How Do I Know What Guitar Pickup Designs Are Best?

What Guitar Pickup Designs Are Best?

First you’ll need to understand what poles are and the relationship they play in a pickup design. Pickup poles are magnet posts that run perpendicular to the string windings in the guitar pickup’s coil to serve as a conductor for each string above it. Often you’ll notice one pole piece per string on a single coil is used. Some of today’s designs have one long bar pole piece, or blade, per string. Poles look like small metal circles under each string. 

Flat poles are all the same height. The staggered poles have some poles reaching higher for certain strings and some are lower. They have a very non-uniform look. Flat-pole pickups simply give your guitar a better string balance. When the pole pieces are all level then your tone is more balanced. No volume on any string will dominate the others. 

Fender Teles until sometime in 1956 had flat-poles. Leo Fender decided that since some of the strings were so far away from the guitar he needed to compensate and make some poles higher. In his mind, it would bring the volume out in the more distant poles for strings sitting higher. Now, moving guitar pickup poles closer to the strings does increase their output-only more windings will do that. However it will make the string louder. 

Think about a pole as being a microphone for each string. Think about a singer. What happens as a singer gets farther away from the mic? The volume drops but the mic still has the same output. Placement is important!

Picking A Pickup

Picking A Guitar Pickup

High-output pickups are distorted and mostly unpleasant in the tonal spectrum. They generate distorted tones exactly as designed. The usage for these distortion producing pickups are limited at best. Low to mid-output pickups are more versatile and much quieter. They represent better and more clear, clean guitar output signal choices. They’re perfect for clean sounds, however you have the option of dirtying up your sound by changing your amp settings or plugging into distortion pedals. In the myriad of choices for amps you’ll find one that can easily distort at will. Most amps have enough gain to make any pickup generate heavy distortion levels. Picking a pickup just became easier.

Follow The Crowd ?

I know lots of people who only wear “name brand” clothing. So do you? What if there was something else that fit better, looked and felt better? Would they wear it? From my experience- No. Well, the same goes for guitar pickups. If you’re just a name brand Lemmings kind of player there’s no changing you. However, if you’re intelligent, independent, not easily lead by the crowd and find your own path preferable, then you’ll benefit from a great set of pickups that just sound good. Most of all, they have a good solid signal for you to process.