Electric Guitar Pickup Basics

Humbuckers, P-90s, single coil, gold foil-what are all these different types of pickups? Short answer-they’re all transducers that turn the vibration of a string into an electric impulse which leaves the guitar and yields the sounds we hear from the instrument. The different types have different characteristics tonally.

Single coils and P-90s are similar in function but different in form and color. A true single coil is exactly that, a coil of wire wrapped around magnets forming an inductive coil that captures the string’s vibration and turns it into classic jangle and sparkle on most single coil equipped guitars. The P-90 has a flatter, wider bobbin of wrapped wire and is known to be muscular in tone with the ability to break up and grind when the player uses a harder attack. Some great examples of single coils include our Kauer Korona and for P-90s the B&G Little Sister.

When you put a single coil alone in a guitar it usually exhibits a little bit of 60 cycle hum. When two single coils are in series they cancel out one another’s 60 cycle hum and this was put into practice with the humbucker pickup which has two single coil pickups neighboring one another inside a cover. This produces a warmer, darker tone than the single coil. Buckers tend to have a higher output than single coils and are found in both bolt on and set neck guitars. Great examples of these pickups can be found on the Heritage H-150 and 535.

We also have variations on the humbucker theme in our Harmony and Rebel Relic guitars. The Harmony guitars sport their gold foil pickups which are a throwback to student guitars of the 60s. These articulate humbuckers sound great with distortion and fuzz. The Filtertron and Rebeltron feature in the Monarch Jr and Wrangler guitars from Rock n Roll Relics. These humbuckers have a cleaner output that is perfect for surf or shoegaze and watery reverb.

The best way to hear all of these variations is to get them in your ears by stopping in a playing them here at Rusty’s.