Gibson Pickups

Since 1935, Gibson pickups have pretty much set the standard for what an electric guitar pickup should be. From the early “bar” pickup the the P-90 to the Humbucker, these guys have done Rock n’ Roll much justice.

The “bar” pickup was introduced in 1936 and is closely associated with Charlie Christian, one of the Forefathers of Electric Guitar As We Know It. In 1946 the P-90 was introduced, and was a big step forward.

In the 1950′s Gibson had a breakthrough with the development of the “Humbucker.” These Gibson pickups not only eliminated hum but created a tone that would come to define much popular music.

Today Gibson has a whole slew of pickups, including some designed by artists like Tony Iommi.

How to Replace Pickups

by guitar pickup Master Seymour Duncan

NOTE: If you’re new to this you might just want to have your local guitar shop perform this for you. Nothing worse than screwing up a new guitar!

Check out the actual patent from July 28, 1959 right here >

Seth Lover worked as an Engineer for Gibson, and we can thank him for developing the world’s first humbucking pickup in 1955. Since the patent took over four years to get, they simply labeled these Gibson pickups “Patent Applied For” and the PAF was born. Gibson put these pickups in early Les Pauls, and today the original PAFs are exceedingly difficult to find.

For a really detailed look at the PAF, check out this resource.

Gibson Pickups: Which One to Pick Up?

P90
This pickup is considered to be Gibson’s first successful single-coil pickup. Invented in 1946, it’s got a biting tone with good growl and a pronounced high end, and a pretty high output for a single coil. This may not be the best pickup for “palm-muting,” but it is a classic for a reason: it sounds awesome.

’57 Classic Humbuckers
The ’57 is a recreation of the PAF, and you can get ‘em in genuine gold-plated covers, nickel-plated covers, or open coils. As mentioned above, the original PAFs are really sought-after, and these “reissues” do a good job emulating the real deal.

Dirty Fingers
The Fingers are a really high output pickup. These were dead for about 20 years, but Gibson decided to bring ‘em back in 2003. They’re essentially really over-wound humbuckers, which means the thin wire wrapped around the pickup magnet is wrapped around more times than a regular humbucker. As a result, you get higher output and your sound will distort easier.

Mini Humbucker
The mini gives out a tight, focused sound, and is a nice compromise between a single coil and a full humbucker. These were featured on older Epiphones as well as the Les Paul Deluxe. The originals are tough to find these days, but the reissue is a great pickup. You can also adjust the pole pieces for each string individually…. cool feature.

Ceramics
You can get the Ceramics in the 496R “Hot Ceramic” and the 500T “Super Ceramic.” These pickups are a great choice for playing rock, consider putting these in an Epiphone Les Paul for a serious tone upgrade. You can adjust the pole for each string too.

Gibson BurstBucker Pro Replica Humbucker Pickup
What the hell is a Burstbucker? Well, since the original PAFs were so incredibly bad ace, Gibson decided to create 3 more replicas. Japanese collectors drove up demand for these replicas in the late-1990s, and when the rest of the world heard about them demand skyrocketed. Turns out that each coil of the pickups was wound with a slightly different amount of wire, and this give the PAFs more “bite”.

Gibson BurstBucker 1 Replica Humbucker Pickup- this one is under wound, and has a nice “vintage” tone that sounds awesome in the bridge or neck positions.

Gibson BurstBucker 2 Replica Humbucker Pickup- wound the same as Gibson’s ’57 Classic, with a little hotter “vintage” output than the BurstBuckerT #1, it works well in the bridge position with a BurstBuckerT #1 in the neck position.

Gibson BurstBucker 3 Replica Humbucker Pickup- slightly overwound, with hotter output, and works well in the bridge position with a BurstBucker™ #2 in the neck position.

You can get German silver nickel-plated covers on the burstbuckers, or go bare.

< < <

For a really deep dive into how Gibson pickups are made, and a nifty graph on what the output is for each pickup, you can check out this PDF.

*   *   *   *   *   *

Return from Gibson Pickups to Gibson Electric Guitars

Go to MyGuitarGuide HOME