The guitar pickups are what makes your instrument audible. They are very vital as the wood of the guitar, your guitar strings, your guitar amp and they demand a lot of thoughtfulness.

Pickups are made in many shapes and sizes for different purposes. Many musical genres require a specific pickup combination for producing the desired tone. It’s important to buy the right choice.

So, let’s discuss the pros and cons of each type of pickup and for what scenario they suit the best.

Pickup: What is it?

A pickup is a simple magnet with a lengthy coil wound around it that converts the vibration of your strings into an electronic signal. Pickups are used on electric and acoustic instruments. There are 3 main categories of pickups for the Electric Guitar & Bass. They are ‘Single Coil’, ‘Humbucker’ & ‘P90’.

Single Coil

Single coil pickups use just one magnet. They are brighter than humbuckers or P90s. Single coil pickups are famously used for genres such as country and surf, though they sound great in almost any genre. The only downside of a single coil pickup is that it’s inefficiency to deliver high levels of distortion for hard rock or heavy metal.

Humbucker

Humbuckers are fundamentally two single coil pickups working together. Single coil pickups are prone to 60-cycle hum, where background electrical noise is picked up along with your guitar signal. Humbuckers were designed to “buck” this hum, so is the name. Humbuckers have a warmer tone than single coils have, so they’re very preferred for jazz. However, due to their higher output (output=volume) they outperform single coil pickups in genres where high levels of distortion are required. The only genres humbuckers can’t really shine well is surf & country, but apart from that they perform well anywhere, depending on the output level.

P90

P90 pickups have a higher output than single coil pickups, but not that much of the humbuckers. Their tone has a bit more depth than your standard single coil, but not to the extent of humbuckers. P90 pickups are excellent for blues and rock, but not for hard rock.