Passive pickups are so named because they do not use any type of power source or ‘preamp’ to generate a signal. The original electromagnetic pickup described above was what is known as a passive pickup. Passive Pickups: P90, Single Coil, Humbuckers In this article we’ll concentrate not so much on which type of pickup is best, but rather on each pickup’s distinct properties and what you can get from each type of pickup. In the past decades an often heated debate has lingered on over which type of pickup is the best. Over the past 70-odd years, several types of pickups have emerged including P90's, single coil, humbucker, and active pickups. I’ll spare you any more technical details, but if you’re interested in that, Premier Guitar has published an extremely informative serieson the subject. The story of the pickup is long and quite technical. While tonewoods and hardware each have an affect on the tone of your instrument, there is nothing that determines the sound of your guitar more than the pickups you use. This signal is sent to your amplifier producing a sound that is universally recognized as that of an electric guitar. Regardless of the magnetic configuration, the pickup is designed to literally ‘pick-up’ or capture the vibrations of each of the guitar’s individual strings and then convert the vibration to an electrical signal. The magnet is wrapped in fine wire as many as 7,000 times, creating the ‘coil’ which is held in place by the ‘bobbin’ which functions like the bobbin on a sewing machine, holding the coil of fine wire together, allowing it to do its job. In most cases, the magnets are individual pole pieces designed one per string, but there are pickups that are designed with a single blade magnet for all of the strings. These would be a magnet (or magnets), a coil, a bobbin and some kind of base or cover. Both types have devoted users, but what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?Īll electric guitars have pickups, and all pickups are made from the same general components.