Guitar and bass pickups should be
shielded from extraneous electronic
sources that can cause humming
and buzzing. And they should be
encapsulated in wax or epoxy to
prevent microphonic feedback.
The quietest pickups are
humbuckers, invented at Gibson
by Seth Lover in the 1950s.
Humbuckers are double-coil
pickups, wired so that they cancel
out extraneous noise. They were
named because they literally “buck
the hum” caused by rheostats
(dimmers), fluorescent lights
and other sources of electronic
interference. In the process, they
also put out a more powerful signal
for a “fatter” tone.
Single-coil pickups have a brighter
sound than humbuckers but can be
more prone to hum and feedback.
All Gibson humbuckers and
single-coil pickups (except for the
BurstBucker, an exact replica of a
’50s-style humbucker) are shielded
and dipped in wax.
MANUFACTURING IS AN ART
RULE 7
BALANCE CRAFTSMANSHIP
WITH PRODUCTION
Some jobs are more accurately
done by a machine, and some can
only be done by hand. I’d put our
semi-production guitars up against
anybody’s handmade guitars for
lack of flaws. We don’t allow flaws.
Manufacturing processes requiring
repeatable precision, such as
sawing and routing, are more
cost-efficient when performed by
automated machinery. However,
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