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Check out guitar pickups : models and prices
In case you've ever wondered what is the role exactly of those guitar pickups or how they work, this page is for you. Every time you strike one of the guitar strings, you must have noticed that it vibrates. So the guitar pickups go to work and busily convert that vibration into a tiny electric current identical to that vibration. This electrical signal some times goes through pedal effects like overdrives and gets processed, altered, to finally arrive at the guitar amp, and from there travels to your neighbor's ears so he comes to knock at your door to express his disagreement about all this... (Unless your neighbor is Ritchie Blackmore)
Anyway, there are generally two kinds of pickups:
Magnetic pickups, consisting of magnets and coils, used as electric guitar pickups and
Piezoelectric pickups, consisting of piezoelectric crystals, used mainly in acoustic guitars and other acoustic instruments, for example violin. I'll explain you what this piezoelectric stuff is in a while, so don't let that strange word scare you.
So guitar pickups are magnetic pickups and how they work is that, as the metal string vibrates inside the magnetic field created by the magnet, it interacts with it and changes it. These tiny changes are picked up by the coil, which acts like an antenna, and then go through the jack, the cable, to the guitar amp and that's how you hear that beautiful guitar sound. So this device "captures" the motion of the guitar strings and no other sounds or noises from around, which is good. I think this basic diagram helps:
Now, as for the piezoelectric pickups. They are used mainly as acoustic guitar pickups and they just use a different system to translate sound vibrations into electric signals. "Piezo" is a Greek (what else?) word for "pressure" and piezoelectric means simply some crystals that, when any pressure is applied on them, they produce tiny amounts of electricity.
So these piezo pickups are mounted on the body (resonator) of the acoustic guitar and they vibrate. This vibration acts as tiny pressure on the piezoelectric sensor, which produces electrical signal identical to the vibrations. Then it goes again to the guitar amp. Smart, hm? Anyway, this is a simple diagram:
The history of guitar pickups goes back to the '30s. They were trying to find ways to amplify the sounds of musical instruments at that time. Today manufacturers like Seymour Duncan, Fender and Gibson create high-quality, advanced pickups, but the basic idea is the same.
To find more information on guitar pickups or to see the various models and prices click here: Guitar Pickups and Preamps
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