Choosing Pickups
This page refers strictly to magnetic pickups. For piezo or hexaphonic pickups, see Special Pickups.
Contents
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.
Humbuckers also have more output than single-coils, which can make them more easily push an amp into overdrive/distortion. In the modern world, this isn't much of a feature - most amps now feature powerful pre-amp drive. Or you can resort to a fairly cheap boost pedal to make the signal hotter. Humbuckers main benefit is their higher signal-to-noise ratio (but ultimately depends on the exact models being compared). Distortion tends to add noise, so it's helpful to start with a rather clean signal, or things can quickly become a noisy mess.
Yet, single-coil and humbucker pickups have different tone. This is mostly due to their impedance - pickups have a resonant peak, a frequency where they are most responsive and have more output. For frequencies higher than the resonant peak, pickups get worse and worse at reproducing those frequencies. Single-coils have a higher resonant peak, and thus have a certain "shimmer" to their tone. They are described as glass-like. Humbuckers, in contrast, sound a bit nasal.
For all these reasons, humbuckers are generally preferable for distorted tones, while single coils are preferable for clean sounds; however, this also depends on the kind of tone you want. Many jazz players prefer a humbucker, even though they are using pristine clean tones.
Parallel-wired Humbuckers
The above descriptions refer to humbuckers wired in serial, which is the most common way to find them. The ending terminal of one coil is wired directly to the beginning terminal of the other coil. However, many manufacturers provide "4-wire" pickups. Each coil is wired independently, and the customer is given the two endpoints for each coil (hence 4-wire). You are free to wire each coil as you like.
One way to wire them is in parallel. This makes them sound similar to single coils - they have the lower output and higher resonant peak. But at the same time, they still cancel hum/noise from interference. Because they are capturing the string at two "points" as opposed to the smaller one "point" of a traditional single coil, they won't sound exactly the same as a single coil. But it is rather close.
The point here is just because it's a humbucker doesn't mean it has to sound nasal.
Many guitars that feature single-coil pickups have them wired so that the pickup selector can select two-at-once, with the selected pickups having opposite direction coil windings. This effectively makes them operate as one big parallel humbucker, having single-coil tone yet also having hum-canceling. This is how the Fender Stratocaster is wired for pickup selector positions 2 and 4, which happen to be very popular positions.
Stacked Humbuckers
Also, appearances can be decieving. Most humbuckers have two clearly visible coils or are cased but clearly wider than a single-coil. However, some pickups look nearly identical to single coils but are actually humbuckers. The two coils are stacked on top of each other, creating the appearance of a single coil. Many times the goal is to get hum-canceling, not the more nasal and higher output humbucker tone; so they are wired in parallel. Yet, this is not always the case, and you have to be careful when selecting your pickups and/or wiring them, depending on what you want.
Noiseless Single-Coils
Some pickups are designed to get single-coil tone plus humbucker interference cancellation, as well as a high signal-to-noise ratio. They use two coils - one for the regular single-coil pickup and one "dummy" coil that is unaffected by the strings but still picks up the same interference, thus cancelling it out. The pickup is designed to have an impedance matching a normal single coil, thus having the same resonant peak. And using modern magnet technology and winding techniques, manufacturers can greatly improve the SNR of a single-coil pickup.
Single-Space Humbuckers
Some humbuckers come in the same shape/size as a single-coil pickup - they simply have smaller coils, with many using rails instead of pole-pieces. They have the same characteristics as regular humbuckers, but because of their size, they can be placed under regions of the strings that normal humbuckers cannot. For example, Joe Satriani uses one for his 24 fret signature model. He feels the single space humbucker placed right up against the fretboard gets him the same tone as his neck humbucker on his 22 fret signatures.
They also make for a seamless transition from a single-coil to a humbucking pickup - no need to change or modify pickguards...or your guitar body!
Position
The position of the pickup also has a big impact on tone. A guitar typically has 2-3 pickups, labeled bridge, middle, and neck relative to their position being closer to the bridge or neck. Bridge position is very bright and tight - it is very responsive but can be a bit harsh in the high frequencies and can be a bit thin or nasal. Neck position is more loose and open, with a thicker bass response and a more hollow tone. Middle is...in the middle.
Manufacturers often create pickups as a set, with different models for the neck and bridge to provide a more consistent tone when switching between them. This doesn't mean they have the same tone - it's impossible to get the same tone given that they are "looking" at different parts of the string, which behave differently. And it makes the guitar more versatile to be able to use the different positions. The goal is to try to make the output levels consistent, as well as not have one sound dramatically different from the other.
So part of the purchasing process is determining if you want to replace all your pickups with a set or specific ones and doing research to see how well the new pickup will match the remaining ones for other positions. Also, make sure you know what position a pickup is typically used for - you may really like clips you heard of ___ pickup, but if those clips have it in the neck and you put it in the bridge slot, it's going to sound a lot different.
Also, if you just want one pickup, make sure you are getting the neck/bridge version you want - they may have the same name. For instance, John Petrucci uses a Dimarzio Crunch Lab in the bridge position and Liquifire in the neck position. These pickups have no neck/bridge variants, so you know exactly what you're getting. But if you wanted to get a Dimarzio Gravity Storm pickup, there's a Gravity Storm bridge and a Gravity Storm neck, which are very different pickups.
Tone
Guitar Considerations
The biggest consideration for a pickup should be matching its tone to your guitar's tone. You want to compensate if your guitar is naturally dark/bright, etc. For example, if you have a really bright-sounding guitar, and you install a very bright pickup, you will get a very harsh tone. Sometimes this isn't as easy to discern as just listening to your guitar unplugged - it's really about how the pickup will see the string, which isn't necessarily what you hear.
It's best to find what kind of wood the body of the guitar is made of, and if it is a solid-body or hollow-body - this should have the largest impact on the guitar's tone. Do some internet research to try to narrow things down.
Modern vs. Vintage
"Modern"-voiced pickups have a smaller resonant peak than "vintage" voiced pickups. Because the resonant peak is usually a fairly high frequency, even for humbuckers, the lower resonant peak means the tone has more bass relative to treble and sounds fuller and fatter. Typically, "blues" single coils have more of a "modern" or "fat" voicing. Vintage humbuckers sound very nasal, whereas modern humbuckers sound "bigger".
Magnet
The magnet used in a pickup is a strong part of its overall tone. It affects the frequency response, the output level, and maybe even formants beyond these things. However, I've never found strict rules that applied universally to all pickups that use ___ magnet. The coils winding material, pitch, uniformity of winds, and number of winds also play into this. However, there are some general rules:
- Ceramic: generally highest output, very responsive, tight low end and quite bright - good for bridge pickups
- Alnico V: scooped midrange and tight low end, lots of bite - good neck pickups for clear leads
- Alnico II: soft and warm - less top end bite - good if above choices are too harsh
That said, I wouldn't write-off a pickup just because it has ___ type of magnet - listen to clips or even better, find a guitar that has one that you can play.
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 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 can sound 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.
Wiring
When it comes to wiring pickups, I'm a big fan of doing it yourself. Professional installation can often cost a lot. A simple 2 humbucker wiring with serial operation only, 3-way pickup switch, and volume/tone knobs is not too difficult. That said, the more options you want, the more compicated everything is going to get. To get a "kitchen sink" setup, with the ability to toggle between parallel and serial operation; in-phase or out-of-phase; and humbucker vs. single-coil, you will need a bunch of switches and to wire lots of connections. This will likely involve drilling new holes into the face of the body for the extra switches, and possibly even routing out more space in the electronics cavity if necessary to fit all the wiring.
I recommend guitarelectronics.com for wiring diagrams - they have nearly every option you can think of and clear diagrams.
I don't recommend trying to get every possible pickup sound out of a single guitar. Here's the wirings I've used for my guitars:
Common Wirings
Classic Stratocaster
My Yamaha Pacifica originally came with a bridge humbucker and two single coil pickups. This is a nice setup - the bridge humbucker is good for heavier distortion tones, but you still have the middle, middle + neck (hum canceling), and neck positions for a decent variety of single coil tones. Unfortunately the stock pickups were not great, so I switched them for a pair of humbuckers. I've since gotten other guitars that do the hard rock sound much better, so this is transformed back to the classic Stratocaster setup with 3 single-coils.
Typically, a Strat uses true single coils, and positions 1, 3, and 5 can exhibit hum and noise, while positions 2 and 4 use bridge/middle or neck/middle. The middle pickup is reverse wound, so that when combined with one of the other two, they achieve hum/noise canceling.
That's nice, but what's even better is hum/noise canceling in all positions. So I got some Dimarzio Area 51 pickups, which are designed to get a great classic Strat sound, but without any noise.
The real Stratocaster uses one volume and two tone knobs - one tone knob is dedicated to the neck pickup and the other to both middle and bridge, volume applies to all pickups. Mine just has a single tone knob.
Ibanez Jem - Super Strat+
The Jem uses neck and bridge humbuckers (in serial) for a strong high-gain tone, capable of heavy distorted rhythms and leads. Guitars resembling the Fender Stratocaster but with humbuckers to focus on distorted sounds are called Super Strats and were very popular in the 80's. But it also has a middle position single coil pickup for sweeter tones. And to get even more versatility, position 2 uses the inner coil of the neck humbucker in combination with the middle pickup. Position 4 does the same but with the inner coil of the bridge humbucker. These pairs of pickups are wound in different directions, creating a parallel humbucker exactly like the original Stratocaster wiring. So positions 1 and 5 sound like humbuckers, while positions 2-4 sound like single coils, with positions 2 and 4 having hum canceling. Again, it uses a pair of volume/tone knobs for all pickups.
EBMM JP6
The EBMM JP6 comes with bridge and neck humbuckers and a 3-way toggle switch. The bridge and neck positions on the switch select bridge and neck humbuckers (operating in serial), respectively. The middle position is a bit unique, though. Typically, the middle position is simply both humbuckers mixed together (they both operate in serial, but are combined in parallel). This gets you a tone that is a combination of their individual sounds. This was not terribly versatile, so EBMM put a twist on this and made the middle position use only the inner coils from both humbuckers. These inner coils combine to make a parallel humbucker that gets a nice single-coil-esque tone, but with no hum/noise. Great for cleans, especially strumming.
Some JP6's have an additional Piezo-pickup-equipped bridge. This creates additional complexity. The guitar has an extra 3-way toggle switch on the top horn. This selects between piezo, magnetic, or both. Additionally, the guitar has 2 output jacks. When in use, one sends the piezo output and the other the magnetics, allowing you to use both simultaneously while routing them to completely different pieces of gear and processing. There are 3 knobs on the guitar - the standard volume/tone, which applies to magnetics only, and one for piezo volume.
I swapped out the Dimarzio Steve's Special/Air Norton originally installed with JP's more current pickups: the Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Liquifire.
Ibanez RGA8 - Versatile Setup
The stock pickups in this guitar were the worst I've ever heard on any guitar. They were replaced by a pair of Dimarzio D'Activators - very aggressive humbuckers. I wanted a versatile setup with these, so I used push/pull volume/tone pots with DPDT switches. So not only do my volume and tone knobs work by twisting them, they can actually be toggled by pulling them out or pushing them in. Each switch is wired to one pickup, so it controls whether the pickup is using parallel or serial operation. This gives all of the following options:
| 3-Way Position | Volume Knob Push/Pulled | Tone Knob Push/Pulled | Tone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neck | Pushed | n/a | Fat but aggressive and somewhat nasal humbucker tone - work well for cleans, best for singing lead |
| Neck | Pulled | n/a | Fat and bright single-coil-esque tone - works great for cleans or clean lead, good for vintage lead |
| Bridge | n/a | Pushed | Tight, aggressive bridge humbucker tone - works great for aggressive distorted rhythms and leads |
| Bridge | n/a | Pulled | Bright, vintage sounding single-coil-esque bridge tone - works good for vintage rhythm |
| Middle | Pushed | Pushed | Both humbuckers - good thick tone good for distorted rock chords |
| Middle | Pushed | Pulled | Neck humbucker and bridge single-coil-esque tone - kind of vintage but thick |
| Middle | Pulled | Pushed | Neck single-coil-esque and bridge humbucker tone - very powerful tone, but thick and shimmery - bridge humbucker reinforcing mids of neck pickup |
| Middle | Pulled | Pulled | Neck and Bridge operating like single coils - a "bigger" tone than just the neck in parallel, but a bit harsh |
Gibson Les Paul - Independent Volume/Tone
Gibson Les Pauls often come with 2 humbuckers, a 3-way switch, and 4 knobs. The humbuckers are wired to always operate in series, with the 3-way selecting bridge, neck, or both pickups. The knobs are volume and tone knobs, one set for each pickup. This allows greater versatility with the middle position - one pickup can be made more prominent than the other by adjusting relative volume, or can be used to add darkness/brightness to the tone by adjusting the tone and volume knobs. Or you can designate one pickup as the "rhythm" pickup with a lower volume for a cleaner sound, and the other as the "lead" pickup with higher volume to be louder or distort more and stand out. Then instead of switching amp channels/patches, you can just toggle which pickup you are using.
Ibanez TAM100
This is a bizarre wiring scheme. Like the Jem, it has 2 humbuckers and a middle single coil, but here the middle coil is not wired to operate by itself, only to "sweeten up" other pickups. Essentially, it is the same as the Jem's 5-way selector, except position 3 is both the neck and bridge pickups instead of the middle pickup. Positions 2 and 4 use one of the coils from one of the humbuckers plus the middle single-coil, with hum-canceling. There is also a mini-toggle switch that causes the humbuckers to operate as single-coil pickups. When using this mode and selecting position 3, you get the two inner coils of the humbuckers out-of-phase, for yet another wildly different sound.
Potentiometer and Capacitor Values
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 this demo by Seymour Duncan for audio examples.
Treble Bleed
A treble bleed is a circuit designed to provide more consistent tonal output as you lower the volume knob. Without a treble bleed, the tone will lose more high frequencies relative to low frequencies as you roll the volume knob towards 0, causing the tone to become "dull". Sometimes this effect is desirable, but usually it is not. A treble bleed is relatively simple to install, and the parts cost < $5.
All you do is wire a very small value capacitor between the input and output (the other is grounded) lugs of the volume pot. Adding a resistor wired in series or parallel can help make it work a bit better, with different preferences for single-coil vs. humbuckers. See this article from Alan Ratcliffe for more, but beware - when he says .001mf, he actually means .001μf. The capacitor should be between 680 and 2,000 pf. That's a big difference - mili vs. micro! 1,000 pf = 1 μf = .0001 mf. The resistor should be around 50% to 100% of the volume pot's resistance. Pots are typically 250kOhm, 500kOhm, or 1MOhm, so the resistor should be between 125kOhm to 1MOhm.
My advice is to buy a few different resistors and caps and test it out using alligator clips in different series vs. parallel configurations.
Some have complained these have a negative impact, even with the volume pot at max volume. This is only the case if you have a faulty volume pot, capacitor, or soldering job. If those are all ok, it will only affect tone as you roll back the volume. Now you may or may not desire the intended effect, but that's a different question altogether.
Actives vs. Passives
Active pickups use an internal pre-amp to buffer/modify the signal before it leaves the pickup. This requires a 9V battery inside the guitar to power the pre-amp. For some models, users insist using 2 9V batteries in series for a higher voltage improves their operation. The benefits are that you can get higher output and better SNR than with passives, for the most part.
Actives tend to feel a bit different than passives, having a bit more compression (less dynamic response). They also have a different frequency response, with a lower bass response and wider, less pronounced resonant peak. That can make them sound more consistent over sustained notes, but also earn them the description of "plasticky".
Personally, I have tried to make actives work for me, but I just prefer passives. I have used the EMG 81 bridge/85 neck set as well as Seymour Duncan AHB-1 set (in a couple different guitars). These are quite hot pickups - I found there was no real reason to require the higher output. In fact, it was a nuisance, because I'd have to make some big gain adjustments when switching guitars. The increased SNR is nice, but not as noticeable as I thought it would be - not enough to justify the actives over passives. The main issue is that passives seem to respond tonally to my playing better - I can pick harder or softer with different stroke angles and string positions, and the passives let me hear it all very clearly. The actives always sound the same.
Major Brands
- Dimarzio - One of the 2 biggest brands in pickups. Wide selection, covering improved versions of classic pickups (better SNR, etc.) to unique creations covering all genres. Lots of endorsed artists, particularly shredders like John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Tosin Abasi...
- Seymour Duncan - The other big name - very comparable in price/quality to Dimarzio. Huge selection, experience, and endorsed artist list.
- EMG - EMG is the big name in active pickups, with Zakk Wylde and Metallica endorsing their pickups.
- Lundgren - Smaller shop that makes a fairly wide range of pickups, ranging from improved versions of classic sounds to original creations. Widely known for very aggressive pickups for very aggressive metal bands, in particular Meshuggah. More expensive than the above brands.
- Bare Knuckle - Another small shop that is very highly regarded, but very expensive. Use scatter-winding techniques to improve SNR and output. Popular for rock/metal humbuckers. Endorse Misha Mansoor of Periphery and Between the Buried and Me among others.
- Lace - Known for some of their unique designs that don't use traditional materials, methods, or appearance.
- Fender - Make the stock pickups for their guitars. Good for 100% authenticity to classic tones, but can probably find better options above for lower cost.
- Gibson - Make the stock pickups for their guitars. Good for 100% authenticity to classic tones, but can probably find better options above for lower cost.
Size
Pickups generally come in two sizes: regular and F-Spaced. F-Spaced means they are a bit wider to properly align the pole pieces under the strings for guitars with 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
Finding the right pickups can be a major trial and error process. None of my guitars have their original pickups and some have had more than 1 swap. Even listening to all the clips and internet advice and even demo'ing in different guitars may not suffice to get a complete handle on what to expect. It isn't until you install the new pickups, verify everything is wired correctly, put some fresh strings on the guitar, and play for a month or two that you can really determine if things still need improvement. This can mean doing 2 or more swaps before you settle, which is a pain due to all the installation labor/costs and transaction costs for buying/selling pickups. In the long run, it is worth it.
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.