Humbuckers

As mentioned a disadvantage of single coil pickup was the amount of unwanted noise or ‘hum’ it produced. This problem was resolved by Seth Lover whilst working for Gibson in 1955. He designed the Humbucker to have two coils which are wired in series so the electric current flows through one and then through the other but they are out of phase of one another. This cancels out any noises or ‘hum’ the single coil pickups suffer with hence the name ‘Humbucker’. The humbucker has less of a response to higher frequencies than the single coil but has a punchier fatter sound more suited to power chords and rock music.