Pickups are where it all starts. Wood, strings, hardware, and fingers all interact to produce the note, but the pickup translates it into the signal that makes it electric. The Guitar Pickup Handbook provides an exhaustive and authoritative tonal guide to this most essential of components.<BR>Dave Hunter traces the history and development of the pickup, from the 1920s to the present day, explaining magnet type, size, and structure, and the many different types of coils. The 'big four' manufacturers - Gibson, Fender, Rickenbacker, and Gretsch - are each profiled in detail, alongside overviews of more than 20 other specialist guitar- and pickup-makers, both new and long-established, including Alembic, Tom Anderson Guitarworks, Kent Armstrong, Joe Barden, Burns, Carvin, Danelectro/Silvertone, Fralin, Lollar, Rio Grande, T.V. Jones, and Bare Knuckle. With detailed specifications for each model discussed, this guide provides everything you need to know to choose the pickup that is right for you.<BR>Complementing the expert technical advice and opinion, the author has spoken at length to some of the major manufacturers, exclusively for this book, and his fascinating interviews with leading figures such as Kent Armstrong, Joe Barden, Seymour Duncan, and Fender's Mike Eldred make the volume especially readable not only for pickup specialists but all electric guitar enthusiasts.