![Single coil string anim](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Single_coil_string_anim.gif)
A single coil pickup is a type of magnetic
transducer
A transducer is a device that converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another.
Transducers are often employed at the boundaries of automation, measurement, and contr ...
, or
pickup, for the
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
and the
electric bass
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck
The ...
. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single coil pickups are one of the two most popular designs, along with dual-coil or "
humbucking
Mains hum, electric hum, cycle hum, or power line hum is a sound associated with alternating current which is twice the frequency of the mains electricity. The fundamental frequency of this sound is usually double that of fundamental 50/60 Hz, '' ...
" pickups.
History
Beauchamp
![RickenbackerFryingpanPatentDiagram](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/RickenbackerFryingpanPatentDiagram.png)
In the mid-1920s
George Beauchamp, a Los Angeles, California guitarist, began experimentation with electric amplification of the guitar. Originally using a phonograph pickup assembly, Beauchamp began testing many different combinations of coils and magnets trying to create the first electromagnetic guitar pickup.
His earliest coils were wound using a motor from a washing machine. Later on he switched to a sewing machine motor, and eventually used single coiled magnets.
Beauchamp was backed in his efforts by
Adolph Rickenbacker
Adolph Rickenbacker (April 1, 1887 – March 21, 1976) was a Swiss-American electrical engineer who co-founded the Rickenbacker guitar company along with George Beauchamp and Paul Barth.
Rickenbacker was born in Basel, Switzerland as Adolf Ri ...
, an engineer and wealthy owner of a successful tool and die business. Beauchamp eventually produced the first successful single coil pickup. The pickup consisted of two massive "U" shaped magnets and one coil and was known as the "
horseshoe pickup
A horseshoe is a fabricated product designed to protect a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toe ...
".
The two horseshoe-shaped magnets surrounded the strings that passed over a single core plate (or blade) in the center of the coil.
Gibson
The
Gibson Guitar Corporation
Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was forme ...
introduced the "bar pickup" in 1935 for its new line of Hawaiian lap steel guitars. The pickup's basic construction is that of a metal blade inserted through the coil as a shared pole piece for all the strings. A pair of large flat magnets were fastened below the coil assembly.
In 1936 Gibson introduced the
ES-150
The Gibson Guitar Corporation's ES-150 guitar is generally recognized as the world's first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. The ES stands for Electric Spanish, and Gibson designated it "150" because they priced it (in an in ...
, its first electric Spanish styled guitar.
The ES-150 was outfitted with the bar pickup. Jazz guitar innovator,
Charlie Christian
Charles Henry Christian (July 29, 1916 – March 2, 1942) was an American swing and jazz guitarist.
Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar and a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained nat ...
, began playing an ES-150 in the late 1930s with the
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing".
From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His co ...
Orchestra. This caused the popularity of the electrified guitar to soar. Due to Christian's close association with the ES-150 it began being referred to as the "Charlie Christian Model" and Gibson's now famous bar pickup as the "Charlie Christian pickup" or "CC unit".
Common designs
Gibson P-90
![P90 soapbar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/P90_soapbar.jpg)
The P-90 is a single coil pickup designed by the
Gibson Guitar Corporation
Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was forme ...
.
These pickups have a large, flat coil with adjustable steel screws as pole pieces, and a pair of flat alnico bar magnets lying under the coil bobbin. The adjustable pole pieces pick up the magnetism from the magnets. Moving the screw closer or further away from the magnet determines signal strength, thus tone as well. There are two variations of P-90 pickup that differ mainly by mounting options:
* Soap bar casing has true rectangular shape and the mounting screws are contained within the coil perimeter, positioned between the pole pieces, between strings 2-3 and 4-5, thus creating irregular and somewhat unusual pattern. Occasionally, they are mistaken for pole pieces; thus, the P-90 is sometimes erroneously said to have eight pole pieces. The "soap bar" nickname most probably comes from its predominantly rectangular shape and proportions resembling a bar of soap, and the fact that the first P-90s on the original
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typi ...
Model of 1952 were white.
![Gibson P90 dogear](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Gibson_P90_dogear.jpg)
* Dog ear is a casing type with extensions at both sides of pickup that somewhat resemble dog's ears. These are extensions of the predominantly rectangular cover that encompass the outlying mounting screws. Dog-ear P-90 pickups were commonly mounted on Gibson's hollowbody guitars like the
ES-330 and occasionally on solid body models like the
Les Paul Junior. The same pickups were also available on Epiphone models (since Gibson was building Epiphone guitars in the 1950s) and the design is best remembered for its appearance on the hollow body
Epiphone Casino
The Epiphone Casino is a thinline hollow body electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone, a branch of Gibson. The guitar debuted in 1961 and has been associated with such guitarists as Howlin' Wolf, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, K ...
of the mid to late 1960s.
Telecaster design
![1966 Fender Telecaster (SN159266) body (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/1966_Fender_Telecaster_%28SN159266%29_body_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The
Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...
features two different single coils. The neck pickup features a metal cover and produces a mellower sound, while the bridge pickup has exposed pole pieces and produces an extremely twangy, sharp tone with exaggerated treble response,
because the bridge pickup is mounted on a steel plate. These design elements allow musicians to emulate
steel guitar
A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...
sounds, making it particularly appropriate for country music.
Pickups are selected with a three-position switch, and two wiring schemes exist:
* Vintage: 1) neck pickup with treble cutoff for a bassier sound; 2) neck pickup only; 3) bridge pickup only.
* Modern: 1) neck pickup only, with no treble cutoff; 2) neck and bridge; 3) bridge pickup only.
The Fender Esquire has a variation to the Vintage wiring scheme by using the scheme on a single pickup. This gives a treble cutoff in the first position, normal in the middle position, and a tone control cutoff in the third position.
Stratocaster design
![Stratocaster pickups](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Stratocaster_pickups.jpg)
The traditional
Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...
design guitar features three single coils.
The guitarist can control which pickup or combination of pickups are selected with a lever
switch
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
. The pickup positions are usually referred to as the
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
, middle and
neck
The neck is the part of the body on many vertebrates that connects the head with the torso. The neck supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that carry sensory and motor information from the brain down to the rest of the body. In ...
pickups based on their proximity to those parts of the instrument. The neck pickup typically has the lowest output, with the most mid-range and bass response, whereas the bridge pickup has the higher output (because the strings at the bridge move less) and the greatest treble response, with a slight twang to it. The sound of the middle pickup is similar to that of the neck pickup, albeit with slightly less bass and more treble. However many players, such as
Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was a founding member of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. He is prolific in creating guitar ...
, find it somewhat of an obstruction to the picking hand, so loosen the mounting screws such that it lies flush with the pickguard.
Modern Stratocasters have five-position pickup selector switch. Positions 1, 3 and 5 activate only one pickup (bridge, middle or neck respectively), while positions 2 and 4 activate a combination of two pickups (bridge and middle, or middle and neck, respectively). Some pickup sets have a reverse wound and reverse polarity middle pickup that when in combination with the normal bridge or neck pickups will cancel electromagnetic interference (noise/hum) which single coil pickups suffer badly from. The sonic effect of positions 2 and 4 is sometimes referred to as a "quack" or "notch positions", and some guitar notation includes directions to use these pickup combinations. One example is "
Sultans of Swing
"Sultans of Swing" is a song by British rock band Dire Straits, written by lead vocalist Mark Knopfler. The demo of the song was recorded at Pathway Studios, North London, in July 1977 and quickly acquired a following after it was put in rotati ...
" by
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums and percuss ...
which is played in position 2 (bridge and middle).
Noise problems
Two types of noise afflict magnetic guitar pickups. ''Hum'' is caused by magnetic fields due to
power frequency currents in electrical equipment, whereas ''buzz'' is propagated as radio transmissions and sounds more like static. The sources of buzz are many, but one example is an AC power tool with a brush motor. The
brush
A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped durin ...
makes and breaks electrical contact with the commutator segment several thousand times a second at variable frequency dependent on load thus causing
radio frequency noise.
The search for an acceptable solution to mains hum gained new impetus around 1995 as guitar players became increasingly intolerant of degraded stacked single-coil sound. Fender was researching new techniques to solve the loss of tone around that time and eventually came out with their
Vintage Noiseless The Fender Noiseless™ series is a line of electric guitar pickups made by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation designed to cancel 60 cycle (Hz) hum noise while retaining the characteristic sound of single coil pickups. Introduced in 1998, ...
design around 1998.
Notable single coil pickups
There are several well-known single coil pickups that have a distinctive sound:
![Lipstick2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Lipstick2.jpg)
* Rickenbacker pickups (including the original 1930s "horseshoe" pickup as used in lap steel and solid-body upright basses, and later 6 string electric guitars, pedal steels, and electric bass guitars; also the "Toaster" and "Hi-Gain")
* Gibson bar pickup (1935) — later called the
Charlie Christian pickup
The Gibson Guitar Corporation's ES-150 guitar is generally recognized as the world's first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. The ES stands for Electric Spanish, and Gibson designated it "150" because they priced it (in an ins ...
(1938)
* Gibson
P-90
The P-90 (sometimes written P90) is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson since 1946. Gibson is still producing P-90s, and there are outside companies that manufacture replacement versions. Compared to other single coil desi ...
(1946)
* Fender Telecaster, Stratocaster, Jazzmaster, Jaguar, and other pickups
* Danelectro
Lipstick
Lipstick is a cosmetic product used to apply coloration and texture to lips, often made of wax and oil. Different pigments are used to produce color, and minerals such as silica may be used to provide texture. The use of lipstick dates back to ...
* Gretsch pickups (including the "HiLoTron")
*
DeArmond
Rowe Industries was a manufacturer of guitar pickups and other music-related devices, as well as electrical components utilized in the aerospace industry into the 1980s.
Owner Horace "Bud" Rowe established a working relationship with budding el ...
pickups (found on various '50s and '60s guitars by various manufacturers including Gretsch, Guild, Epiphone, Martin, Kustom, Harmony, Regal, Premier, Silvertone, and others; the trade name is now owned by Fender; single coil models including the 200 aka Dynasonic,
2K, and 2000, "mustache", various "gold foil" types, and many clip on, rail, or screw mount pickups designed for acoustic guitars and other instruments). The Fender "Tele-Sonic" featured large DeArmond single coils.
* Valco single coil pickups by Ralph Keller (1954) can be found in Airline, Supro, National, English Electronics, Custom Kraft, and a few Gretsch models of guitar from the '50s, '60s, and '70s. The majority of these pickups maintain the physical appearance of a larger, double coil humbucker pickup. Although consisting of a single coil, the pickup contains a second, off-set magnet which cancels hum. Early variations on the Valco-made over-strings "horseshoe" pickup can be found on a number of similarly branded
lap steel guitar
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...
s, such as Oahu.
* Epiphone "New York" pickups
*
Lace Sensor
The Lace Sensor is a guitar pickup designed by Don Lace and manufactured by AGI (Actodyne General International) since 1985. Lace Sensors are true single coil pickups; however, internally they are different from classic single coils. The chief di ...
pickups (1987)
References
Bibliography
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External links
The (commercial) history of Gibson pickups*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20101220105620/http://www.kinman.com/guitar-pickups/stratocaster/impersonator54/ Kinman Guitar Electrix - Impersonator 54 noiseless Strat pickup
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Guitar pickups
Electromagnetic coils