Until I finally made the decision to add an electric guitar to my growing collection I had never heard of a humbucker and I thought a pickup was an American word for a small truck, or Ute as we call them in Oz. So I took a great deal of interest in the forums when questions about them were being asked. I also stopped by my local guitar shop and talked to the kids there who seem to have forgotten more about set-ups for electric guitars than I am ever likely to learn. Out of all this research came a very clear message to me, as a beginner: forget about the type of pickups on your first electric guitar – unless money is no object – because you are unlikely to have a choice.

The things is, humbuckers, which are basically two coils of reverse polarity connected in series (sure you want to know this?), significantly increase the cost of an instrument, while their effect for a beginner is minimal. It’s a question of suppressing the ‘hum’ generated by the electrical system – they ‘buck’ the ‘hum’, okay?

The other thing they do is produce warmer, fuller, browner tones but at the expense of some of the brighter tones associated with normal coils. As a beginner, none of this matters to you (well, it didn’t to me) especially when I tell you that to experience these tones you are looking at a Gibson or top end Fender to provide you with the necessary hardware. They come with a healthy price tag.

There are hybrids, commonly called ‘fat strats’, which typically have one humbucker and two coils and it’s certainly worth asking about them and even trying one out to see if you like the sound, but don’t get hung up on the difference between pickups at this stage. Your amp is going to be the thing that determines your sound to a large extent, and I’ll talk about those in another post.

For the moment, think in terms of buying an electric guitar with a minimum of three pickups (did I mention Fender Squier?) and the relevant controls, which are basically volume and tone controls plus a switch that allows you to turn one or more of the pickups off. That. for now, will be more than enough to keep you both amused and interested, I promise you.

photo credit: Roadside Guitars