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Electric Guitar Pickups

pickup interiorThere are two kinds of pickup used on electric guitars. These are known as the 'single coil' and the 'humbucker'. Each provides a discernable difference in tone for the guitar. Typically, the single coil varieties are fitted to Fender guitars such as the Stratocaster and Telecaster, and the humbucker generally fitted on Gibson guitars. Both makers offer a range of guitars that will have alternative configerations to this generalisation. With a little knowledge of pickups, and a discerning ear, you will be able to make decisions about the choice of pickups on your guitar. The pickups fitted to a guitar can be removed and altered. It is not a dfficult task, though it would require some experinece of soldering and the appropriate tools - so perhaps best left to someone who knows what they are doing.

Pickups: Tone

Writing about tone is difficult - it is best heard, but I will have a go at describing the difference in tone between the single coil and humbucker varieites of pickup.

The single coil has a thinner, lighter sound than a humbucker. It's rendition of tone across the range from treble, middle to bass will be clear and the frequencies at the top end, the high notes, notably present. The humbucker generally delivers a thicker, stronger tone, normally with less treble discernable in the higher notes. This is because the constuction of the humbucker has a natural tendancy to cancel out these frequencies a little.
If you listen to the guitar played by Robert Cray, for example, you will hear a charcteristic tone delivered by single coil pickups on a Stratocaster guitar. Compare this with the tones delivered by a Gibson 335 guitar played, for example, by Larry Carlton and using humbuckers. The Les Paul 'Gold Top' as played by Peter Green of 'Fleetwood Mac' would be an example in which a Gibson model is ftited with single coil pickups - the PAF 90s. I recommend you listen to a variety of players to establish an ear for pickups and their tonal possibilities.

The amplification of the guitar and how it is used, will also add some colouration to the tone you hear. Guitarists tend to work with either a 'clean' tone, the aim of which is to provide undistorted notes and a faithful rendition of the instrument, or a 'dirty' tone which is when the amp (or an effects box) is set to clip the tones to a varying degree of distortion. Although the amplifier and a variety of effects can be applied, you may still recognise the tones that are emanating from either single coil or humbucker pickups.


Pickups: Alnico and Ceramic Magnets

A pickup uses a magnet around which is a coil of very fine enamaled copper wire. When the string vibrates in the firld of the magnet, an electric current is produced and it this that is sent to the amplifier. One of two types of magnets will be used in an electric guitar pickup. Alnico is one and ceramic is another. Alnico magnets are made made by mixing aluminium, nickel and cobalt with iron. They are traditionally used in "Classic" and "Vintage" pickups, giving a mellow tone , smooth response and a moderate output. Their magnetic strength can decline over time.
Ceramic or Ferrite magnets are cheaper to make than alinico ones and used on lower cost instruments. They are made using a mix of Stontium and iron and have a lower magnetic strength than alinco pickups. The tone from a ceramic pickup can be noticebly brighter with more treble pressence than an alnico pickup.

Pickups: Wire

A pickup's characteristics in tone or output strength will also be affected in tone by the the thickness of the wire and the number of turns around the magnet. Some pickups, among them the more expensive ones, will have 'hand-wound' coils while most are machine wound. The original guitar pickups of the 50s were hand wound from which discussion follows that these coils, with their less consistent or regular winding than a machine turned pickup, leads to a characterictic and discernable differeence between a 'vintage' pickup and a modern one. I will leave it for you to set up the test one day maybe and decide. Pickup makers can select different gauges of wire and alter the number of turns of the coil to adjust both its tonal response and strength of output. This is useful for example if your guitar is primarily for clean tones or dirty tones where the pickup can help 'drive' the amplifer into distortion by having a higher level of output signal.

Single Coil and Humbucker: Physical differences

Pickups can come in different shapes and sizes but essentially single coil pickups have one coil, as the name implies, and a himbucker two coils. Single coild pickups can tend to pickup stray radio frequencies which you will hear as a buzzing sound from your amp when you guitar is near it. By using two coils each wound in the alternate direction to the other, the interference is cancelled.

single coil diagram pickup diagram

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© 2011 Ian Caird - no reproduction permitted without permission.



 

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