Electromagnetic Pickups:

Electro-magnetic pickups rely wholly on amplifying the variations created by a vibrating steel string within a magnetic field and come in two basic forms, single coil and double coil.

Single Coil Pickups: have a single coil of copper wire wrapped around a permanent magnetic in the form of either a single pole-piece or separate pole pieces (one for each string). These pickups give a clear and punchy sound with a penetrating treble quality, however, they are vulnerable to electromagnetic interference in the form of noise or hum when amplified. Single-coil pickups are typified by the sound of guitars made by Leo Fender who was instrumental in the key development and refinement of single-coil technology.

Double Coil Pickups: also known as the Hum-neutralising or Humbucking pickup, were developed by Gibson in the mid 1950's to overcome the inherent vulnerability of single-coil pickups to noise and hum. These pickups have two single-coil pickups wired in series but out of phase with each other. This means that induced interference is cancelled out by the phase difference of the two pickups. Double-coil pickups provide less volume and a reduction of higher frequencies, compared with single-coil pickups, resulting in a warmer, rounder, fatter sound, with virtually no induced noise or hum.