Other players do the exact opposite , by choosing a different pickup for each position, either to accent or offset the natural tonal variations. So that wraps up all the first half of this post. So pick and choose your features based mainly on the sounds you use most often.
We all know that you guitar tone is based on numerous factors besides just the pickups, right? Pedals and amps being the two most obvious examples. However there are also some subtle factors on the guitar itself which you may not have considered. And so…based on the existing tones of your current guitar…it makes sense to adjust your pickup selections accordingly. On occasion, you can even find pickups that combine rail and stack designs to essentially cram 4 single-coils into one extremely high output humbucker.
With coil-splitting and coil-tapping, you have the option of BOTH single-coil and humbucker tones with the flip of a switch. But because we were scared to actually change them. We try different strings, amps, pedals, etc… But one thing that most us dare not mess with is pickups. Sound good? First up… 1. Coils single vs humbucker Guitar pickups come in two basic designs: Single Coil Humbuckers double coil While all guitar pickups were originally single coils… Everything changed in … When Seth Lover at Gibson , discovered that by joining two single-coils together, wired with opposite polarities… The noise cancelled out, while the useful signal remained intact.
Over the past many decades, the Gibson Les Paul is the guitar style most closely associated with humbuckers… While Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters are most known for single-coils. In terms of performance, humbuckers have: more sustain stronger output less noise And while it may seem that humbuckers are superior to single-coils from a technical standpoint…what really matters is how they compare in tone.
You can still get dark heavy sounds from single coils You can still get twangy sounds from humbuckers Because the final guitar sound depends on so many other factors besides just the pickups.
Got it? Now up next… 2. Circuitry active vs. The pickups. Simply put, a poor set of pickups can make a great guitar sound lousy, but a great set of pickups can make a cheap guitar actually sound pretty good. While changing pickups can provide a guitar with a significant tonal makeover, a good set of pickups basically enhances what is already there instead of completely transforming a guitar into something else. One way to think of the process is like swapping engines in a car.
Probably the most difficult part of the pickup-swapping process is deciding which pickups to choose in the first place. Back in the Seventies when replacement pickups first hit the market in significant numbers, the choices were basically split between vintage-style or high-output models made by a handful of pickup specialists. From the terms and technologies behind pickup design to the tools you need to install pickups yourself, the following information is essential knowledge that should put you on a faster track to tonal nirvana.
His design incorporated two large horseshoe-shaped magnets that surrounded the strings near the bridge and a wire coil wrapped around a bobbin that surrounded individual magnetic pole pieces for each string. A standard electric guitar pickup creates a magnetic flux field, which in turn magnetizes a string made of ferromagnetic material like steel or nickel.
When the string is plucked, the vibrations of the magnetically charged string disturb the flux field. As the magnetic field fluctuates, the disturbances are transmitted through the wire coil as electrical current. A single-coil pickup generally consists of a coil of wire wrapped around a bobbin surrounding either individual pole pieces for each string or a single, continuous blade that extends across all of the strings. A humbucking pickup involves two wire coils placed either side by side or in a top and bottom stack configuration, also with the coils surrounding the pole pieces or blade s.
Usually a humbucking pickup has a single flat, bar-shaped magnet placed below a side-by-side configuration of coils and centered lengthwise between each coil and its set of polepieces, which are made of ferrous material such as steel to conduct magnetism from the bar magnet and generate the magnetic field. On a single-coil pickup and some stacked humbuckers, the pole pieces are usually made of permanently magnetized material, although many exceptions exist, like the P pickup design, which features two bar magnets underneath the coil with ferrous pole piece screws placed in between the magnets.
In general terms, single-coil pickups tend to be smaller in size, have lower output and produce brighter tones with emphasized treble, but they also tend to pick up unwanted interference like cycle hum. Humbucking pickups are generally larger, deliver higher output levels and offer warmer tones with pronounced midrange, while also eliminating most extraneous noise due to the noise-canceling properties resulting from using two coils with reversed polarity and the current flowing in opposing directions.
However, there are a multitude of other varieties worth consideration that each offer their own distinct tonal personalities and performance characteristics.
The Fender Jazzmaster and Franz pickups the latter commonly found in Guild electrics from the Fifties look similar to P pickups, but each has its own distinct voice, as do Fender Jaguar pickups, which have similar dimensions to Strat pickups but are surrounded by metal claws to focus a parallel magnetic field along each string. However, increasing the output of a passive pickup also can affect the tone in undesirable ways such as making the treble response too dark or shrill, and the pickups can become more susceptible to undesirable external noise.
If the magnets are too powerful, a strong magnetic field can actually suppress string vibration, decreasing sustain and dynamic response—the reverse of the desired outcome.
Active pickups have similar basic construction to passive pickups, but the circuitry uses an active preamp usually powered by a 9-volt battery to boost the signal, allowing low-impedance designs high current, potentially low voltage incorporating fewer wraps of coil wire and less powerful magnets.
There are several benefits to this type of design: reduced noise particularly with single-coil designs , higher overall output, consistent tone when turning down the volume control, no high-frequency loss when using long cables, consistent clarity and note-to-note definition whether using clean or high-gain distortion amp settings, and the ability to use active tone controls to boost or cut frequencies whereas passive tone controls are really just low-pass filters that can only roll off treble frequencies to make the tone darker.
The downside of active pickups is that the tone can cover a wider and flatter frequency range than many players are accustomed to, which some players find too cold or sterile, and the output is generally more consistent, which some players consider less dynamically responsive.
Also, pretty much all double-coil guitar pickups are called humbuckers. However, they are at times wired to offer the choice between humbucking and non-humbucking operations.
Provided the quiet performance and great sound of humbuckers, single-coil pickups are still preferred by certain guitarists over humbuckers. This is primarily because single coils sound different and great in their own way. Single coils are usually crisper and brighter, with increased definition of note between strings. Humbuckers, on the other hand, are usually darker, louder, and heavier. Most Fender guitars employ single-coil pickups. Most Gibson guitars come with humbuckers.
And then there is the endless list of hybrids, or guitars that come with both humbuckers and single coils. These hybrids also comprise single coils that have a humbucker-like sound signature, and humbuckers that would remind you of single coils.
At times, making a choice between double- and single-coil pickups is a question of whether the body of the guitar was routed for double-width humbuckers or narrower single coils. Certain guitarists have an affiliation for a particular pickup type. For instance, the sounds of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix were almost exclusively created with single-coil guitar pickups; whereas Joe Perry, Slash, Billy Gibbons and Carlos Santana are usually synonymous with humbuckers.
Other guitarists have depended on both these guitar pick-up types. Eric Clapton played with humbuckers during the early stages of his career with Cream and Bluesbreakers.
Pickup placement on the guitar is most certainly among the most influential aspects of the electric guitar sound. The general rule of thumb is that the further away pickups are on a guitar, the better the sound variety from the instrument. And the nearer the pickups are to the hollow string vibration, the cheerier the sound would be. Also, the volume and bass would be richer.
If the pickup is in close proximity to the bridge , the sound would be much better than normal. Most electric guitars come with two or more different pickups situated at different locations on the body.
The actual locations of the pickup vary with the guitar design. The telecaster single-coil not the Telecasters with humbuckers pickup, for instance, has two single coils: one at the neck position, and the other on the bridge regardless of the electric guitar bridge types.
The neck pickup helps churn out a mellower sound. The bridge pickup, on the other hand, produces a sharp, extremely twangy tone with overstated treble response, because the pickup is fitted on a metal plate. The standard Stratocaster electric guitar design comes with three single coils. You could choose which pickup or pickup combination to go for with the lever switch.
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