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posted by lunchbox6285

What is the difference between coil pickups and single coil and other types of humbuckers or whatever? In fact, what are coil pickups?

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coil is another term that they use for those magnets that make up the pickups (they are wrapped around 'in coils'). Therefore, when they say 'coil' pick up, it's virtually a general term for a pickup made of magnet.

now, pickups- in their most common forms, are either single coil or double coil. A single coil pickup is simply that what it refers too- and it is what you find in most telecasters and stratocasters (and if you know brian may, he uses trisonics in his red special, which is a variation of a single coil pickup) soundwise, single coil pickups are brighter but more susceptible to microphonic feedback. To solve this problem of microphonic feedback, humbuckers were invented. humbuckers are simply a double coil pickup- two single coils combined together. It's what you normally see in Gibsons and some strats that has the HSH configuration. As Gibson puts it, the main adventage of double coils is that it 'bucks' the hum- hence the term humbuckers. Soundwise, humbuckers are more warmer in tone. being bigger, they're also more powerful. the problem with humbuckers though is that they're no good to play clean chords with because they can sound muddy at times.