Humbucker

A two-coil pickup whose coils are wound and polarised so that induced hum cancels while the string signal adds together.

The trick is symmetry: the two coils see the same interference, so the noise arrives in opposite polarity and cancels, while the strings pass each coil in sequence so their signals arrive in phase and sum. The result is a quiet, thicker, higher-output sound with less high-frequency extension than a single coil, and a broad midrange that suits distorted playing. Coil-splitting and parallel wiring exist to recover some of the brightness the second coil removes.

Example: a bridge humbucker under heavy gain stays quiet between phrases, where a single coil in the same guitar would hum audibly with the hands off the strings.

Humbucker

See also