Pick Ups

A Humbucker with a marbled plastic cover in the neck position

A P-90 with a maple burl cover in the bridge position

An offset pick up in the neck position, a single coil in the middle, and a humbucker in the bridge position.

Pick Up Types

I make and wind all of my pick ups. I currently offer four models but am open to custom ideas as well. All of my pick ups are hand and scatter wound, shielded to protect from interference and wax potted to prevent microphonic feedback.

Below are types I offer and a brief description of their sound.

・Humbuckers: A pick up with two coils next to each other, wound in opposite directions, with opposite polarities. This construction gives a humbucker a fuller, warmer and cleaner sound. The hum being “bucked” is in reference to the 60-cycle buzzing sound present in single coils and not in humbuckers.

・Single coils: A pick up with one set of magnets and one coil wound around the magnets. People generally associate the tone of a single coil with a brighter, chimey-er and more focused sound. Single coils have the 60-cycle hum, I also make hum canceling single coils, which are cleaner sounding, but the true single coil tone cannot be fully achieved.

・Off set: An off set pick up is made of two separate coils, one coil under the bass strings and one coil under the treble strings, like a p bass style pick up. This means the pick up has two placements, one coil is closer to the neck and the other is closer to the bridge. You get the focused sound of a single coil while being hum canceling from having two coils, and more bass response from one coil and more treble from the other due to the different placements.

・P-90: A p-90 is a single coil pick up with two bar magnets under the coil. This construction gives the pick up a wider magnetic field, making it a single coil with a fuller warmer sound with more mid range response.

If you choose to have multiple single coil pick ups, you can have them hum cancel by being in between two single coils using the selector switch.

Below are some of the factors that can affect the tone of a pick up. These factors will color the inherent tone of the different pick up types and their construction.

Pick Up placement

Pick up placement will affect the sound that any pick up type produces. The closer a pick up is to the bridge the brighter it will sound and have more treble response. The closer a pick up is to the neck it will sound warmer and have more bass response. A pick up in between the neck and bridge position will blend these two tones.

Magnets

The type of magnets used will also play a role in a pick up’s tone. In general the most commonly used magnets are Alnico 5 followed by Alnico 2 magnets, these are my standard magnet types. Alnico 5s are brighter with a tighter low end and Alnico 2s are warmer and have more low end response. Both can be used in any position but can also be used to offset or to further push the placement and pick up types tone. Since Alnico 5s are the most common magnets used in guitar pick ups, you can’t go wrong with them.

The arrangement of the magnets and the pickups construction will affect the pickups magnetic field. The larger or wider the field, the more of the string the pick up will reference. So the larger the magnetic field the fuller a pick up will sound.

Hotness

How hot a pickup is a reference to how much output a pick up has or how loud it is which is affected by the amount the coil is wound. A hotter pickup will be louder and have more output and have more winds. A hotter pick up will push the amp to distort sooner. Tone wise, an over wound pick up has more mid range and bass response and darker highs. An under wound pick up will have more treble response, sparkling highs and a more open airy midrange.