Alright, let’s talk HSS pickups! What makes electric guitars so interesting is the flexibility that comes with them. You can shape your tone in almost any way imaginable, all while using different guitar amps, pedals, and other effects units. However, all of these devices actually work with the signal that comes from your pickups. And […]

So you want that Hendrix tone from your Strat, and luckily for you, a lot of single-coil pickups can help in that quest. Even to this day, single-coil pickups remain almost unchanged in their basic design compared to the old days of the electric guitar. Although humbuckers or “double-coil” pickups don’t have that hum in […]

So what should you look for in a fretless bass pickup? First and foremost, it should complement the musical freedom a fretless bass affords. You want a pickup that can catch bends and other subtle microtonal shifts. It also has to be articulate and precise—the last thing you want is a pickup that sounds thumpy […]

Humbuckers for coil-splitting lets you have the best of both worlds—a humbucker that can also bring the bright power of a single-coil. While you can technically split any humbuckers coils, some of them pull it off better than others. You’ll also find humbuckers designed for easy splitting, with top switches and other features that make […]

The right pickups can make or break your surf guitar sound. A bright, relatively hot single-coil pickup is the go-to standard. Most importantly, they need to complement the tremolo and reverb effects that are the heart of the classic surf sound. Surf rock might have fallen off the pop culture radar at the moment, but […]

Bridge humbucker pickups and versatility – when a lot of people praise certain pickups for their versatility, but what does that mean in practice? There are two main ways a pickup like a humbucker can be versatile: stylistically and functionally. The former means the humbucker can produce a wider range of sounds, making it more […]

The semi-hollowbody guitar’s design gives them an equally unique tone. The sound chamber gives them an acoustic-like warmth and attack, which is then amplified by the pickups, giving them enough output to play in non-acoustic ensembles. This makes semi-hollowbody guitars perfect for jazz, and they also enjoy quite a bit of popularity in the folk, […]

So . . . P90 vs humbucker for jazz—conventional wisdom says the humbucker is the hands-down best pickup for this music genre. But this wisdom was coined decades ago, and modern jazz encompasses a much broader sonic landscape. This begs the question of whether the humbucker is still the best pickup choice for jazz guitarists, […]

Mounting a P90 in a humbucker slot makes a lot of sense. After all, switching out your pickups is one of the easiest (and cheapest) ways to customize your guitar’s sound. Changing from a humbucker to a single-coil pickup will give you the most dramatic sonic shift. Unfortunately, it traditionally means other shifts, too, since […]

Mini humbucker for Strats – why do you need them? Well, the Fender Stratocaster is best-known for having a bright, cutting tone. Part of this is from the guitar itself, but a lot of it has to do with the pickups that are used on the instrument—traditionally single-coil pickups, and often on the hotter side. […]