From Wikipedia
A pickup is an electromagnetic transducer that converts energy from one form to another that captures or senses mechanical vibrations produced by musical instruments, particularly string instruments such as electric guitars, and converts these to an electrical signal that is amplified using an instrument amplifier to produce musical sounds through a loudspeaker in a speaker enclosure. The signal from a pickup can also be recorded directly.
The first electrical string instrument with pickups, the "Frying Pan" slide guitar, was created by George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker around 1931.
Questions people ask
Real questions from the Stack Exchange community – follow a link to read the discussion.
- Why is the bridge pickup on a Stratocaster angled? · Music SE
- Where to rest your thumb when playing bass: Pickup vs. Strings vs. Thumbrests · Music SE
- Fixing low-frequency hum in an undersaddle acoustic guitar pickup · Sound Design SE
- What's the point of putting electronics inside a guitar instead of just outputting the raw pickup signal? · Sound Design SE
- Reducing noise in audio circuit (optical pickup + op amp) · Electronics SE
Frequently asked questions
What does a pickup sound like?
Sources & credits
- Wikidata Q572648 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Pickup (music technology) – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Image by Georg Feitscher – CC BY-SA 3.0