Guitar Parts & Pickups

To overcome this effect, the humbucking pickup was invented. Composed of two coils, each coil of a humbucking pickup is wound reverse to one another. However, the six magnetic poles are opposite in polarity in each winding. Because the windings are reversed in each pickup coil, the electro-magnetic interference in each pickup is equal and in antiphase, resulting in them canceling each other out. The signal from the guitar string, however, is doubled when the two coils are connected in series.

Generally speaking, single-coil pickups have a brighter, crisper, twangy sound when compared to other pickup types. Fender® Stratocaster® and Telecaster® guitars are famous for their single-coil sound, as well as the thicker-sounding, P-90-equipped Gibson guitars such as the Les Paul Junior and Les Paul/SG Special models. Guitars with humbuckers are typically known for a thicker, darker, beefy sound, and generally are used for music with high amounts of gain and overdrive—though jazz players often rely on a neck-position humbucker for a mellow, clean tone. Also, many modern humbucking pickups are now equipped with coil-splitting, which allows the pickup to act as a humbucker or a single-coil pickup when the coil-split is engaged. Close>