guitar for a rehearsal last night, and everyone said how much better my sound was :-)
Anyway, I have to go play now....
ED: Simon bought a pair of Converge-3, the neck one has Fender-like split single coil sound and the bridge has P90-like split coil single sound and both are noiseless (Zero-Hum). The neck pickup has our exclusive new 47-5mm pole spread and doesn't it align with the strings really well !!!
Thanks heaps for your glowing Report Card Simon, and for your confidence in our ability to deliver what we claim. After 4 years of developing the Converge multi-sound humbucker it is indeed very gratifying to hear how pleased you are with your new multi-sound Kinman's. It makes all the midnight oil and our long hard and often frustrating work all worth while to read your report. And thanks for the photo of your Variax too, looks cool with those 'Durable Black' covers and the 3 point mounting.
UNITED STATES | 27-Aug-2023
The Jangle control on your Converge-3 is a truly stellar feature! Brilliant tonal spectrum. And that's in addition to the already outstanding p-ups!!
Cheers, Erich
ED: thanks Erich, for confirming our thoughts that the Jangle control is a useful control which increases the versatility of an already highly versatile humbucker. Glad to hear also that you believe it's overall an outstanding pickup.
