Humbucker

A humbucker ( dt: . " Hum oppressors " of engl hum = hum and to buck sth sth = to oppose ) is a pickup for electrically amplified stringed instruments, which is mainly used on electric guitars and electric basses.

History

Operation

The principle of the humbucker is in audio engineering as a hum compensating coil (English humbucking coil ) is known, which was invented in 1934 by Electro-Voice, and was originally intended for use in dynamic microphones.

The coils of a humbucker are usually connected in series, but can also be connected in parallel, resulting in a further, less bassy sound variant. Another variation is the short-circuit of a coil for high tones by a capacitor. Thus, the hum rejection continues to act, for high frequencies of the sound approaches but the single coil ( see Related links ) on.

The construction of a humbucker in the Gibson PAF- style differs from the typical Fender single coil in that the coils do not put six individual magnets, but unmagnetized iron pins that the magnetic field of the bar magnet which is mounted under the coils on strings introduce ( see illustration).

Sound

The sound characteristics of the humbucker is in contrast to the single coil height generally less rich, but he has more frequency components in the central region. Causes the deeper inductance of the pickup by greater resonance frequency in connection with the external load connected capacitance ( guitar cables ) and the low-pass characteristic caused by the larger magnetic width. With the same number of turns per coil and equally strong magnet, the output voltage of the humbucker is about twice as high as that of a single coil, which leads to a faster overdriving the input stage of guitar amplifier and thus to (desired) distortion.

Designs

The most widespread is the Gibson PAF form, which is installed with and without cap ( see illustrations). Gretsch uses its own, slightly smaller format. Fender did for the Telecaster Thinline develop the "Wide Range" humbuckers by Seth Lover, who was also incorporated into the Starcaster; it is somewhat larger than a PAF and has six individual magnets per coil.

Variants

A special form of humbucker is the so-called " P-style " on bass guitar (named after the Fender Precision Bass, where he first came into use ), often also called split -coil. The P -Style ( or P- pickup) consists of two short single-coils, which are arranged offset and remove only two of the four strings of the electric bass. Thus, the noise will be canceled, but you get a single-coil sound. The P-style is in modern basses often combined with a separate single coil (known as PJ configuration - J after the Jazz Bass, which has two single-coil pickups ).

Stacked

Another special form is the so-called stacked humbucker, in which the two coils are not arranged side by side, but one above the other. The lower coil thereby transfers due to shielding any string vibrations, but serves as a so-called " dummy coil " only the hum rejection. Stacked humbuckers are produced in different single-coil sizes ( eg standard Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster or P 90 ) and can be as single-coil sound, but without suffering from noise-free audio.

RWRP ( reverse wound / reverse polarity ) with single coils

When Stratocaster guitars (with three single coils ) is often a middle pickup with opposite winding (English reverse wound ) and inverted magnet (English reverse polarity ) installed; this type is often shortened to " reverse wound " called. You scored as a humbucker hum canceling in the intermediate positions (if the medium is combined with the neck, respectively. The bridge pickup ). The sound is thus virtually unchanged compared to the "normal" middle pickup.

When Telecaster types ( with two single coils ) is used according to a RWRP neck pickup.

Coil - splitting

If the coils each have their own connection wires can be produced by so-called coil splitting one of the single coils are separated from the signal chain, so then the other single-coil pickups and also acts solely as the sound of a single coil reproduces; suppression of the ripple effect is no longer given.

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