Page "Humbucker" Paragraph 2

A humbucking pickup, or humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup that uses two coils to " buck the hum " ( or cancel out the interference ), induced by the alternating current in single coil pickups.

All pickups use magnets to produce a magnetic field around the strings, and induce an electrical current in the coils as the strings vibrate.

Humbuckers work by pairing a coil with the north poles of its magnets oriented " up ", ( or toward the strings ), with a coil which has the south pole of its magnets oriented up.

By connecting the coils in series and out of phase, noise and interference are significantly reduced via common-mode rejection.