7 Best Guitar Pickups & Humbuckers Overall (buying guide)

In an electric guitar there’s no single part that has more say in the quality and type of tone you produce, than pickups. Aside from strings, pickups are also one of the most replaceable parts of your guitar. While the process usually requires some basic soldering, pickups can be swapped out for upgrading your sound, or simply pivoting to a different type of tone without a ton of technical effort.

You might want something heavier, more bluesy, or better for clean tones. Or maybe you’re just replacing really cheap stock pickups. The Jackson Dinky is a popular guitar for pickup swaps.

The technology Fishman uses in their pickups is fairly new, as they've abandoned the traditional copper wire winding in favor of stacked coils. This has resulted in an extremely clear-sounding pickup that produces some of the best tones we've ever heard. Fishman is truly in a class by themselves with this technology and easily our favorite recommendation.

Seymour Duncan's Invader pickups are an aggressively-voiced, high-output humbucker that produces a really smooth distorted tone. This is one of our favorite pickups for Les Paul electrics and modern playing styles, especially for those who run a lot of heavy distortion through their signal. Here's a clip of Bobby playing them on his PRS: 

This is one of our favorite pickup sets for Stratocasters, especially if you're looking for a more subtle and mellow Strat but with some glassy upside. The California set by Seymour Duncan handles the nuance of your picking and playing style really well and does it all without noise issues in the Strats we've tested. While the tone is similar to the Fender Noiseless sets, we just find the California '50s to have a little more character and definition, making them one of our favorite recommendtions for Strat upgrades. 

For fans of vintage tones and more subtle, bluesy clean sounds, Seymour Duncan's Antiquity pickup series has become a go-to in recent years. They've even got the worn vintage look down to a science, which works particularly well with their Stratocaster and Telecaster single coil sets. Most run an Alnico 2 magnet with a lower DCR (output). 

Read more: Best Seymour Duncan pickups

One of EMG's most popular active pickup sets is the 57 and 66 humbucker pair which combines an Alnico and Ceramic magnet for a smooth tone that also sounds really good in a lead guitar context. They're popular with heavy rock and metal players like Zakk Wydle and the guys from Metallica, all of whom have their own EMG signature humbuckers. They make a great Les Paul pickup upgrade, and also ship with EMG's solderless installation system.

As the name would indicate, DiMarzio's twang king Telecaster pickup is a high-output, twangy pair that really brings out the character and right-hand technique of Telecaster electrics. Blues and country playing styles are the best fits for this type of single coil, which we'd recommend for upgrading any stock Squier or even some of the Fender branded pickup models. 

Read more: Best DiMarzio pickups

Like the Modern versions of the Fluence, the Fishman Fluence Classic set uses the same stacked coil technology, though are voiced with a slightly softer output. Again, the clean tones with these pickups are so good that you'd be hard pressed to find a style where it doesn't fit. The Fluence series is always going to be a significant upgrade over just about any guitar with an HH pickup configuration.

Something to Add? Questions?

Have an electric guitar pickup in mind that you think should be included? Maybe a lesser-known or boutique brand that we haven’t heard about? Leave it in the comments and we'll consider adding it to our best guitar pickups list.

We’re always interested in hearing about unique and interesting pickups and parts. You can also use the comments section below for recommendations or questions about the pickups we've already listed.