Rules of Tone: Pickups

There are many factors influencing guitar tone and the pickups are certainly no exception! To understand a pickup you must understand what a transducer does: it converts a signal in one form of energy to another form of energy.

To put it simply, a pickup is a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations (your strings) and converts them into that loud rockin’ tone we all love to hear! Pickups can come in many different shapes, sizes, and electrical variances. All of these factors greatly affect the end result: your guitar tone.

Paul Reed Smith has spent hundreds (probably thousands) of hours figuring out the best combination of factors in order to give our guitars the greatest possible tone. In this behind the scenes video, Paul himself walks us through some PRS pickups.