PICKUPS

The next and, in my opinion, most critical factor of guitar tone are the pickups. These coiled magnets placed in different configurations in the guitar body literally “pick up” the vibrations of the strings and translate it to a signal. Guitars contain one or more pickup(s), which are usually placed at the neck, middle, and bridge of the guitar. Using a selector switch, guitarists can choose which pickups are picking up the sound. Many guitarists take advantage of different pickups, sometimes combining them to sculpt different tones for different songs.

The first type of pickup is the single-coil, a single bar magnet that often evokes a louder, thinner, and sometimes brighter sound. For reference, listen to Fender Stratocaster or Telecaster players such as Jimi Hendrix, John Mayer, or Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante. The neck pickup has a signature mid-friendly boost and snap to it, especially when combined with the middle pickup, and often gets its spotlight in blues and funk styles. The bridge pickups tend to have more treble, less mid/bass frequencies, and are often used for rock rhythm playing and wide open chords. Artists such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, and Dick Dale are known to use single-coil bridge sounds. The middle-pickup tends to blend the two voicings (neck and bridge), so it’s not as conventional to see it used on its own, but many guitars will allow players to combine the neck or bridge pickups.

Though single-coil pickups serve many great roles, those who seek thicker tone rather than twang may use humbuckers. Invented to eliminate noise, or “hum”, these pickups have a slightly darker but more filled-out sound. Famous guitars using humbuckers include the Gibson Les Paul, Fender Jaguar, Ibanez RG series, and a huge array of metal-friendly guitars. They can appear as two stacked single-coils or small covered rectangles and have definitely dominated the guitar world due to their silent but deadly design. Listening to guitarists such as Slash of Guns N’ Roses, Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders, or James Hetfield of Metallica, you can hear a wide range of tonal possibilities when using the humbucker. One critical factor in humbucker sound is whether they are passive or active (using a battery). The former will invite more dynamics thanks to a less-compressed signal, while the latter will feel brighter and give a more even signal. Rock and metal music is filled with humbucker users, though single-coils are perfectly capable of the job. The real trick is controlling the other factors, sculpting your sound, and making things sound just plain good.