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Choosing Pickups

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==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.
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.
 
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[[Category:Guitar]]
[[Category:Gear]]
[[Category:Pickups]]