Electric Guitar Pickups

Hello all, in today's post I will be discussing the the two main types of electric guitar pickups, the Single-Coil, and the Humbucker. Before we break down the differences between the two pickups, first lets go over what a pickup is.

An electromagnetic pickup consists of a permanent magnet with a core material such as alnico, (a combination of aluminum, nickel, and cobalt), or ceramic poles. The poles are wrapped with a coil of fine copper wire which has many thousands of turns. To produce sound, an electric guitar "picks up" energy being created using the coils of copper wire and the magnets. The vibration of the steel strings produce a matching vibration in the magnet's magnetic field and therefore creates a vibrating current in the coil. This produces a signal that is usually sent through a cable into an amplifier.

There are many variations of pickup configurations, but the two most common are the single-coil and the humbucker. A single coil pickup is just that, it is a single coil wrapped around the magnetic poles. This type of pickup is very bright, noisy, and has a sharpness and bite to the sound it creates. A humbucker is two stacked single coils. Because they are stacked the polarity is wound the opposite direction to remove the noisy hum a single coil alone creates, and the pickup creats a rich, warm, full sound that sounds great when it is overdriven or distorted.

One of the most widely recognized single coil guitars is the Fender Stratocaster, whereas the Gibson Les Paul is one of the most widely recognized humbucker guitars. These are just two of many guitars that use these pickups, but they are often referred to when distinguishing between the two pickup styles.