We offer a large selection of electric and acoustic pickups, pre-amps, pots and capacitors. We also offer expert installation on all of our electric and acoustic pickups.

How does an electric guitar pickup work?

Through the process of inductance, an electrical current is generated in a coil of insulated wire, which is then sent to the amplifier. If you have a coil of insulated wire wrapped around a magnet you create a simple generator. If the magnetic field of the generator is held in proximity to an oscillating (vibrating) ferrous material, then an alternating (or AC) electrical current will be generated. Conversely, if you wrap a coil of wire around a ferrous material, a nail, for example and apply an electrical charge to that coil, the ferrous rod (the nail) will turn into an electromagnet.

What is a potentiometer and how does it work?

A potentiometer, or pot, is a variable resistor. This means as the knob shaft is rotated, the DC resistance will change. A pot is very simple by design, and once we review the components and their purpose they should be less mysterious. First, there are three lugs or soldering terminals on a conventional potentiometer. The outside two are the ends of the resistive strip, and the center lug is connected to the sweeper. The sweeper allows you to vary the DC resistance relative to its position along the resistive strip, or relative to the outer two lugs. If you connect to only the two outside lugs, you will have a resistor of the pots value 25K, 250K, 300K, 500K, and 1Meg are common guitar pots. This is how you can determine a pot's value.