A conventional humbucker (or Humbucking pickup) is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have high output since both coils are in series and because the magnetic circuit is low loss. Like a single-coil pickup, a humbucker induces a slight magnetic field around the strings, which in turn induce an electrical current on the coils as the strings vibrate.

But since the two coils are of reversed polarity and reverse-wound and connected in series, noise and interference is significantly reduced via common-mode rejection. They get their name because they cancel out a large portion of the interference (they "buck the hum") induced by alternating current sources normally experienced with single coil pickups. Magnetic "hum" is mostly created by transformers and power supplies inside various electrical equipment utilizing household AC current.

As alternating current is passed though a coil, it induces a magnetic field around the coil that quickly becomes weaker with distance. When it reaches the guitar pickup, the strength is very slight, but once put through various pedals and amps it becomes much more evident. Using a guitar without humbuckers, a musician would hear a slight but annoying hum from the amp in silent sections of the music.

Sources of magnetic hum generated in the studio and on stage include, but are not limited to, high-power amps, processors, mixers, motors, etc., as well as criss-crossing power lines. Humbuckers dramatically reduce the hum effect compared to single-coil pickups. Humbuckers are great at cancelling out low sine wave frequencies (such as those produced by big AC transformers) but poor at canceling out higher frequencies and various harmonics (such as those produced by guitar strings).

Similar to 0 things you like: