Beginner’s Guide To Guitar Pickups: Finding that Right Sound
Magnetic Attraction: The Basics
Bluntly, your sound begins with guitar pickups as the electric guitar would not exist without them. Often misunderstood, having general knowledge of how they work as well as what is available should be essential information for any player.
Acting as a transducer, guitar pickups harness string vibrations, converting them into electrical signals. Since strings are metal, a guitar pickup’s magnetic forces pull on them to create sound. Basic pickup construction consists of a magnet and a coil arrangement (usually made of copper). Electric signals are carried by cables to the amp. Guitar pickups usually have magnetic pole pieces for each string (rail pickups are an exception).
Pickups are positioned on the body of the guitar, usually under the strings (for installed pickups), yet can be put on the body or bridge.
A World Of Personal Freedom
One is not stuck with the pickups that came installed in your guitar. You have the freedom to add or subtract with various combinations. Remember cosmetically and structurally, vintage guitars are more susceptible to harm when messing with their pickups. Many manufacturers aware of this have specifically kept this in mind when making certain types.
Often overlooked, a guitar pickup’s position on the guitar also affects sound. Up till the 1970’s, guitar manufacturers positioned pickups in about the same place.
Common practice today, mixing different pickups instead of using sets of one kind. By doing this the player will get a wider spectrum to work with, like a color wheel!
Passive Guitar Pickups Versus Active Guitar Pickups
The first guitar pickups are referred to as passive. They have stronger magnets, much more wiring and microphone like similarities. You know the squealing microphone feedback? Well these pickups create a similar piercing sound.
Active guitar pickups have weaker magnets with a lower output paired with a more noticeable trebly sound. Remember one is not better then the other as this squarely depends on taste and style!
Guitar Pick Ups Duel: Single Coil Vs Humbuck
These guitar pickups are your no frills basic. They characteristically embody a bright clean unhindered tone while also putting out more of a twang. Just think vintage country music or brittle treble punk! Unfortunately they are the best of antennas.
Simple electromagnetic pickups unfortunately pick up frequencies such as power line transmissions, ambient noises, radio signals. Magnetic Coils often make good electric antennas broadcasting all sorts of random frequencies like power tools and even foreign radio stations.
Consisting of two pickups wired together of identical coils yet with opposite magnetic polarities, humbuck guitar pickups were designed to reduce persisting hums found in common single pickups. The two in one pickup takes the most prominent unwanted frequencies and cancels them out by opposite polarities.
Humbuckers are not just for bucking pesky hums, for they also affect tone. Humbucker guitar pickups have a fatter and warmer tone. Players also find these pickups best for distortion, yet many metal players swear on single coil. Fender and Gibsons made these pickups famous almost simultaneous with these brands.
Single Coil Choices
Lipstick guitar pickups have all their electronics encased within a chrome plated tube. Most notably, Dan Electro guitars use these. First designs of these pickups actually used surplus lipstick casings. The coil is actually wrapped around the magnet in the cylinder casing with wiring actually similar to humbucker. The tone often described as warm and vintage is associated with jangle pop, surf and rockabilly.
The Vintage Noiseless guitar pickup takes the single coil concept yet tweaks it by stacking the coils to eliminate noise frequency like a humbucker. These pickups are sort of like the guitar hero pickup as signature Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck model designed guitars have these.
Humbuck Guitar Pickup Choices
Mini humbucker pickups are often used by jazz players, probably for the brighter, cleaner even fluid sound, uncharacteristically like a Gibson signature sound. They are half the size of a normal humbuck and have a less powerful sound. Often these are fitted under the fingerboard. Ideal for when combining pickups, this type fits perfectly between typical single coil and regular humbuckers. These were originally found on Epiphone Guitars before Gibson license them.
Simply a compact humbuck, stacked humbuckers are reduced to the size of single coil by stacking the coils instead of placing them side by side.
Rail humbuckers divide the pickup length wise, creating a rail like appearance. These are used with stacked humbuckers for high power out put.
Almost Forgotten: A Vintage Pickup
The Charlie Christian guitar pickup, one of the first electric pickups, made the case for the electric guitar as viable. Somewhat different in construction because of a horse shoe magnet and a narrow string sensing blade, these pickups create arguably the clearest sound one can get out of an electric guitar. The guitar pickup has been replicated by a small handful of independent guitar manufacturers today like the British CC Pickups Company. Electromagnetic hum can be more drastic with these pickups.
Magnetic Possibilities
Obviously these are not all your guitar pickup choices available, though now you should be ready with your new found knowledge to make good guitar pickup choices. The door of sound is open!
Additional Pro Guitar World Articles
Beginner’s Guide to Harmonicas
Beginner’s Guide To Guitar Slides
A Beginner’s Guide To Capos: Versatility
Choosing Bass Strings
Beginner’s Guide To Guitar Tuners
Beginner’s Guide To 12 String Guitars
Beginner’s Guide To Guitar Pickups: Finding that Right Sound
Painting The Air: Beginner’s Guide to Effects Pedals
Beginner’s Guide To Buying An Acoustic Guitar
A Beginner’s Guide to Guitar Strings
Picking Through: Choosing Guitar Picks
The Dirt on Distortion: A Simple Guide to Getting Dirty
Deep Dark Notes: A Beginner's Guide to Bass
Buying a Drum Set: A Beginner’s Commonsense Guide
Choosing a Guitar Amplifier
How To Play Guitar - Getting Started
What to Look For in a Guitar Humidifier
Choosing the Right Guitar
Learn How To Play The Guitar - A Checklist For Online Lessons