Conference napalm::guitar

    
    A humbucker pickup is a dual-coil pickup that was introduced to the
    guitar world by the Gibson company. A humbucker is so named because
    of its characteristic lack of hum. The dual-coil design of a humbucker
    makes this pickup produce very fat throaty tones with very low 
    background noise. You can hear the classic humbucker sound by listening
    to a Les Paul (for example, a Billy Gibons guitar solo) or ES335
    (a BB King guitar solo). 
    
    Single coil pickups, on the other hand, can produce screaming treble
    tones with a noticable amount of background noise (hum). Fender
    guitars use single coil pickups (stratocasters and telecasters).
    Listen to an Albert Collins solo to hear a classic screaming single
    coil sound.      
    
    Both types of pickups have they're place in rock and blues music.
    When you want a deep throaty sound, go with humbuckers. When
    you want to make your guitar scream like a sow, go with the single
    coils.
    
    Rob 

    re -1
    
    "Scream like a sow"?  I don't believe I've ever made my Strat
    do that.  Perhaps I'll try it when I tire of the beautiful bell-like
    tones, and biting blues I now produce.

    Steve

     re. -2
    
    
    Didn't mean to imply that you can't get the beautiful mellow tones
    out of a strat also. I have a strat and I love the variety of sounds
    it produces. However if I want a guitar to do some high-pitched,
    tinny screaming (and yes, squealing), I'll use the strat before I'll 
    use my 335.
    
    I think I love both guitars equally. They both produce beautiful
    sounds and play like dreams.
    
    RW

    re. -1
        
    I knew exactly what you meant.  I just could not resist a comeback
    of some kind. :^) :^)  I rarely use the bridge pickup, prefering
    the mellower tones of the neck and/or middle pickups.

    Steve

    
    This note would not be complete without a few words around how
    a humbucker pickup works. The 2 coils of a humbucker are wired
    out of phase with each other. The 2 coils are connected in parralel,
    however, the positive lead of one is connected to the negative lead
    of the other. Any signal that is picked up equally by both coils
    (ie. any kind of radio frequency interference) gets cancelled out.
    The only signals that don't get cancelled are from the vibrations
    of the strings as you play them. In technical terms this is called 
    "common mode rejection". The same principle is used in low impedence
    "balanced" microphones and PA systems. 
    
    A single coil pickup, on the other hand, picks up radio frequency
    interference, as well as the sound of the strings vibrating, and
    all the sound and noise gets sent out the jack to the amp. The noise
    of a single coil pickup gets even worse if you use a long cord (>10'),
    or if you are standing in close proximity to the amp and speakers.
                                                                         
    Many people have modified their guitars with stock single coil pickups
    so that they are either using a dual coil humbucker or a Stacked
    humbucker. The stacked pickups allow you to retain the Fender thin
    sound while still eliminating noise problems. 
                       
    Mark Jacques
    
    
    
    

    re: .5
    
    While it is true that the coils are out of phase, the real trick
    is that the *magnets* are reversed, so the north pole of one coil
    is facing the south pole of the other. This puts the signal from
    the strings in phase, while cancelling stray electromagnetic fields.
    Otherwise, the string signal would be bucked.
    
    Note too that himbuckers, true to their name, are only effective
    at cancelling low frequency stuff like 60Hz. Their effectiveness
    in ignoring rf is mostly from shielding, the quality of which has
    varied greatly from year to year in Gibsons.

    Forgot to mention--while humbuckers can be wired in series or parallel,
    the standard Gibson humbucker has its coils wired in series, giving
    high output with lots of rolloff. A parallel type, like many of
    the "stacked" ones, has a lower output with brighter sound.
    
    re:-1
    
    Of course, I meant herbucker.
    
    Danny W.