Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

[Dave Locher]

I know this seems like a really dumb question. I know humbuckers were developed to "buck" the hum.

BUT...unless you're using higher gain than players used back in 1958 it's really not that big of a difference. When I split the coil on my guitar there is no huge jump in hum unless I have the preamp pegged pretty high into distortion territory. I played a strat for a while years ago and the hiss and hum weren't bad at all unless I had an overdrive on or had my preamp cranked.

I have never played through an honest-to-goodness 1950s tube amplifier. Were they noisy as heck? Was electrical wiring inherently noisier back then? What I am wondering about is why they felt the need to reduce the 60-cycle hum when it wouldn't seem to have been much of a problem at that time, given the accepted guitar tone of the day? (Sparkling clean or slightly snotty.)

It would make a lot more sense to me if they were developed in the mid- or late 1960s when everyone was cranking their amps and/or running fuzz boxes.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

I don't know the answer. I will say that I'm glad that they did.

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[Dave Locher]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

I don't know the answer. I will say that I'm glad that they did.

Amen, Brother!!

 

[Karan D. Taktawala]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

Seth Lover was a time traveller who saw the 70’s sucked so he decided. “There Shall be Tone” and then guitarists saw that there was tone, and tone was GOOD!-\m/


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[Dave Locher]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

Visions of a distorted future make the most sense to me. I honestly can't imagine any country swing player circa 1957 saying "dang, that hum is just too much!"

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

Those multistage, higain amps like Mesa literally mulltiply the noize. A two stage tweed amp has a lower noise floor and does not amplify every tidbit of signal.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

the power back in the day wasnt as clean or consistent as it is these days and plenty of amps were more noisy

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

I started playing in 1969. Single coils hummed with low gain amps then, and back in the late 50s. And Fender was eating Gibson’s lunch. So they needed something Fender didn’t have.

Ray Butts also designed the Filter’Tron humbucker in 1957, and Fender did the split coil P bass humbucker at the same time. So hum was clearly seen as a problem.


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[freefrog]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

I know this seems like a really dumb question. I know humbuckers were developed to "buck" the hum.

BUT...unless you're using higher gain than players used back in 1958 it's really not that big of a difference.

What jeremy said. Also: when I play at home, my SC's are not especially noisy (except the P90's). On stage, where the same uncontroled power supply is used for various devices including radio transmitters and some powerful lights above, it's another story (unpredictable, furthermore). :-/

FOOTNOTE - a funny (or not) experience is to put a quartz watch close to a SC and to listen.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

the power back in the day wasnt as clean or consistent as it is these days and plenty of amps were more noisy

Non grounded outlets didnt help either.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

Take your low-gain vintage-circuit amp to a home built in the 1940’s-1950’s with the original electrical wiring, plug in your amp, plug in your Strat, turn up the volume to a moderate performance level and within 3 seconds you’ll have your answer.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

So electrical wiring sucked and a lot of amps were noisy. Thanks, that is exactly what I wanted to know!

 

[Despair]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

It's not just the amps that are noisy and power is bad, but also issues like randomly picking up AM radio stations. Or being anywhere near a rheostat (dimmer) for lights or fans. And a lot of amps had fewer controls, so you didn't have the options of adjusting gain vs volume, all you had was the one gain control.

Shielding wasn't common in guitars (particularly pickups), further compounding the problems with non-humbucking pickups.

P-90 coil geometry made them worse for picking up noise than Fender single coils... And had more and worse issues with shielding muffling their tone. Gibson had particular reason to want a solution.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

In addition to the other factors mentioned, my understanding is that single-coil pickups of that era (50s and 60s) were noisier. The know-how about design practices , material choices, and shielding has increased since then so that modern singlecoils aren't as noisy as their predecessors. Again, i may be wrong, but i thought that was the case.

 

[Artie]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

So, when was the LP created? I'm guessing they couldn't have a Les Paul without humbuckers.

(I know I could "google" this, but it's more interesting getting the info here.)

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

IIRC the first LP was in 1952 and came with p90’s.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

IIRC the first LP was in 1952 and came with p90’s.

Yep. I cheated and looked on the internet. The first LP with humbuckers wasn't until 1957.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

P-90 coil geometry made them worse for picking up noise than Fender single coils... And had more and worse issues with shielding muffling their tone. Gibson had particular reason to want a solution.

Shielding a P90 or a Strat single coil should have no effect on tone. The only thing that causes treble loss from a shield is if you completely enclose a pickup in a loop of shield. If you leave a little break in the loop, it prevents you're shield from messing with the eddy currents.

I also think a big part of getting rid of noise was marketing. Not everyone was likely all that bothered by noise, but being able to say "our guitars are noise free and the others aren't" is a really convincing way to show that you are building the superior product and have more knowledge of the craft.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

There’s RF noise and 60 cycle hum, shielding helps a ton with the former, not really with the later. Imagine Les Paul recording and getting hum. He probably demanded his pickups not hum just like his microphones didn’t hum... The Gibson humbucking pickup was just a specific application of a technique that had been around since the 1930s.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Why were humbuckers developed? Was there really that much hum in old amps??

outlet power wasn't as clean, lots of other intermittent signals, p90's who hum like a bumblebee becuase they just do... yeah, humbuckers were almost mandatory.