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The Humbucker Pickup
This is the second in a series of articles explaining more about the guitar pickup. To see the first article that focused on single coil standard magnetic pickups please click here.
Many would credit the double coil humbucker pickup as one of the inventions that has revolutionised modern guitar playing. The humbucker pickup was first invented in 1934 by Electro-Voice, a company based in Indiana who specialised in professional quality audio equipment. Despite some early success it was not until Gibson released their PAF (Patent Applied For) humbucker pickup in 1955 that the type really caught the attention of the mainstream, and since then it has proved to be a staple on the Gibson Les Paul and many other Gibson guitars.
Although it is associated with Gibson many other manufacturers have developed their own humbucker pickup designs and the type is now arguably the most popular pickup available for the electric guitar, even some Stratocasters and Telecasters (traditionally single coil instruments) now feature them straight from the factory. What makes humbucker pickups so special is that they cut down on electrical interference that can cause a noticable hum in guitar pickups. This hum is caused by mains wiring and electrical appliances and occurs because magnetic coils function as antennas and pick up this noise and amplify it. The humbucker pickup deals with this problem by using two coils of opposite polarities made up of opposing windings of copper.
When a string moves the vibration induces current in both coils, however because of the opposite windings on each coil the humbucker pickup utilises what is known as destructive interference to cancel the "hum" and noise, and constructive interference to increase the signal generated by the string vibrations. The result is a much cleaner sound with less hum and noise, however the use of two coils in a humbucker pickup also alters the tone, making it much more "rounded" and "warmer".
There are many different types of humbucker pickups on the market today, the most common of which is the standard double coil type that features two coils side by side. Some pickup manufacturers produce humbuckers that occupy the space of a traditional single coil, they accomplish this by stacking the coils vertically rather than mounting them side by side. This allows them to be retro-fitted to guitars that only have room for single coil pickups without modifying the body. Some humbucker pickups even feature "coil splits" that allow the pickups to be modified at the flick of a button into single coils. This allows for an unparalleled amount of variety from one instruments.
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