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Performing & recording artist Edward Hale has taught guitar for the University of Alaska, Music Works Northwest, Seattle Symphony Children's Education Department, Bellevue Community College, Anchorage Community College, Rogue Community College, and the Alaska Fine Arts Academy. Ed Hale is the founder of "A Chord of Tradition" and has performed on television and radio including PBS and NPR. Recent international radio broadcasts of his guitar compositions can be heard on Billy Hale's highly acclaimed CD "Tales Thrice Travelled" and the soundtrack to the film "El Reporte". We are also happy to announce "Punto De Control" received the Director's Choice Award: Best Puerto Rico Feature at the Cannes International Film Corner 2012 with original soundtrack composed by Billy Hale, and featuring original guitar music composed and performed by Edward Hale. Punto de Control, written and directed by David SaldaƱa (Teatro Supernova) was also chosen for the 2012 Vegas Indie Film Festival. http://billyhalemusic.com/ New CD "Cradle of the Sky" Billy Hale with Edward Hale. Available from CD Baby, I-tunes, etc.!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

What is a Humbucker?

Questioner: What is a Humbucker [guitar pickup]?
I hear people talk about the humbucker on their guitars, but I have no idea what they are referring to.
What is it?

Anonymous-

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Answered by Edward Hale

Humbuckers are double-coil electric guitar pickups. We rented a vintage Fender Stratocaster from a local store with original humbuckers to use in one of our CD's.  It gets a great tone and has a distinct fatter rounder sound that is quite recognizable.  You can hear an example of this particular Stratocaster in our CD "Tales Thrice Travelled" with Billy Hale on the guitar.
http://www.billyhalemusic.com/ttt.html


Billy Hale composed the music for "Tales Thrice Travelled" and orchestrated it in wonderfully varied ways to give us kinetic impressions of a magical journey through terrestrial and celestial "regions"  of space and time.  The tracks with the Strat are Echoes of the Anasazi, and Inca Sun Ritual.
The Song of Marisol, which I composed for Billy Hale's soundtrack to the movie El Reporte is included in the CD. For a contrast in guitars, listen to the Song of Marisol. I'm playing on a friend's 1963 Archangel Fernandez flamenco guitar. It has the distinct sound of a rare master luthier's hand made during one of the golden ages of Spanish guitar luthiery.  http://www.billyhalemusic.com/ttt.html

So, what are these double-coil pickups that have helped revolutionize the sound of electric guitar? Humbuckers cancel out the interference or "hum" which is typical with single coil pickups. The electromagnetic oscillations which occur in alternating current (AC) produce a hum. Humbuckers are designed to "buck the hum", i.e. to try and "cancel out" the hum. But in fact they can only reduce this phenomenon utilizing simple electromagnetic principles. There is some perceived distortion as a result which we will talk about later.
Hum is caused by interference from transformers and power supplies inside electrical gear. As AC journeys through a coil, there is a magnetic field around the coil. It is a kind of electromagnetic resonance, if you will. This "electrical resonance" gets magnified generally by  high-power amps, processors, pedals, mixers, motors, power lines, and other sources.
Using a guitar without "hum-buckers" one hears an annoying hum from the amp when your are not playing or doing quieter parts of your songs. Humbuckers reduce this hum effect compared to single coil pickups.

The "humbucking coil" was invented in 1934 by Electro-Voice of South Bend, Indiana. Originally this novel electrical coil was put to use in microphones and speakers in the manufacture of portable public address systems.
Rickenbacker offered dual coil pickups in 1953 but dropped the design in 1954 because of the distorted sound they produced at higher volume levels. In 1955 Gibson took up the idea and applied for a patent. Gibson Les Paul guitars were the first production line instruments to have the humbucking pickup.
The Fender Stratocaster with factory installed humbuckers is one of the most popular guitars characterized by that "fat" distorted rounder sound that Rickenbacker initially rejected.
The taste for that fat distorted sound and later enhancements changed the nature of popular music. Imagine Led Zeppelin lead guitarist Jimmy Page , Eric Clapton, or Jimi Hendrix, without the fat distortion and we can appreciate more the secondary significance of this little humbucking pickup in giving some teeth to the electric guitar sound.
Edward Hale

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