Pickups are essential components of the sound of a bass guitar – from gritty power rock to sparkling slap-style funk and everything in between – that allows players to craft their own unique tone. Picking out the appropriate ones can take your playing to new levels.
How do you select a specific model of pickup truck from all those available?
Types of Pickups
Most bass pickups fall into three categories – single-coil, split-coil and humbuckers. While each type has unique qualities and uses, all three models share one thing in common – they convert vibrations of your bass strings to electrical fluctuations which are then picked up by an amplifier and converted into sound.
Magnets in pickups also play an integral role in shaping tone and output, and Alnico 3, with its vintage sound but weak magnetic pull, is the most commonly used magnet type; however, options such as Alnico 5 or 8 may offer fatter sound profiles for alternative options.
There are other kinds of bass pickups that don’t utilize magnets at all, including piezoelectric pickups – usually seen on acoustic electric guitars but occasionally found in basses as well. While less prevalent, these piezoelectric pickups produce an extremely clean and bright sound; soapbar-shaped or MM-style pickups are great examples of such pickups.
Single Coil Pickups
Single-coil pickups consist of one or more magnets encasing a coil of copper wire. When vibrating metal guitar strings pass through this magnetic field, they cause this coil of copper wire to generate electric current which in turn generates soundwaves transmitted through its body and amplifier. Single-coil pickups are known for their clear, bright tone – ideal for styles like pop, blues and country where clean tones are sought out as well as providing players with added punch in fast riffs or leads.
Single-coil pickup magnets typically take the form of bars or pole pieces embedded within a bobbin structure that holds copper wire in place, typically covered with either polyurethane or heavy formvar to protect it from environmental elements. Each copper wire has thousands of turns that determine its tone when selected between Alnico or ceramic varieties – these factors all have significant bearing on how your pickup sounds overall.
Depending on the type of guitar, its bobbin may be composed of either vulcanized material or glass-filled nylon. Most bobbins feature two small plates at either end to keep magnets stable while also reducing vibration and noise emissions. It is then installed into the guitar body via its pickguard.
Guitarists can install single-coil pickups by carefully following the manufacturer’s assembly instructions. Most kits contain all necessary parts; you may even find pre-wired pickups like Seymour Duncan’s DG-20 David Gilmour set. These sets include replacement bobbins, magnets, expansion caps and covers that make installation simpler.
Some guitarists favor single-coil designs because they sound more natural and less harsh than humbuckers, though their output and dynamic range may be lacking compared with humbucking pickups. For more power and clarity, it may be beneficial to upgrade to a humbucking pickup with built-in preamps that increase signal while suppressing noise or feedback. Alternatively, active pickups with built-in preamps that boost signal while simultaneously suppressing feedback are another popular choice among guitarists.
Humbucker Pickups
If you want your guitar to have more power and bite than single-coil pickups can offer, humbuckers may be your solution. Humbuckers use two coils with opposing polarities and windings to cancel out the 60Hz hum produced by most electric guitars – creating thicker sound suitable for genres like metal. Plus they add some raunchiness when applied to blues or country styles as well.
Humbuckers produce their output depending on how much magnetic force is applied to its coils and the number of windings around them, and as more windings and magnets are added, output increases proportionately – perfect for heavy styles that need to cut through noise while driving speaker into self-destruction!
Humbuckers offer more output, warmer and fuller tones than single-coils and are especially suited to lead playing. Their midrange emphasis makes them great choices for lead work.
One of the primary differences between humbuckers and other types of pickups is their resistance to feedback and other forms of electromagnetic interference, thanks to coils designed specifically to absorb any sound vibrations originating outside your guitar (such as air vibrations rumbling by your amp) before reaching its pickups.
Humbucking pickups provide more clarity than single-coils as they’re less susceptible to losing clarity when overdriven, meaning your guitar can be played at higher volumes without losing its voice or needing as many tone controls.
When selecting pickups, your musical genre will play the most influential role. But remember: no single pickup fits every sound! Trying different options is a great way to find what fits best!
Split Coil Pickups
Coil splitting refers to using only one coil of a humbucker in order to produce single-coil sound on guitars such as the PRS SE Custom 24 and various models by Jackson and Chapman, such as Jackson Chapman models with coil split. Although coil splitting makes single coil sounding guitars possible, its sound does not always mimic single-coil sound due to factors like type of humbucker used, its setup, and EQ settings.
Coil splitting is usually accomplished using a push-pull knob which enables you to either switch off (switch off) or activate (keep active) the north coil of a humbucker pickup, providing two distinct sounds from one pickup and giving more tone-shaping options.
Coil tapping your humbucking guitar can add another level of tonal variety. Coil tapping differs from coil splitting in that its signal comes from somewhere other than its endpoint, thus decreasing output.
Coil tapping works best with single-coil guitars due to their design; due to the limited coils used on them, their sound more closely resembles that of an actual single coil pickup than that produced by humbuckers which use more windings for higher voltage output and may therefore be less sensitive to changes.
Are you searching for more tonal flexibility without making permanent mods to your guitar? P-Rails pickups offer the solution: They’re specifically made to work with standard humbucking guitars and provide an all-in-one pickup that emulates single coil, P-90 and humbucker sounds simultaneously. Simply drop into any standard humbucking rout for instant access to all these sounds: midrange bark from Les Paul, clean bell-like clarity of Strat and shimmery P-90 tones! They can even be split for single coil tones if desired.