Single-Coil vs P90 vs Humbucker Pickups

• Single-Coil Pickups
• Humbucker Pickups
• P90 Pickups
• What is the best guitar pickup?

Pickups are an integral part contributing to the sound of an electric guitar, as they detect string vibrations and generate electrical signals that can then be sent into an amplifier. Without it, you wouldn’t have an electric guitar – it would be an acoustic! They also have a huge bearing on the tone that makes each guitar sound different to one another. There are two broad categories that most pickup designs can be grouped into: the single-coil and the humbucker. I’ll get to P90s later, but for now, it’s enough to know that they are a variation of a single-coil pickup with their own unique tonal properties.

Die-hard Stratocaster or Telecaster players will wax lyrical about the dynamism of the single-coils, while Les Paul aficionados will praise the thick, articulate notes of the humbucker. Yet there is so much space in between both legendary tones, defined over decades of pickup tweaking and innovation. Each of the main pickup designs, P90s included, tend to lend their tones to certain musical genres, but there’s nothing to stop you from getting creative with what you have available and applying their unique sounds in new and exciting ways.

Single-Coil Pickups

The Single-coil guitar pickup is the reason why we are all here today as electric guitarists. It was tested and tinkered with throughout the 1910s and 20s with the aim to allow guitars to compete for volume in a big band setting. The first commercially available single-coil pickup was designed by Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp in 1931 and featured on the lap steel ‘Frying Pan’ guitar.

How single-coil pickups are made

Today, the design formula remains largely the same based on core principles, consisting of copper coil wound horizontally around vertically placed magnetic pole pieces. A base and frame (collectively known as a bobbin) stop the coil from shifting. The magnet projects a magnetic field and interacts with the coil to create a current that is connected to volume and tone pots, and then on to the output jack.

What do single-coil pickups sound like?

Single-coil pickups on the whole sound bright, articulate and a bit twangy. The classic Telecaster’s single-coils create a clankier, glassier crisper tone, with less of an emphasis on midrange frequencies. A Stratocaster’s single-coils are often a bit hotter in output and push more through the midrange.

Single-coils can cover pretty much every musical genre but are most closely related to the formative genres in which they emerged, those being rock, jazz, blues, pop, RnB, folk, and, later, indie music. You can still get excellent hard rock and metal tones with a bit of tweaking and especially with the Stratocaster single-coil, which often possesses more output and thump than their Tele counterparts. Achieving high-gain tones are often best achieved in post-production when recording where it’s possible to remove the spikier dynamics of the EQ.

If you’re turning up the gain or fuzz through your amp for live performances, consider using compression pedals to keep volume and attack consistent or a noise gate to kill unwanted sound in between notes. Some single-coils can struggle with substantial amounts of distortion dialled in on your amp. Modern “hum-cancelling” designs go some way to eliminate the unwanted feedback.

Who makes single-coil pickups?

The illustrious Leo Fender was the most successful guitar builder to market the modern instrument using single-coil pickups. In 1948, the Fender Esquire was released with one single-coil in the bridge position. A year later, the Telecaster added a second to the neck position. With these creations, he would ignite the future of guitar playing. Fender continues to equip most of their guitars with updated “noiseless” single-coils.

Other guitar companies and pickup brands have created their own single-coils, such as Gretsch with the crisp and twangy HiLo’Tron, Danelectro with the super thin sounding lipstick pickup or Seymour Duncan, Lollar and TV Jones with their own unique iterations of the famed design. Almost every major pickup brand has its own version of a single-coil, be it vintage in character, hot-rodded or even an active pickup version.

Who uses single-coil pickups?

Jimi Hendrix, Mark Knopfler, Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Gilmour and John Mayer – there is an exhaustive list of incredible world-renowned guitarists who have developed their distinct sounds with the use of single-coil pickups.

Humbucker Pickups

Humbucker pickups came about for one very particular reason: hum. The early single-coils were noisy – more than they are today with modern noiseless circuitry, as radio waves interfered with the guitar signal.

The first humbuckers were developed by Gibson’s Seth Lover, marked with the tag “Patent Applied For” and commonly known as PAF pickups, and Gretch’s Ray Butts with the Filter’Trons. Humbuckers went on to shape the future of blues, rock, metal, and pretty much every guitar-oriented musical genre thanks to their distinctly rounded tone and capacity for higher output.

How humbucker pickups are made

Humbuckers house two separate side-by-side coil pieces in one casing. One of the coils is wound in reverse and with opposite polarity to the other, creating and “out of phase” effect, massively reducing unwanted hum.

Gibson’s PAF pickups made use of an alnico 2 magnet, which helps to produce that vintage, buttery smooth tone. The sleek metal covers also reduces electrostatic interference. The Filter’Tron, originally made for the iconic country guitarist Chet Atkins, has a shorter distance between its police pieces than a PAF, but a much larger magnet. The result is a clearer, brighter and more airy sound, overlapping in some qualities with a single-coil.

What do humbucker pickups sound like?

A lot of blues, rock and metal players tend to gravitate towards varieties of humbucker pickups because they fill a big portion of the EQ range: they sound powerful, and bassier and more aggressive than single-coils. You’ll also see jazz, RnB, soul and fusion players.

The humbucker can handle a boisterous bluesy lead, high-output aggressive attack and big complex chords. They’re also a popular choice to be used as a clean platform for all sorts of weird effects in electronic music. Some might say humbuckers have a less dynamic or characterful tonal range than single-coils, but their adaptability and ease in sculpting quality tones with little hassle are major benefits.

When shopping for your next humbucker-equipped guitar, check the “alnico” spec. Alnico is a portmanteau – as in it smashes together the words aluminium, nickel, cobalt and copper – the elements that form the pickup’s magnet. The quantity of these elements differs based on the alnico magnet, 1 through to 9. The early humbuckers were often made using alnico 2 and 3 pickups. The introduction of the alnico 5 in 1961 allowed for outstanding versatility in shaping both old school tones and the sounds we have become accustomed to as modern guitarists. They offer more focus on midrange frequencies and are characterised by a thick, focused and defined tone.

Who makes humbucker pickups?

Humbuckers are of course synonymous with guitar giants Gibson, the iconic creators of the Les Paul, ES, SG, Firebird, Flying V, Explorer, and many more instantly recognisable guitar shapes. Gretsch guitars are an amazing choice for pure clean tones and rock drive with the Penguin, Falcon and Broadkaster models.

Seyomur Duncan, Dimarzio and Bare Knuckle are three highly popular and extremely well renowned aftermarket pickup brands. You’ll find a lot of their humbuckers in guitars from Ibanez, ESP, BC Rich, Ernie Ball Music Man and Jackson guitars. They cover a lot of ground in the metal spaces but also make models suited to more vintage tones.

Who uses humbucker pickups?

B.B. King, Jimmy Page, Slash, Eddie Van Halen, Angus Young, Prince, James Hetfield and so many other huge names in contemporary music have pioneered the humbucker sound. Humbuckers are also the main source of heat for metal bands: ceramic magnets produce far more output than even the hottest alnico magnets and get you those chunky sounds you’ll find from the likes of Slipknot and other metal bands of the late nineties/early noughties era. More modern subgenres sometimes roll back on the pure output in favour of clarity from alnico V.

Mini humbuckers are a narrower version of the original design invented by Epiphone. These lend their sound to a more articulate, brighter palette. Most often found on Firebird models, players like Johnny Winter, Scott Gorham, Neil Young and Pete Townshend have all favoured the mini powerhouse at some points in their careers.

Popular Humbucker Pickup Guitars

P90 Pickups

Technically P90s are not its own category of pickup but more of a specialised design philosophy within the broad church of single-coils. Designed by Gibson, they were made to be the go-to pickup for all their guitars, however the introduction of the humbucker cut that plan short. The original Gibson Gold Top Les Pauls and early SGs they are most often associated with are highly sought after instruments.

How P90 pickups are made

P90s have a wider and shorter bobbin than the average single-coil pickup, meaning that the wire is wrapped closer to the poles. They’re not humbuckers because they only contain the one coil, so you’ll still find they hum like a single-coil. Other than that, they’re sometimes called either soap bar or dog ear pickups in reference to the yellow case and triangular ends of the casing.

What do P90 pickups sound like?

The P90 sits in a tonal range somewhere between the classic single-coil and the humbucker. They’re bright, clear and raspy; not quite as “clacky” as a traditional single-coil and marginally grittier, but not as controlled and direct as the classic humbucker. They’re great for rock, jazz, country and blues.

Who uses P90 pickups?

P90s have a varied history in popular music. Players like Chet Atkins, Freddie King, Tony Iommi, Frank Zappa all experimented with the nuanced P90 tone. They lost a lot of popularity during the sixties but they came back into fashion during the punk movement as their punchy potential suited the rawer style to a tee. They were often utilised in the more affordable Les Paul Junior, which met that punk aesthetic. Johnny Thunders, Mick Jones and Mike Ness got the most out of the P90s in this era, and later Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World, who favoured more organic guitar tones to the processed general trends in the late nineties.

What is the best guitar pickup?

Of course, there is no clear winner with pickups, as it all comes down to the style of music you play and your unique tone and voicing on the instrument. There are also a thousand different pickup designs all with different EQ curves and output. You’ll also find a lot of guitars mix and match their pickups: a humbucker and two single-coils is a common configuration and you might come across the odd humbucker and P90 combo. But with this general guide, you’ll now be able to identify the broader qualities associated the single-coil, humbucker and P90.

As a rule of thumb:

• Single-coil pickups are best for bright, crisp tones with lots of clarity. They add dynamics to cleans and sound light and agile with a moderate amount of gain. You really can use them for any type of music.
• Humbuckers sound big, warm and punchy depending on the alnico magnet on both clean and overdriven settings, and they provide a more precise frequency selection. Of the three pickup types here, these best handle high distortion. They’re not ideal for jangly cleans, but work well when you want a focused, hum-free full tone.
• P90s are a little more nuanced. They’re gritty and articulate, and have more rounded high frequencies than standard single-coils. They are a nice change-up for different sonic characteristics and will serve you well across all types of music, bar high gain.

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