Those that play the guitar well understand what guitar pickups are and how they can help change the sound of a guitar.

Definition of Pickup

A pickup is technically known as a transducer. It is an electrical component that converts the vibrations of the guitar’s strings into an electric current. You can consider it as a microphone that amplifies the sound of the guitar.

You can call it the heart of the guitar that converts the vibrations of the string into electricity.

Components of a Pickup

The main components of guitar pickups include the coil and the magnet. These two components form a magnetic field around the strings of the guitar. When you hit a string, there is a change in the magnetic field. The voltage and induced current are picked by the coil of wire.

The amplifier receives the signal thus created and this is how the tone of the guitar is created.

Types of Pickups

There are several types of guitar pickups in all designs. You can choose them as per your preference. Some of the common types of pickup for electric guitars are P90s, single coils and humbuckers.

P90: In these types of pickups, there is only one coil of wire. The entire set of the pole piece have a bar magnet. They are wide pickups which makes them give a more sizzling and fat sound.

Single Coil: As the name suggests, these are single coils of wire. In these pickups, every string has a magnetic pole piece. The single coil pickups are narrow and provide a clear and focused sound. However, these have a background hum that needs sorting out. This can be intense or subtle depending upon the playing situation.

Humbuckers: These types of pickups have two coils of wire. There is a bar magnet that sits between the pole pieces of the coils. The guitars that use this pickup have reduced hum and interference as the coils are so wired.

With humbuckers you can get a fatter sound and more output than the P90s and the single coils.

Why use a Coil?

When you wish to convert sound to electricity, you can use coils and magnets. This is done even in the absence of electrical power.

The science behind this notion is that when a magnetic body moves over a coil and magnet; an electric current flows through it.

In the case of the guitar, the strings made of steel are the magnetic bodies. When there is vibration in the strings, there is a change in the electric current. The current changes as per the frequency of the strings’ vibration and the pickups convert the sound into electricity using this property.

The way the coils are wound

The sound of the guitar will change depending upon the way and the number of times the coils are wound.

The volume of the sound will increase if the coil is wound more. However, if there is too much winding of the coil, the sound will get muffled.

The way the coils are wound also bring a change in the guitar’s sound in the sense that every time the coil is wound, there are small gaps. These gaps might be small but increasing their size will improve their treble.

In fact, even the surface area of the winding and the winding height affects the sound.

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