Who Invented The Humbucker?, Early Electric Guitar Iceberg, Gibson, National, Rickenbacker, Gretsch

[@K5HJ]

FYI, the resistance of the coils is not what makes them work. It is merely a DC measurement of resistance of the length of wire vs. the wire gauge. The inductance of the coil is what makes them pick up the changes in magnetic field as the strings react with the magnets. Smaller gauge wire has a higher resistance per foot. The smaller the wire gauge, the greater the number of turns that will fit in the available space. More turns, more inductance.

[@Notaluthier]

Correction to my ignorance!

[@Earthstein]

Excellent. You are assuming pure copper wire, of course? Your''s is a good example of how easy it was for even first year electric technicians understood the relationships. But it took Led Zeppelin (among others) to bring the beauty and fun of American Black Blues music to the masses. Gibson and Seth Lover are Led Zeppelin.

[@betterl8thannvr]

They should have collaborated on the Butts Lover pickup

[@ManuelKellermann]

You just made my day! 🤣

[@paulpennington-mv7rt]

Oh God that was way too easy 🎉😂😂😂

[@blodpudding]

Tootmark and Butts is a match made in heaven

[@r0flgal0re]

Butt's Tootmark? I don't know if I want one of those... xD

[@jlore6344]

OMG, it had not occurred to me but now I can think of nothing that makes more sense in the world!!! LOL!! Good one.

[@jebjohn7934]

I invented it

[@paulpennington-mv7rt]

No you didn't ! I didn't.

[@jebjohn7934]

@@paulpennington-mv7rt I’ll sue

[@paulpennington-mv7rt]

@@jebjohn7934 Like, A boy named sue ? Go ahead... 'they' are morally, financially, bankrupt.

[@ErickvdK]

​@@jebjohn7934He did, so you can't!

[@danton8302]

No! I did!

[@markdoyle9642]

VERY, VERY WELL DONE SIR! I am an old retired biophysicist... from a family known for tearing apart perfectly good guitars to make them better! These early guitar and amplifier designs carry the Simple Science of Sustainable Energy! I have a collection of historic, and folkloric Low Impedance floating coil innovation for teaching electromagnetism from 5th graders, to medical students... I don't know who invented 5th graders, but they deserve an Award. I intended to make a video similar to yours but You NAILED the Physics (Pun). I have several unusual 1960's European/ Russia / Georgia guitars with split coils between strings 1-3 and 4-6 . I am old and terrible with Social Media. Let me know if I can share my guitar inventory. Thank You, RESPECT!.

[@Notaluthier]

That sounds very cool! I only have one NOS Soviet pickup, and it has a very different magnet layout than anything else. I’d be interested to see what you have!

[@markdoyle9642]

@@Notaluthier Absolutely! I will find you and share the Awesome Innovation in my shop. Now that I am retired I can spend much more time with music innovation. Of course my -69 Gibson Les Paul Personal. Professional, Recording and L-5 S with Low Impedence pickups are Amazing in that You can dial in passive settings to sound Exactly like an Acoustic guitar! I haven'tupdated my YT Channel in over a decade, but this is Me kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5yuqXajh9GJiMk kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXOYnKCag5hmbbs kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXjOZqCXbpmYb9U

[@matthewf1979]

Wonderful collection of vintage pickups. I am quite jealous!

[@joseislanio8910]

I had no idea the filtertron used a different wire gauge, but that makes total sense, as it's strong enough for such a small resistance. Subbed!

[@Notaluthier]

🤙thanks

[@chadwilliams8583]

This has became our best channel we watch for all things guitar,wires and wood very quickly and I couldn't be more happy God Bless and Godspeed

[@Notaluthier]

Thanks!

[@brettbunke9096]

That was a great video man❤

[@Notaluthier]

Appreciate it

[@picksalot1]

This is easily the most interesting video I've seen on the history of Pickups. Great that you're shining a light on the history before Butts and Lover. I'll have to check out more of your videos. Thanks!

[@Notaluthier]

Thank you!

[@lancelucifer4851]

Man this is a gem of a video. Thanks, love the history.

[@Notaluthier]

Thanks!

[@lukespread]

A most excellent video ruined by a complete lack of Buggy. Damn. Very informative, regardless.

[@Notaluthier]

What an oversight! 🐕🐕🐕🐕🐕🐕

[@TheKruizr]

Awesome video! I've always been very interested in the history of pickups! 😊👍

[@jlore6344]

This was a lot of fun, thanks for doing that research and for producing this report. The amp also sounds amazing from here and that Supro acoustic/electric is beautiful.

[@Notaluthier]

Thank you!

[@chazstewart4865]

Entertaining AND educational.... what a treat to see these old pickups...

[@BockwinkleB]

8:45 Throwing shade the lamp builder's way.

[@Notaluthier]

Shits fired

[@Notaluthier]

lol and shots

[@GuttlinGuitars]

super interesting!!

[@henryhunter5026]

Thanks for an excellent video. I thought that I knew all about the history of the electric guitar pickup but it seems that there’s a lot I don’t know.

[@Notaluthier]

And I only scratched the surface!

[@bensharp4164]

Hey man! I have a mint copy of Practical Mechanics from March 1943 with a guide to building your own pick up, I'd be happy to send over some photos. Thanks for another great video. All the best from across the pond :)

[@Notaluthier]

Coool! I’d be interested to see that for sure

[@that_thing_I_do]

Hey!....you found my pick! Enjoyed the vid. Informative.

[@guitfidle]

Man, you have got some pretty sweet gear there! I really need to get my '40s Vega amp running so I can try this kind of thing.... although I don't have many vintage electric instruments.

[@SeamusJohnsonMusic]

Love your videos! East coster, love the Methstang and the Gibson J-50 that came from here!

[@Goomer]

I have a 7 string Richenbacher lap steel and matching amp that I never use. Also have a "Rex" Americana, hollowbody, red, white blue theme. I think someone told me the Company was owned by Gretsch for a budget line of guitars. What a great collection of pups you have. I wanted hear the "Roger".

[@Notaluthier]

The Roger looks identical to a Hofner pickup of the era. But I have yet to hear either in action!

[@TehGav]

My 1936 Slingerland electric has a six-coil pickup (one under each string) that's wired as a humbucker.

[@Notaluthier]

Oooh! I’ve always wanted to check out the Slingerland pickup. Is yours a lap steel, Spanish, or archtop? My maybell has the ubiquitous Chicago pickup instead of the Slingerland one.

[@TehGav]

@@Notaluthier It's the Songster 401 Spanish. The pickup is genuinely ferocious -- like the nitro-burning dragster of '30s guitar pickups. I did a lot of research to find out where that pickup design came from. It's featured in a British radio magazine circa 1935, then the trail goes cold.

[@ktk44man]

Seth lover and ray Butts. Seth...ray... Butt...lover...

[@Notaluthier]

I knew I missed an opportunity for a butt lover joke! D’oh!

[@ariholder4762]

Fun fact in Aotearoa NZ our mains power is 50Hz so I've never heard the famed 60 cycle hum. I imagination its fairly similar.

[@matthewf1979]

It’s just 10 more buzzzhertz a second than what you hear. Very small difference, but still noticeable.

[@LizordSword]

the perfect pickups for metal

[@trappenweisseguy27]

Subbed, awesome video man. You dove waaay down into the deep end of early pickup technology. I have and recommend the book “The Guitar Pickups Handbook” from Dave Hunter if you don’t already have it.

[@Notaluthier]

Oh cool! I haven’t heard of it, I’ll look into that! Thanks

[@qwerty_studios]

i may be misremembering but i heard the log (1939) had stacked humbuckers

[@bengordon2330]

thank you for doing the work. Your hair looks great :)

[@FrogCabin-in5wd]

In a similar vein, back in the 1970's the Grateful Dead's sound genius, Owsley, created a dual-microphone setup for the Dead's singers and their outdoor shows to eliminate noise leaking in from the PA system. We're operating at the limits of my comprehension here, so I'll quote a much smarter person on the Web: "A major improvement in the quality of the vocal sound is due to the use of differential microphones. Each singer has a perfectly matched pair of Bruel and Kjaer microphones hooked up out of phase, only one of which he sings into. Any sound which goes equally into both microphones is cancelled out when the two signals are added together. Therefore leakage of instruments and background noise into the vocal channel is minimized."

[@handwriting8804]

This had been a common practice long before the Grateful Dead did it

[@skullheadwater9839]

Is Ray Butz related to Seymour? I was starting to wonder if you were going to plug stuff in, I am a tone chaser and like you try to collect things of this sort. But I am cheap, so I started building tube amps and such several years ago. I like experimenting with different tubes and circuit designs. I think if we were neighbors, we'd be fast friends.

[@Notaluthier]

No, but he’s cousins with Amanda Hugandkiss!

[@13DKA-kg2fz]

We're all standing on the shoulders of giants. I guess many of them may feel pretty relieved about not having all those dwarfs standing on their shoulders, fighting about bragging rights anymore. :)

[@FACTUALITY-1]

For those who dont know what AWG means it is "American Wire Gauge".

[@johnsonkaiden497]

What do they have against Hum? Stars is an amazing song

[@jeremyschuhmann9671]

In your attempt at an explanation of humbucking pickup design, you left out the important fact that not only are the two coils wound in opposite directions to make them opposite phase, the magnets within the coils are also flipped (i.e. one has north pole up while the other has south pole up). The result is that magnetic field disturbances that are local to the magnetic fields of the pickup magnets (i.e. the vibrating steel strings) create signals from the two coils that are IN PHASE (because the reverse wind causes a 180 degree phase shift, and the reversed magnets cause another 180 degree phase shift, which brings them back in phase so that they add). whereas magnetic field disturbances that are remote (i.e. ambient magnetic field “noise” caused by electrical wiring and AC powered devices) are not affected by the local magnetic field of the pickup, and therefore generate signals in the two coils that are 180 degrees out of phase and cancel each other. Another thing you left out is that humbucking coils can be wired in series (like Gibson design), or in parallel (like Gretsch design). The series design gives you a higher impedance and a hotter signal at the expense of some treble loss. The parallel design gives you a lower impedance and a twangier sound.

[@Notaluthier]

Thanks for the info, I referenced opposing “polarity” repeatedly in regards to the magnets. And briefly mentioned that there are 4 possible wiring schemes from a two coil pickup. Two in series and two in parallel. I just ad lib my videos (no script) so there’s bound to be some omissions and errors.

[@peterjames2580]

Nice class!!!

[@666pinkster]

Probably whoever developed the Western Electric amplifier series for Edison. It's based on the same principle as what's used with an A B amplifier in the phase issues between them to cancel noise So it predates guitar pickups

[@Notaluthier]

Yep! I do mention in the video that hum cancelling circuits were long-known in other electronics before the advent of the electric guitar!

[@666pinkster]

@@Notaluthier that part came after my comment, but, yeppers! cool vid, bro, subbed!

[@rjlchristie]

0:37 "creates a resistance, which coupled with a magnet picks up the vibrations of the strings which creates a voltage..." Nope. Resistance and a magnet won't do anything much. You need an inductive reactance, or impedance. That's what a coil creates, it's not a simple resistance.

[@Notaluthier]

Yep, I was dead wrong. I just said what I thought was the case I knew it would probably be inaccurate whoops

[@Earthstein]

Seth Lover is generally credited. But since it takes only a basic understanding of physics any pre-grad electronics/Electrical engineer could have designed one on a napkin. I don't doubt many did. Then tossed the napkin.

[@Notaluthier]

Yeah, the video states that neither of these guys were even close to inventing the humbucker

[@bigsbyfreak]

vega was making humbuckers 10 years befor too

[@Notaluthier]

It’s in there!

[@martinhiggs7027]

Gretsch invented the side by side humbucker ! the vertical humbucker has been around on lap steels since the late 1930's early 1940's "Rickenbacker" Les Paul was working with a hidden coil version (out of phase) somewhere inside the body of the guitar ! Vi-Vi Tone was also in the game with a electric generator pickup in the very early 1930's

[@Notaluthier]

Though I didn’t mention vivitone, only concentrating on magnetic pickups, if you watch the video you’ll be sure to find out that I don’t think either of those companies came close to inventing the humbucker, in any orientation

[@satanbane]

The notion of adding a pickup to an acoustic instrument and playing through an amplifier and headphones in order to be quieter, actually makes plenty of sense. This would allow you to play much more quietly in a physical sense, and still clearly hear your playing. This applies to solid-body electric guitars today, equally. A nice electric will have plenty of resonance so you can certainly practice with it unplugged, but if the noise is bothering someone, then play through headphones, and without even trying you will end up strumming and picking much more quietly.

[@Notaluthier]

I stand by my declaration of its absurdity. you can hear an acoustic instrument just fine when playing it quietly. The addition of a very crude homemade hacksaw blade pickup plugged in through…probably an old radio…would likely render equal parts signal from the instrument and hiss/hum/static. 1939 headphones were not good either. I digress. I appreciate the pushback/debate. But in the context of the article/design/era, I don’t think it’s a good/useable idea

[@Evan_Kersey]

12:42 now thats a big pot

[@Notaluthier]

I have an ABSURD pot from ~1918, i’m sure it’ll show up in a video eventually

[@AnnoyingCritic-is7rp]

Don't tell anyone. If this ever gets out people will be making their own pickups and guitars.

[@daleskidmore1685]

The phrase " Re inventing the wheel" comes to mind. Nicely researched talk. PS Is there any truth in the assertion my mate makes that the solid body electric guitar was invented to stop plectrums ( plectra? ) from being lost in the sound holes of acoustic guitars?

[@Notaluthier]

Hahahha, no the solid body guitar was invented largely for the purpose of evading feedback. You’ll see many early hollow electrics without soundholes for the same reason.

[@daleskidmore1685]

@@Notaluthier I can't wait to put him right!

[@Guilhem74]

Mr Humbucker did it, duh

[@pvdguitars2951]

What is invention? Should it not be called discovery? To uncover what has always been? Etymology of inventus (Latin) of invenio means to find, to meet, to come upon or to … discover. So taking a patent, a claim of ownership of something that has always been is really silly! The great Wilhelm Rontgen never took a claim for ‘his’ discovery!!!

[@Notaluthier]

I see where you’re going. And it’s an interesting debate. In this case neither invented anything. But whomever discovered that winding two coils in opposite directions with re erased magnetic polarity would counteract our 60cycle hum was a savant

[@pvdguitars2951]

@@Notaluthier kinda like going to Australia for the first time and calling this an invention, rather than a discovery. History teaches us how much misery this has caused humanity. Mr Rontgen understood this very well. The discovery of X-rays was not an invention. Neither did Newton invent gravity, nor did Johannes Kepler invent the laws of cosmic motion! Imagine the devastation if Alexander Fleming would have claimed intellectual property over his discovery of the antibiotic properties of penicillin, rather than giving it freely back to humanity thereby saving millions? Unfortunately, the greed of modern society, big pharma in particular, only thinks in terms of becoming rich quickly, regardless of the human suffering!

[@BlueberryStinkFinger62]

Neither I'm loyal Epiphone