In guitar terms what exactly is a "pickup"?

Answer 1

The pickup of an electric guitar is an electromagnet--a magnet wrapped with one or two coils of wire with as many as 7000 turns! Electricity can be induced in a coil/magnet like this by moving an iron or steel object around in the magnet's field. In the case of a guitar, a steel string vibrates within the field of the magnet in the pickup, inducing electrical signals at the same rate of vibration as the string. The signal is transmitted to an amplifier and then to a speaker. Because a pickup is not a microphone, electric guitars need not be designed to make a good tone acoustically--just electronically. That's why electric guitars don't have a hollow sound box with a sound hole like acoustic guitars. Most acoustic guitarists and string bass players who need amplification therefore shy away from pickups and go for special microphones that simply transmit and amplify their full naturally amplified acoustic sound rather than transmit the sound of just the string electronically.

Answer 2

its part of an electric guitar, right under the strings on the body, that 'pick up' the sound and relays it to the amplifier. kind of like a very small microphone for the strings.

Answer 3

a pick up is a note that is indicated before a full measure, as with all musical instruments and vocal sheet music I have been a sight reader for sheet music my whole life and pickups are very common in most music

Answer 4

it is simply put, the part of a guitar that "picks up" the sound so it can be heard through an amp or other device

Answer 5

you can also get one that attatches to an acoustic guitar, it clips on the hole and mirophones picks up the sounnd to be played over a speaker.