Magnetic Pickup Type On Electric Guitar And Bass
A magnetic pickup is one of the most essential aspects of an electric guitar. Aside from the wood used in the construction of the body and neck of an electric guitar, the sound character of the guitar is often determined by the guitar pickup.
Since the pickup purpose is to perform string vibrations on the guitar through an electric curve, the magnetic pickup on an electric guitar is the most important part of the guitar.
The pickup itself is made up of a coil and a magnet when seen through it. The sound of the pickup was greatly influenced by the magnetic type and wire type. Some people believe that replacing their guitar pickup with a new form of pickup would eliminate the character tone or sound that their guitar produces.
The Mobilintec Team will discuss the different types of magnetic pickups used on electric guitars in this article. The following are the 3 most popular types of guitar pickups on the market:
3 Types of magnetic pickups on electric guitars
1. Single Coil Pickup
A single-coil pickup is one that only uses a magnet. Since this type of pickup is used for different types of music, the resulting character of a single tone cannot be determined by referring to what type of music it is used for, but the main character owned by this type of pickup is brighter than the tone and sound characters provided by humbucker or P90 pickups. If you want a high-gain distortion tone like in metal music, however, a single-coil pickup isn't the way to go.
2. Humbucker Magnetic Pickup
A humbucker pickup is two single-coil pickups combined into one. The tone produced is also distinct from that of a single-coil pickup. When compared to single-coil pickups, the sound and tone provided by humbucker pickups are warmer.
Perhaps this is why humbucker pickups are so common among jazz guitarists. Furthermore, because of the higher performance compared to single coils, this form of pickup is ideal for guitarists who play metal music genres that need a high degree of distortion.
3. Magnetic Pickup P90
A P90 pickup is used to bridge the gap between a humbucker and a single coil. This style of pickup is known as a soap bar. Since it is halfway between the two, it has a higher output than single coils but not as much as a humbucker. This is also a single-coil pickup made by Gibson.
4 Types of magnetic pickups used on bass guitars
Of course, similar to electric guitar pickups, an electric bass needs a magnetic pickup to produce sound when the bass guitar strings are plucked. There are many different types of bass pickups available, including:
1. Split Coil Pickup
A split-coil pickup is a single pickup that has been split into two coils. On basses like Fender's Precision Bass, this pickup installation can be used. The punchy character that results is ideal for rock and punk music.
2. J-Pickup
The Jazz Bass Fender bass was the first to feature this pickup model. A warm and simple tone characterizes this pickup. Even though jazz musicians often use this technique.
3. Dual-coil Pickup Magnetic
A dual-coil bass pickup is essentially a humbucker bass pickup. This pickup, like the humbucker on the guitar, has a warmer character than other forms of pickup. Many who enjoy retro bass-tone characters will enjoy this character.
4. Soap Bar
The soap bar pickup is a J-bass pickup with a larger shape. One of the most similar characteristics of this type of pickup is that it is normally closed to prevent deterioration.
Types and differences between passive magnetic pickups and active pickups
Guitar pickups also consist of two classifications: passive and active pickups. Here's the explanation:
This pickup is not able to boost the signal so it is only able to provide a warm tone and is also organic. However, this pickup is still not enough for tone distortion with very high gain.
2. Active magnetic pickup
To be able to use an active circuit capable of signal boosting, this form of pickup uses a 9 Volt voltage battery. This active magnetic pickup is ideal for rock guitarists as well as modern heavy metal guitarists who need a lot of benefits.
That's a brief explanation that the Mobilintec Team can give about the type of magnetic pickup on electric guitars and also bass guitars. Of course, before you want to buy an electric guitar or bass guitar, you should also make sure what kind of magnetic pickup is on the guitar to support the character of the sound produced against the genre of music you will bring.