Types of pickups for electric guitars

As the name suggests, it refers to a pickup which consists of a single coil. Mainly used in FENDER-type guitars such as the Stratocaster and the Telecaster, and provide rich overtones, and bright, sharp sound. The P-90 pickup used in the GIBSON Les Paul Special is also classified as a single coil. As the distance between the pole pieces and the (magnet) coil is close, there is a tendency to pick up a good high-frequency, so the pickups on Stratocasters & Telecasters have a mellow high range, while the P-90 will be more of a thick sound .

A pickup that can increase the output by using two coils and cancels the noise (hum cancellation). In the old days, it was developed by Gibson engineer Seth Lover and others, and the pickup, commonly known as PAF (Patent Applied For), mounted on the vintage Les Paul is still one of the standards for guitar sound. Due to its structure, the high-frequency characteristics are inferior to single coils, but it is a popular pickup because it gives a thick sound with emphasis on the mid-low range. There is also a lineup of single-size humbuckers that can get the sound of a humbucker without having to perform any major processing, even on guitars with a single coil such as a stratocaster.

A pickup that requires an external power supply, such as a battery to drive it, is called an active pickup. A large output is obtained and there is little noise. Therefore, it tends to be preferred by guitarists who use high gain amplifiers, such as hard rock and heavy metal guitarists. Sound House offers a wide range of models from EMG, the leading manufacturer of active pickups, to the FISHMAN / Fluence series, which employs an advanced structure without coils.