As guitar players, everyone is always on the never-ending quest for an improved tone. They try different strings, amps, pedals, etc. But one thing that maximum of us dare not mess with is pickups. Because quite honestly, they’re intimidating. And the sheer thought of tearing out the guts of the beautiful guitar can be disgusting.
A guitar pickup is a series of magnets wrapped thousands of times in insulated copper wire coils, which produces a magnetic field around the strings. It then creates a voltage when the strings vibrate, which travels through the cables and gear and finally leaves the amp as sound.
And while numerous factors along the signal chain determine the tone of that sound, it all commences with the pickup design.
How to make guitar pickups sound better? A pickup is a complete system. The player can give the pickup more windings to make it sound better. Another thing to do is to adjust the pole pieces for a brighter sound. It depends on the further parts in the pickup. The pole-pieces and magnets play an enormous role in determining the character of a pickup. And putting all the similar components on a baseplate of different shape and alloy will also make it sound very diverse. One can also use magnets underneath the pickup to make it sound better.
Moreover, guitar pickups are made to work fit in sets for different locations in the guitar, e.g., neck, middle, and bridge, based on the pickups’ outputs, resonant frequencies, and general voicings. The most important reason for this involves the physics of guitar string amplitude and how a pickup understands that motion to produce sound.
Tips for Better Pickups Sound:
Although they are comparatively simple devices, pickups are greatly affected by quite a few variables that can ultimately influence the way they perform in the guitar. Insignificant changes in the way one uses them, adjust them, and care for them can also lead to dramatic differences in their sound.
Dig into these tips, tricks, and scraps of general advice that will help one to get the most out of their own electromagnetic devices.
01. Magnet Settlement Impacts Tone:
More precisely, the way that any pickup’s design places the magnet—either within the coil acting as the pole pieces or underneath the coil in contact with steel poles that are going through the loop—impacts the pickup’s brightness and clarity.
Magnet-in-coil is brighter and more precise; magnet-beneath-coil is thicker and meatier (sometimes with a slightly granular edge). Giving some extra windings to the magnet can influence the quality of the tone the pickup produces.
It is by no means a better-or-worse situation, but just another means of understanding any pickup’s likely involvement in the tone.
02. A Pickup’s Form and Width Affect its Tone:
The slimmer the window that senses string vibration, the tighter and brighter a pickup’s tone is. A wider pickup, then, such as a full-sized humbucker, will usually capture a somewhat warmer, richer sound than a narrower mini-humbucker or a single-coil design.
Taken further, a comparatively wide single-coil like a P-90 will incline to sound warmer and more vibrant than a narrower single-coil.
It’s just another means of expecting what one will get from different pickup types. And as with most of the above, the caveat “all things being equal” also applies; other aspects of any two pickups’ relative construction might impact the narrower pickup toward being thicker and warmer and the wider one to being brighter.
03. Polish the Guitar, Not the Pickups:
Keeping the guitar clean and polished not only helps to keep it looking its best and to reserve its finish in the process, but the practice can also often make any guitar more comfortable to play, by removing the gunk that gums up the fretting hand and impedes hardware.
What one doesn’t want to do as part of that polishing process, though, is to get any polish into the pickups. Stray liquid of any kind, polish included, will trickle into the coils and eventually cause shorts and malfunction.
When applying polish to the guitar, first cover the pickups with a dry cloth to prevent any excess from getting in, and keep them protected until one has glossed away any residue from the body. If the player needs to shine up the pickups themselves, clean them gently with a dry, lint-free cloth.
04. Sweats? Wipe Them Down:
If the sweat a lot while playing, keep a hand towel nearby to wipe the top of the guitar and the mounting rings and pickups to keep that acidic moisture from getting into the coils. Some players sweat, some don’t; if one does, they’ll want to keep that stuff out of their pickups.
05. Setting the Pickup Height Correctly:
This one is a common problem we overhear all the time. It’s so easy to fix – and to diagnose. If the pickups are too high, the player will get all sorts of unwanted tones caused by the magnetic field of the pickup.
If they are too low, one will have a weak and underwhelming tone. Here’s how to measure and check the pickup height.
For starters, one always wants to use their ears. Start by pressing the low E string on the highest fret, and measure the bass side of the pickup to the bottom of the string. The ideal starting point height should be about 1/8″.
Now, do the same thing on the treble side – it should be 1/16″. Measuring the pickup height will make sure that the pickups are sounding – and working – at their best.
06. Greater Resistance Doesn’t Always Mean “More Powerful” Pickups:
In general, a pickup’s resistance reading is an excellent irregular indication of its output power, but that should always include the caveat “all else being equal.” Numerous other factors are influencing how hot a given pickup will sound in the guitar, and the raw resistance reading doesn’t always tell one that on its own.
The type and strong point of the magnets used, the gauge of wire that the pickup’s coil is (or coils are) coiled with, the inductance of the pickup, and its overall design and construction will all influence how hard any pickup drives the amp, as well as other features of its sound.
If the player is getting onto the pickup-swap, it’s worth reading up on these other factors before making snap decisions on purchases based on resistance specifications alone.
07. One Doesn’t Need High-Output Pickups for Better Sound:
There are some excessive high-output pickups out there, and occasionally one of these is just the ticket for individual styles of music—heavy rock, metal, contemporary shred—but one doesn’t necessarily need a super-hot pickup for better sound.
Put another way; one doesn’t need a high-gain pickup to yield triumphant high-gain tones. Often a standard or “vintage-wind” pickup will permit more significant dynamics and a deeper, more vibrant tone, which the player can inject into an overdrive, distortion, or fuzz pedal or a high-gain amp channel to produce all the sound they need, yet with a more musical tone and greater clarity than they might achieve with several super-hot pickups.
08. Adjust Those Humbucker Pole Pieces:
The single row of adjustable threaded-steel poles in the traditional full-sized humbucker is often viewed as a means of adjusting string-to-string output balance. Still, with a little lateral thinking, they can be used for significant tonal adjustments, too.
To prepare for this tips, first, think of each coil in the humbucker as its single-coil pickup; then consider that it’s positioning between bridge and neck much inclines the sound that any individual pickup “picks up” from the strings.
Closer to the bridge is brighter and sharper, closer to the neck is warmer and rounder. Since each humbucker has two coils, their subsequent voice is a blend of the position of these two coils.
Now, note that the traditional Gibson neck-position humbucker has its adjustable poles nearest the end of the fingerboard, while the bridge-position humbucker its adjustable poles nearest the bridge.
To make the bridge pick up a little warmer, lower the adjustable poles further into the coil, and raise the entire pickup closer to the strings so that the coil also from the bridge is relatively closer to the strings than it was previously, and therefore relatively louder in the dual-coil blend. One can play with the balance of these variables to fine-tune their tone from each pickup.
Things to Consider Regarding Pickups:
01. Study Your Preferences
While no pickup model is only designed for a particular style of music, individual pickups usually work better with specific tones.
The primary factor affecting tone is output level:
- Higher outputs work well for heavily distorted sounds.
- Lower outputs work well for a cleaner, more dynamic sounds.
- And it eventually boils down to just that.
So, always pick and choose the features based mainly on the sounds one uses most often.
02. Regulate external tonal influences:
We all know that the guitar tone is based on several factors besides just the pickups. Pedals and amps being the two most notable examples.
However, there are also some elusive factors on the guitar itself, which one may not have considered.
These are the four big ones:
- Volume Dial – 250k pots are warmer, 500k pots are brighter
- Strings – pure nickel is darker, while steel/nickel-plated steel is brighter.
- Woods – maple, ash, and alder are brighter, while mahogany and rosewood are darker.
- Neck style – bolted necks are brighter with less sustain, while the set-in neck is warmer with more sustain.
And so, based on the existing tones of the current guitar, it makes sense to adjust the pickup selections accordingly.
03. Find What Fits:
Depending on whether the guitar currently uses single-coils or humbuckers, the body will be cut to fit that specific-sized pickup inside the cavity.
If the player is switching from one single-coil to another, or one humbucker to another, the change is simple.
However, If the player is switching from one to the other, one can see how that might present a problem. But don’t worry, because there is a solution that doesn’t involve cutting new holes in the guitar. These days, there are sufficient of single-coils shaped like humbuckers, and vice versa.
Related Questions:
Why are replacement guitar pickups labeled “Neck” or “Bridge,” what is the difference?
A guitar string, when plucked, creates a larger amplitude closer to the neck compared to closer to the bridge. The vibrating string disrupts the pickup’s magnetic field, induces an electric current, and output is generated.
Where that pickup is placed along the string’s length determines what sound it crops. A natural experiment to demonstrate this is by listening to the electric guitar acoustically. Unplug or turn down the guitar’s volume and pluck any string near the bridge. Now do the same near the neck.
One will notice that the sound near the bridge is brighter than the sound near the neck. When amplified, the pickup hears and reproduces that difference. What the pickup also hears is the volume of the string.
If one uses the same pickup in the neck and bridge positions, then the bridge may sound thin and weak compared to the neck, or the neck may sound dark and too loud.
Do humbucker pickups sound better than single-coil pickups when using distortion?
It depends on what kind of distortion the player is looking for. I would say that both of them have their appeal. For high gain usages like for Metal or Hard Rock, humbuckers do sound improved. Their bulging low mids and deep low-end response imparts a nice girth to the sound. If one loves doing deep and thick sounding chugs, then a humbucker equipped guitar will be the obvious choice.
Single coils don’t have the thick percussive slam that one hears from humbuckers, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t as good as humbuckers. They are just different.
A single-coil deficiencies output and has an overabundance of treble. They also typically have a lot of extra noise that makes them unusable without a noise gate. However, if the player can get the noise under control, there are a few selections that sound great under mild distortion, which one needs to make a difference between distortion and overdrive.
Are active pickups louder than passive?
Active pickups yield a higher output due to their inbuilt preamp. Active pickups start with a low output, and then the preamp increases the signal. It makes a louder pickup than most passive pickups. The preamp also, to some extent, compresses the signal, which adds to the apparent loudness.
Some passive pickups are made in a way that yields a higher output than most active pickups, but usually speaking, most active pickups are louder than passive pickups.
What are the best pickups for metal? And Do active pickups need batteries?
The unique type of pickups for metal are humbuckers. Both active and passive pickups can be used for metal with excessive results. The best pickups for metal depend on what type of tone one wants. A good starting point is to look at the types of pickups the player’s favorite metal guitarists use. From there, one can figure out whether they want passive or active pickups.
Yes, active pickups need 9 Volts batteries to work. Active pickups have an inbuilt preamp, which necessitates the power to run. If one tries to use active pickups without a battery, they won’t get any signal at all.
Are active or passive pickups better?
The best type of pickup depends on what one plays and what they want in their tone. In any style, there will be some guitarists who prefer active pickups, and some prefer passive pickups. Some techniques may lean towards one type of pickup over the other, but there are always people trying different options.
The best way to find whether active or passive pickups are better for the player is to try them out and compare them.
Can you put passive pickups in an active guitar?
If the player has a guitar with active pickups and they want to replace them with passive pickups, they will need to do some rewiring to make the switch. One needs to rewire the guitar from scratch, including the pots and jack. It isn’t as simple as dropping passive pickups in – it won’t work.
If the player wants to have a guitar with both passive and active pickups, few guitarists have the electronics knowledge to do this properly. While it is technically possible to put passive pickups in a guitar with an active pickup, it isn’t easy to attain. A lot of alterations would be required to let the two pickups work collected.
Conclusion:
Modifying the guitar’s pickups is an easy way to get a better tone and create an instrument more suited to the player’s needs.
While one can pay somebody to modify their guitar’s pickups, it’s an excellent skill to learn. If the player has a soldering iron, one might be surprised by how easy a job this is.
The pickups in the electric guitar are the most critical aspect of the guitar’s tone. A good quality pickup can give a cheap guitar a great tone.