Questions About Tele/Strat Pups (i.e. How They Work)

[joel_ostrom]

Question here

wondering about Strat/Tele pups (actually pretty much all pickups for guitars in general). I've got a general idea of how they are put together (copper wire wound around magnets), but I'd like to learn more about what certain specifications give certain pups their unique qualities.

I know some are called "High Output" (+10%, + 15% etc.), Stock Pickups, Steel Poled etc.

Terms like "Hot" and "Output level", I'm not familiar with what they mean exactly.

Since I've been thinking of doing a little pickup changes in my tele, i've also been wondering which kinds of pups are the best quality. I know that the one I pick has a lot to do with what kind of tone I'm looking for. The ones I'm familiar with (that I've heard good things about) are:

Fender Vintage
Seymour Duncan
Kinman
Lindy Fralin
Hamels
VooDoo


How much influence does pickup brand, quality and construction have on the tone produced by your Tele/Strat?

Could somebody explain a little of these things to me, or at least show me a link to someplace online that will help explain these things a little more to me.

Mucho Appreciado,
Cheers,
Joel

[CIM]

Originally Posted by rodeo_joel

Could somebody explain a little of these things to me, or at least show me a link to someplace online that will help explain these things a little more to me.
Joel

To get you started on the difficult road to pickup enlightenment try listening to all the different sounds from the different pickups here:

Seymour Duncan web site

This is just one manufacturer but SD is about the biggest in the business - the different examples should give you some idea as to the variations due to magnet type, impedance etc (although there is a lot more to it than that!)...

[cacibi]

Here's some great info about vintage Fender pickups:

Fender Pickups