Gear Roundups

Guitarists in the early 1950s had a big problem on their hands: the annoying hum of single-coil pickups. When Gibson engineer Seth Lover introduced a way to cancel that noise, a new era of guitar tone was born. Instead of a single coil, Lover used two, wound in opposite directions and wired out of phase. Seventy years later, the humbucker is still being refined and reimagined. PG contributor Tom Butwin sets out to demystify the humbucker pickup and how modern designers and builders have evolved the design, construction, and circuitry.