Zebra Humbuckers

Zebra pickups obviously get their name from the combination of the black and cream plastic. The origin of these pickups date back to 1959 and 1960. Gibson had a shortage of black plastic used in the production of their pickups but as the pickups were covered by a nickel plate this didn’t effect the overall look of the guitar. Some guitarists started to take a look under the cover to see whether they had the standard black or Zebra pickups. Believe it or not some players were convinced that the Zebra configuration actually made the guitars sound better. Soon after pickup manufactures began making these pickups to satisfy the demand.