What kind of guitar pickups should you get?

Having the right pickups in your guitar can majorly contribute to achieve your own distinct sound. First thing to do is decide whether or not you are happy enough with the sound of your original pickups to not want to replace them. If you aren't – and that's usually the case – you have to concentrate on what you are after – what's the "sound you hear in your head" that you want to replicate with the help of your new pickups. If you have more than one pickup in your guitar, you can get just as many different sounds too. The next step is to check the style and size of the pickup routes or holes you have in your guitar body, because unless you are willing to broaden these cavities by re-routing them, you have to stick with what you have, and choose the new pickups for these existing pickup cavities.

Now let's check the tonal spectrum of the most generally available guitar pickups. Notice that I'm not going deep into analyzing the thousands and thousands of pickup designs, I just give you a general advice of what to look for when you want a certain sound.

Things that usually make your pickup sound mellow or bassy:

  • metal pickup cover: the thicker it is, the more it attenuates the highs (due to eddy currents)
  • steel pole piece(s) with magnet further away from the strings: weaker magnetic field
  • wide aperture: when the magnetic field covers a larger area under the strings, it results in a less "focused" sound by picking up a greater number of different harmonics
  • higher number of winds: greater inductance that attenuates the highs
  • passive pickups in general: the increase in guitar cable length will attenuate treble frequencies in most cases (unless you have buffered effects in your chain or unbuffered effects that are always on)

Things you should look for if you want a brighter, more trebly sound:

  • no metal cover: no eddy currents that negatively effect your highs
  • magnetic pole piece(s) close to the strings: stronger magnetic field
  • narrow aperture: the magnetic field covers a small area of the strings resulting in a more focused sound
  • lower number of winds: less inductance
  • active pickups in general: guitar cable length has almost zero effect on your treble, can result in an almost "hi-fi- like" tone

With these things in mind you can usually predict what a pickup will sound like, even before you have a chance to try it. As a fingerstyle player, I always look for more highs and note definition, so I use active EMG pickups. Since my guitar has cavities routed for regular sized humbuckers, I went with the EMG HA models, they are basically noiseless strat pickups in a humbucker sized housing.

I hope you can find the best pickups for your style too, good hunting!