It’s a no-brainer that the two most important elements of an electric guitar rig are the guitar and amp. But what is the third most important element?
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It’s a no-brainer that the two most important elements of an electric guitar rig are the guitar and amp. But what is the third most important element?
The pickups. Why? Because they are the critical, essential link between the guitar and amp, transmitting the guitar’s signal to the amp while also acting as sort of a gatekeeper by boosting and/or cutting certain frequencies coming from the guitar.
While a guitar’s tone woods and construction account for much of its overall tonal characteristics, the pickups are the source of a guitar’s primary tone, shaping its personality by sculpting the guitar’s inherent acoustic tone into something that’s (hopefully) more refined, sonically attractive, articulate and dynamically responsive before it reaches the amp and speakers for further tone shaping.
One of the easiest, fastest and sometimes even cheapest ways to significantly improve a guitar’s tone is by upgrading its pickups. Simply put, a poor set of pickups can make a great guitar sound lousy, but a great set of pickups can make a cheap guitar actually sound pretty good.
Don’t believe it? Consider the example of many low-budget Teisco and Harmony/Silvertone guitars from the Sixties built out of cheesy plywood and inferior mystery materials but equipped with “gold foil” pickups, which on their own fetch almost as much on the used market as the entire guitar they were installed into because those pickups make pretty much any guitar sound divine.
While changing pickups can provide a guitar with a significant tonal makeover, a good set of pickups basically enhances what is already there instead of completely transforming a guitar into something else. One way to think of the process is like swapping engines in a car.
For example, one could install a Corvette 327 engine in a 1940 Ford Tudor sedan (and lots of