humbucker
A dual-coil guitar pickup designed to eliminate the electromagnetic hum of single-coil pickups.
In Depth
Seth Lover at Gibson invented the humbucker in 1955 by wiring two single-coil pickups together with opposite polarity and reversed winding. The hum cancels out while the musical signal reinforces. Humbuckers produce a thicker, warmer, more powerful tone than single coils, with more sustain and midrange. They are the pickup of choice for jazz, blues-rock, hard rock, and metal. The Gibson Les Paul and its humbuckers defined the sound of classic rock.
Gibson's patent for the humbucker is number 2,896,491, and the abbreviation PAF (Patent Applied For) on early units became so prized that PAF pickups now sell for thousands of dollars.