Single coil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A single coil is a type of pickup for the electric guitar. As its name indicates, it is composed of copper wire wrapped in a single coil around a single bar magnet or several rod magnets. Single-coil pickups are most commonly associated with Fender guitars.
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[edit] History
The first mass produced and generally successful instrument pickup was a single coil pickup designed by George Beauchamp in the late twenties/early thirties. Using a washing machine motor to wind the coils and two horseshoe magnets to provide magnetism, it was integrated into the design for the first electric guitar, which was produced by Adolph Rickenbacker in the thirties. The fact that it was used as a pickup on Rickenbacker Basses and steels up until the late sixties and is still highly sought after proves the design and sound were ahead of the time.
[edit] Physical description
The Fender single coil is one of the simplest designs of a pickup; guitar versions have six poles or rod magnets, one for each string. The traditional single coil design is the one found in guitars such as the Fender Stratocaster. Because Fender mainly uses single-coils, they have come to be associated with Fender. Although these pickups have served guitar players well, one of the most cited problems of single-coil pickups is the presence of 50Hz or 60Hz interference in the signal. Various manufacturers claim to solve this problem in some way, for example:
- Humbucker pickups (1955) were created to "buck the hum", originally as PAF by Seth Lover.
- EMG pickups (1976) proposed commercial active pickup solution that reduced the noise.
- Lace Sensor pickups (1985) used magnetic "comb matrix" design that used a weaker magnetic field and thus reduced noise.
- Kinman (1996) proposed a series of patented noise cancelling techniques and implemented them in their pickups.
The Gibson company made an economical single coil for many years that was even simpler than the Fender type. It consisted of a single coil wound around a single Alnico bar magnet. It had several shortcomings:
- it was microphonic and suffered from hi-gain feedback because of flimsy construction
- there was no way to compensate the output from different strings.
It was only available on Gibson's budget models.
[edit] Sound
The classic Fender single-coil tone is bright and clear, as distinct from the "fatter", darker sound of a humbucker. Examples of single-coil "twang" include "Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix's recording of "All Along the Watchtower".
Single coils collect more electromagnetic interference than humbuckers. They also are sensitive and dynamic, and are capable of producing significant feedback. These characteristics have been used to create musical effects by guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
[edit] Common designs
[edit] Stratocaster design
The traditional Stratocaster design guitar features three single-coils. The guitarist can control what pickup or pickup combination to activate with a lever switch. They are usually referred to as the bridge, middle and neck pickups based on their proximity to those parts of the instrument.
Pickup position, number of coil winds, wire types, magnets and other factors shape the tone. Pickups in the neck position usually give louder, mellower and warmer sound, while bridge pickup have lower output and give brighter, sharper and more harmonic-rich tone. The reason the neck pickup has the most output is that the string's vibration has a higher amplitude at the neck position. Thus, the bridge pickup has less output than the neck pickup. Some manufacturers overwind the bridge pickup for more output to compensate for this difference.
The poles have different heights. This staggering is done to compensate for the output of each string for two reasons. The first reason is because the fretboard has a radius (also called camber) of between 7 and 12 inches. Naturally the strings will follow the radius of the fretboard and so must the magnets, generally speaking. The second reason is that some strings have naturally higher output, the plain or unwound G string being the most significant and this calls for these magnets to be further compensated, resulting in an apparent odd looking stagger. Fender Strat pickups generally follow the traditional design and have the G string's magnet as high as the D string's, but this causes the G string to overly dominate all the other strings due to its higher output. Traditionally in the 1950s and 1960s, string sets came with a wound G string, but it was difficult to bend across the fretboard in modern rock and blues styles of music. In the 1970s, string manufacturers introduced the non-wound G string, which was easier to bend, but had a much higher output. In order for the G string to have the same output the G pole should have the greatest gap between the string.
The pickup selection switch has 5 positions. Positions 1, 3 and 5 activate only one pickup (bridge, middle or neck respectively), while positions 2 and 4 activate a combination of two pickups (bridge and middle, or middle and neck, respectively). Some pickup sets have a reverse wound and reverse polarity middle pickup that when in combination with the normal bridge or neck pickups will cancel electromagnetic interference (noise/hum). The sonic effect of positions 2 and 4 is sometimes referred to as a "quack", and some guitar notation includes directions to use these pickup combinations. One example is "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits which is played in position 2 (bridge and middle).[1] Early Stratocasters had only a three-way selector, but innovative guitarists found they could get an interesting tone by carefully balancing the selector switch lever between positions. Later on, Fender introduced the now standard 5 way selector switch.
[edit] Telecaster design
The Fender Telecaster features two single-coils. The neck pickup produces a mellower sound, while the bridge pickup produces an extremely twangy, sharp tone with exaggerated treble response, because the bridge pickup is mounted on a steel plate. These design elements allow musicians to emulate steel guitar sounds, making it particularly appropriate for country music.
Pickups are selected with a 3-position switch, and two wiring schemes exist:
- Vintage: 1) neck pickup with treble cutoff for a bassier sound; 2) neck pickup only; 3) bridge pickup only.
- Modern: 1) neck pickup only, with no treble cutoff; 2) neck and bridge; 3) bridge pickup only.
The Fender Esquire has a variation to the Vintage wiring scheme by using the scheme on a single pickup. This gives a treble cutoff in the neck position, normal in the middle position, and a tone control cutoff in the bridge position.
[edit] Gibson P-90
Another type of single coil is the P-90 designed by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. The P-90 is very popular but is quite different from the single coils of the Fender design. These pickups have a large flat coil with adjustable steel screws as pole pieces, and a pair of flat alnico bar magnets lying under the coil bobbin. The adjustable screws collect and conduct the magnetism to the strings. The P-90's sound has elements of both the standard Gibson humbucker and a Fender single coil.
[edit] Famous single-coil pickups
There are several well-known single-coil pickups that have a distinctive sound:
- Danelectro Lipstick
- Gibson P-90 (1946)
- Gibson Charlie Christian pickup (1938)
- Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups (1998)
- Kinman Hx, patented noiseless passive Fender-like pickups by Kinman Guitar Electrix (1997)
- Lace Sensor pickups (1987)
- Rickenbacker pickups
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Steve Cobham (June 1997). "NECK AND NECK - Gibson Les Paul and Fender Strat Compared". Sound On Stage.
[edit] External links
- Single coil pickup specifications [1] compiled by Axiomatic Music
- How guitar pickups work — an article by Tom Watson at Strat Collector.
- Stratocaster pickup selector switch — explains how the 5-position switch works (by John S. Atchley at GuitarNuts).
