Single Coils Versus Humbuckers: Which One Is Actually Louder?

Even though the current consensus online is that humbucking electric guitar pickups sound louder than their single coil counterparts, is it really true that single coil pickups generate a much higher voltage output than humbuckers?

By: Ringo Bones

During the latter half of the 1980s working as a luthier’s apprentice, I often connected a voltmeter on the electric guitar’s output jack to measure how much signal it generates. If connected right in its hum-bucking mode, humbucking electric guitar pickups output about half as much voltage than that of a single coil pickup. Single coil electric guitar pickups typically output a little over one volt peak-to-peak unloaded and yet when connected to a vacuum tube guitar amp with a distortion pedal in tow, humbuckers tend to sound – probably to mine and everyone’s ears – louder and with a more complex tone than its single-coil counterparts. But why do online forums discussing the merits between the two most popular electric guitar pickup configurations often fail to mention the voltage output issue?

Back in the late 1980s – where hair metal glam rock reigned supreme on MTV and on mainstream FM radio – electric guitars with built in DSP and or effects that can only be powered by a single PP3 / 9-volt battery and sounds acceptably good to most working musicians  - like the Gibson Firebird X - is still the stuff of science fiction. Much later on, most electric guitars with internal built in battery powered preamplification and DSP effects I’ve serviced recently tend to output around 100-millivolts or so, much, much “quieter” than their “vintage” counterparts equipped only with a potentiometer based volume control and passive low-high tone control. And to my ears and everyone at the repair shop often swear that the electric guitar with the built in battery powered DSP and preamplification sounds much louder than their vintage counterparts.