8,720
edits
Changes
m
no edit summary
{{Top-Level Crumbs|4}}
{{Gear Crumbs|2}}
{{Buyer's Guide Crumbs|3}}
''This page refers strictly to magnetic pickups. For piezo or hexaphonic pickups, see [[Special Pickups]].''
==Single Coils vs. Humbuckers==
One of the largest issues involved in magnetic guitar pickups is that they are prone to picking up interference, such as from flourescent lights or radio signals. This produces hum and noise. Single coil pickups use one coil, whereas humbuckers use two coils wound in opposite directions. Humbuckers pick up the interference; but with opposite voltages in each coil, the interference from each coil cancels the other out. This is why they are called humbuckers - they have less noise and hum than single coils, at least before "noiseless" single-coils were created.
==Phase==
4-wire humbuckers or pairs of pickups can be wired in-phase or out-of-phase. Typically, they are wired in-phase, meaning pickups reinforce each other, providing a solid frequency response across the entire frequency spectrum through the resonant peaks. However, sometimes they are wired for an out-of-phase . Because the string passes each coil at a different point, there are differences in tone unique to each pickup. Everything else cancels out. The tone, which can sound a bit thin and scooped (low midrange). This is nice for certain effects, or a "spankin" funky type sound.
Generally, you don't want them to be out-of-phase, so keep that in mind when wiring them. If a humbucker or pair of pickups sounds strangely weak and scooped, the wiring may be wrong. But if you want more tonal options, you can purposefully wire a pair or two out-of-phase.
The resistance of the potentiometers will impact the tone of the pickups. First, the pickups wired directly to the output jack will give you the maximum output and brightness of the pickups - it's often best to connect them directly at first to hear what they sound like. Higher value potentiometers tend to sound most similar to direct wiring, retaining almost full brightness. For high-output humbuckers with a bright sound for metal tones, 500 K or 1 M pots are recommended. For vintage-style single-coils that tend to have huge high-end resonance and can get shrill, 250 K may be preferable.
For the capacitor used on the tone knob, the most common values are between .047μf and .022μf. Larger capacitance values mean lower cutoff frequencies and darker tones when rolled to 0. See [http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/customize-your-caps/ this demo by Seymour Duncan] for audio examples.
===Treble Bleed===
== Size ==
Pickups generally come in two sizes: normal regular and ''F-Spaced. '''. F-Spaced ''' means they are a bit wider to properly align the pole pieces under the strings for guitars with [[Choosing_a_Guitar#Neck_Size|wider necks]]. They are called F-Spaced because that's the traditional spacing for guitars with Floyd-Rose style bridges; however, many Floyd clones use the same spacing. Using non-F-Spaced pickups on a Floyd-equipped guitar results in a weaker output from the highest and lowest string, and possibly less-than-optimal output on the others.
== Trial and Error ==
The best advice I can give you is to not wire everything up exactly like you want at first. In fact, disconnect the wires connected to the output jack from whatever they are wired to (most likely the pickup selector switch and/or volume/tone pots). Install the new pickups into the guitar body, but don't wire in their electronics. Use some gator clips to connect each pickup directly to the output jack. This is like having volume and tone set to 10 (actually maybe a little hotter and brighter). It will give you a quick means to demo the pickups extensively before deciding they are keepers and wiring up the full circuit with volume/tone knob, pickup selector switch, and other frills/options.
{{top}}
{{Gear Crumbs|2}}
{{Buyer's Guide Crumbs|3}}
[[Category:Guitar]]
[[Category:Gear]]
[[Category:Pickups]]