pickups and fixed bridges...?

Question

what are these on guitar and what do they do, how are they used..i need to know everything about this.can anyone help me.

Answer 1

The guitar pickups are what translate the ringing of the strings into sound. They basically are wound magnets that turn the sound you hear from the strings into electrical impulses that can be transmitted and played through your amplifier.

As for a fixed bridge, that means that the bridge does not move... think of a Gibson Les Paul. The strings go over the bridge and are fastened to the tailpiece that is mounted on the guitar. A Fender Stratocaster has a moveable bridge, a Tremolo bridge. It has a bar that you can push and pull on to add a shimmering sound to the notes or to make it sound like you are bending from one note to the other. You can't do that on a fixed bridge guitar.

Answer 2

Hi there,

I'll make it simple for you.

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Pickups
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Pickup's are the devices in your guitar that will pick up string vibration and transfer it to the output socket on the guitar, where the cable is plugged in. There are many different types and models of pickup to attain a different sound/tone from the guitar.

The pickups themselves comprise of a circuitboard and a series of magnets. In most pickups you can see the magnets clearly as the little circules underneath each of the strings.

A Stratocaster type guitar typically has, what is know in guitar-world as single coil pickups. They are a single row of magnets underneath the strings.
Example:http://www.stevesmusiccenter.com/DimarzioDP170Big.jpg

A Les Paul type guitar typically has "Humbucker" type pickups. They are know for this because they elliminate the Humming noise that is associated with Single Coil pickups at high volume.

Example 1 Shows a Standard Humbucker in nickel casing.
Example 1:http://www.stevesmusiccenter.com/DuncanAntiquityHumbucker.jpg
Example 2 Shows a Standard Humbucker without the casing. Even tho there are two rows of "metal dots", this is still only a single pickup.
Example 2: http://www.instrumento.cz/img/slovnik/humbucker.jpg

The pickups themselves are usually arranged in various ways on the guitar. For instance on a Stratocaster they can be arranged in 2's or 3's.
Example of 3 Pickups:http://www.harmonicdesign.net/images/white_strat.jpg

Les Paul's typically have two Humbucker Pickups:
Example: http://i23.ebayimg.com/05/i/07/8c/a8/15_2.JPG

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Fixed Bridges
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A Les Paul type guitar typically has a "Fixed Bridge". This is merely a designers choice when the guitar was originally made, but it has shaped the way Les Paul type guitars sound by keeping more string vibration in the wooden body of the guitar.
Example of Fixed Bridge: http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/img/inton1.jpg

A non-fixed bridge guitar is typically a guitar with a Whammy Bar type arrangement. The bridge on the guitar (where the strings are attached to the guitar opposite to the headstock) will move with the aid of a bar so it sort of rocks on a hinge to create some great effects.
Example of Non-Fixed Bridge / Whammy Bar: http://uptimestrategies.com/stetsbar/media/littlewideeye.jpg

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

I'm sorta a beginner as well. I'm pretty sure 'Pickup' is the 4th note (the only note in the measure) in a 4/4 time signature.