Pickups
Popular in Pickups
Shadow SH 330 pickup for acoustic steel-string guitar
The Shadow SH 330 pickup allows you to turn almost any acoustic steel-string guitar with a round sound hole into an electric-acoustic guitar. Ideal for recordings at home and in the studio, as well as for live use on stage.
Fishman Neo-D Single Coil Pickup
The Neo-D Single Coil by Fishman is an incredibly easy way to fit your acoustic guitar with proper signal amplification and offer faithful tonal reproduction in the studio or on stage.
Shadow SH 711 Universal Transducer (20mm) Acoustic Instrument Pickup
The Shadow SH 711 transducer is an easy-to-install pickup that's simply stuck to the body of an acoustic instrument and then hooked up to an acoustic amplifier with the included jack cable.
Pickups information
Want to change up the sound of your electric guitar, your bass or even your acoustic or electro-acoustic guitar? Then changing the pickups is a great first step. At Bax Music, you'll find every kind of pickup you can think of, so you can find just the right thing.
Pickups
When you hear the sound of any electric guitar or bass, the chance is pretty big that you're also hearing the sound of pickups. Pickups are responsible for converting the vibrations of the guitar strings into an electrical signal that can then be sent to an amplifier. While the build of a guitar or bass has a big influence on the overall sound, the pickups maybe play the biggest and most important role, which is why a lot of guitarists upgrade the sound of their instrument by swapping out the pickups. To accommodate the wide range of instruments, sounds, genres and playing styles out there, the world of pickups is just as diverse. There are, of course, guitar pickups and bass guitar pickups, but also pickups for acoustic guitars and other acoustic instruments. You could easily get the help of an expert to install your new pickups, but it's also a job you could do yourself. All you need is a soldering iron, some solder and a little focus and patience. If you're struggling to find the right pickups for your instrument, have a look at our Pickup Buyer's Guide for more info and tips.
Active Pickups
If a guitar is mounted with active pickups, then the core of each pickup is 'added up', resulting in extra power and clarity as well as more stable sound at higher volume levels. Active pickups are 'active' because they need to be powered, which will usually be taken care of by a standard 9 Volt block battery that can be slotted into a compartment integrated into the body of the guitar. Active pickups are really popular among metal guitarists, because they have a really tight character when combined with distortion. A lot of metal bass guitarists also opt for active pickups, since they give the instrument a really defined sound that still packs presence in a busy band mix.
Frequently Asked Questions About Guitar Pickups
What's an active pickup?
Active pickups are connected to a preamp system that's built into the guitar. These systems need a power supply, which is usually a 9V battery or a rechargeable battery pack.
How do you change a pickup?
You can go to your local luthier or guitar shop and get your pickups changed by an expert, but if you want to do it yourself, it's actually not that hard. Before you start taking anything apart though, it's wise to make sure that you have everything that you need, like a soldering iron and solder. For more help see our step-by-step guide to replacing pickups.