Editing Electric guitar (section)

===Pickups===
{{Main|Pickup (music technology)}}
[[File:Pickups Humb 2Single.jpg|thumb|Pickups on a Fender Squier "Fat Strat" guitar—a "humbucker" pickup on the left and two single-coil pickups on the right.]]

Compared to an acoustic guitar, which has a hollow body, electric guitars make much less audible sound when their strings are plucked, so electric guitars are normally plugged into a guitar amplifier and speaker. When an electric guitar is played, string movement produces a signal by generating (i.e., [[inductance|inducing]]) a small electric current in the magnetic pickups, which are [[magnet]]s wound with coils of very fine wire.
The signal passes through the tone and volume circuits to the output jack, and through a cable to an [[Guitar amplifier|amplifier]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vassilis Lembessis|first=Dr.|date=1 July 2001|title=Physics... in action |bibcode-access=free |journal=Europhysics News|language=en|volume=32|issue=4|pages=125|doi=10.1051/epn:2001402|bibcode=2001ENews..32..125V |issn=0531-7479|doi-access=free}}</ref> The current induced is proportional to such factors as string density and the amount of movement over the pickups.<!--That vibration is, in turn, affected by several factors, such as the composition and shape of the body. ALREADY COVERED-->

Because of their natural qualities, magnetic pickups tend to pick up ambient, usually unwanted [[electromagnetic interference]] or EMI.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lemme|first1=Helmuth|title=The Secrets of Electric Guitar Pickups|url=https://www.princeton.edu/ssp/joseph-henry-project/electric-guitar-pickup/Guitar-Pickup-Theory.pdf |date=February 25, 2009 |via=Electric Guitar Pickup, Joseph Henry Project |website=Build Your Guitar|publisher=Electronic Musician|access-date=15 April 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427220316/https://www.princeton.edu/ssp/joseph-henry-project/electric-guitar-pickup/Guitar-Pickup-Theory.pdf |archive-date= Apr 27, 2016 }}</ref> This [[mains hum]] results in a tone of 50 or 60 cycles per second depending on the [[Utility frequency|powerline frequency]] of the local [[alternating current]] supply.

The resulting [[Hum (sound)|hum]] is particularly strong with single-coil pickups. Double-coil or "[[humbucker]]" pickups were invented as a way to reduce or counter the sound, as they are designed to "buck" (in the verb sense of ''oppose'' or ''resist'') the hum, hence their name. The high combined [[inductance]] of the two coils also leads to the richer, "fatter" tone associated with humbucking pickups.