The Guitar Pickups Handbook [Paperback]

Dave Hunter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2009

For every electric guitarist, a book that goes right to the source of the sound! The pick-up may be a humble piece of technology, yet without it there would be no electric guitars. In The Guitar Pick-Ups Handbook, guitarist and author Dave Hunter explores the history of the transducer that captures mechanical vibrations, from its beginnings in the early 20th-century through to the present day. He explains why different designs affect the sound of classic electric guitars, and provides complementary aural demonstrations on a specially recorded accompanying CD.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dave Hunter is a leading guitar writer and a musician. His books include Totally Guitar, Guitar effects Pedals and Guitar Rigs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books; Pap/Com edition (February 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879309318
• ISBN-13: 978-0879309312
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Hunter is a leading guitar writer and a musician. His books include Totally Guitar, Guitar effects Pedals and Guitar Rigs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Reource, but missing page(s.) Deserves better editing!, February 16, 2009

By 

Julia Chang "g.mac" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Guitar Pickups Handbook (Paperback)

If you love guitars, tone, and modifying your instrument, this book is a must-have. But it has a couple of problems that keep it from being perfect. Hopefully a revised edition will take care of these issues, but as is, it's still worth getting if you're interested.

Even if you're just considering ordering a set or two of pickups, it's worth the $17 to read this book, and make sure you're getting the right set for you and your guitar. There's a lot of great information here.

Dave Hunter has (once again,) done a great job with this book. It discusses the history of pickups, from all the major companies. Then goes on to describe most of the major pickup makers, as well as many big boutique names like Lollar and Fralin.

His writing is clear, and to the point, and makes a sometimes tedious subject fun and interesting.

What's very useful is that it breaks down the specs of almost every pickup made by these makers, and gives a good description of the tone they produce, (the descriptions are independent of the makers descriptions.)

There's a lot of useful tech info, and specs, but plenty of stuff for just interesting reading.

The best part, imo, is the in-depth interviews with the makers.

Dave HUnter talkes to Kent Armstrong, Joe Barden, Larry Dimarzio and Steve Blucher, Seymour Duncan, Mike Eldred, (Fender Custom Shop,) Lindy Fralin and Jason Lollar.

It's interesting, for example, that Seymour Duncan designed the Alnico Pro II's for Billy Gibbsons, (as well as the Pearly Gates later on,) the Duncan Custom was for Santana, the Full Shred for Nancy Wilson, and his strat and tele pickups had input for Eric johnson, Mark Knofler, Ralph Trower, James Burton, Jerry Donahue, Albert Lee, on and on.

It's a recent book, and mentions the TQR articles on PAF's, and has a lot of information on Gibson's pickup history.

There's also a very useful CD that demos many different kinds of pickups, from several vintage PAF's, to boutique stuff and production line pickups. However, I DO wish the CD would separate the introductions, *which can be rather lengthy,) from the actual recordings of the pickups. This way, it would be much easier and more accurate to do side-by-side comparisons of pickups.

The big downside is that there appears to be an editing problem. I have a version with a black cover, and in the Dimarzio section, it seems like a page is missing,( pg. 134-136 don't follow.)

You could also argued that with the huge numbers of small hand-winders, it would be nice if the covered some of these makers as well, (WB, WCR, Tom Holmes, etc.)

I wouldn't be surprised to if save space, they cut out some of the more obscure names in pickup making.

That said, it's a very comprehensive book, and for the majority of its audience, it covers more than you'll ever need to know.

Anyway, the editing and CD track setup aside, it's a great resource, a fun read and provides great answer for many common pickup questions.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Read, January 9, 2010

By 

Careful Consumer (Edenton, NC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Guitar Pickups Handbook (Paperback)

If you're looking for a technical discussion on how to diy upgrade or repair the electronics in your guitar, this is not the book. It is a reasonably thorough (though certainly not and not intended to be all-inclusive) qualitative history of pickup manufacturing: who did it, what they did, and why they did it. It includes some fairly thorough overviews of the products, old and new, from a significant number of (generally mainstream) builders, with a consistent enough use of a bunch of necessarily vague descriptive adjectives that the reader can get something of a feel for what these pickup do and why they do it. The book includes a CD of Dave playing a number of different pickups through a few different rigs, and the results are interesting to listen to. Of course, a number of the pickups tested are vintage models that are impossible to buy (due to cost and/or availability), but it's still fun to listen to.

I also have Dave's book on guitar amps, and I enjoyed reading that. Overall, I think the amp book has more to offer. Plus, as other reviewers remarked, the editing in this book is so bad as to sometimes be distracting. Check out Dan Erlewine's "Guitar Player Repair Guide". He may inspire you to go out and wind your own!

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pickup THIS book!, February 12, 2009

By 

tim b "tb" (syracuse, ny) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Guitar Pickups Handbook (Paperback)

The Guitar Pickup Handbook: Dave Hunter

I just got my copy of this new book from Dave Hunter - one of the luckiest and most prolific authors I've found in years, if ever!

I'm into the last sections of this book - who knew that pickups could be so 'deep' in so many aspects of design, components, and ultimately placement - and can't say enough about why you should BUY and READ this book!

Dave has put out a series of books over the last several years, and with each one that I find, buy and read, I learn more than I have in the last 35+ years of playing about WHAT I own/owned and WHY I have been able to enjoy the toys I've had over the years.

I own every single book that he's authored concerning the guitar and amplifier for BackBeat books, and can't recommend his tomes enough. Dave manages to enlighten me with every book - and this new one is no exception. While I've grown up in the age of after-market pickup offerings, I never really paid much attention to these 'manufacturers' or their products - yeah I've owned DiMarzios when they first came out, and of course Seymour Duncans, my 80's EMG's, and lately even Harmonic Designs. I've learned so much about WHY these offerings are/can be so different, for all of their outward similar appearances. I've also learned WHY some designs with similar 'ratings' sound so different, and WHY you shouldn't judge a pickup based solely on those ratings!

Dave does a great job in educating those of us who have taken these simple devices granted for many years, including enough background to make your head spin on the early attempts, up to and including the new 'vintage' market, but also delves into many aspects that we should all consider when upgrading our axes - this is a great one-stop resource if you're in the market at all for upgrading or even purchasing an axe that you can have customized from the get-go.

I've been aware of some personal preferences for guitar components over the years, but Dave Hunter has truly opened my eyes and educated me once again in a much deeper respect than I've ever gotten through any simple (skewed) marketing or (skewed) review.

Do yourself a favor, and RUN to the nearest book store (or Amazon as I did) and BUY this book! Even if you're not in the market, you need to know this information and READ about these wonderful gadgets!

__________________

tim boehlert

hearditontheweb.com