Page 67 - FLIPMAG.NET

MAKER’S MARKS

WHO REALLY

INVENTED THE

HUMBUCKER?

THE RAY BUTTS ARCHIVE REVEALS MORE

SECRETS ABOUT THE RACE TO DEVELOP THE

FIRST HUMBUCKING PICKUP FOR GUITAR

WORDS MATT BLADES

ho invented the humbucker? That’s
easy. It was Seth Lover, right? Except
Ray Butts got his Filter’Tron patent first,
right? Or perhaps they arrived at the idea
Wat the same time? Whichever variation
on this answer you go by, the canonical version
of events (usually) goes as follows:
At 1957’s NAMM Show, both Gibson and
Ray Butts – with Gretsch – showed up with a
humbucking guitar pickup. Gibson’s unit came to
be known as the PAF (Patent Applied For) pickup,
and was created by the company’s electronics expert
Seth Lover. Butts’ pickup was the Filter’Tron, which
was used in Gretsch guitars from the late 1950s
onwards. There was some fallout after the show but
Gibson and Gretsch eventually reached an agreement.
Butts and Lover invented their pickups independently The correspondences demonstrate that Gibson FACING PAGE Ray Butts
of one another, and just happened to do so at the same did know about the Filter’Tron prior to 1957, that revolutionised the guitar
time – and it’s often assumed that neither party had Ray knew about their humbucker, and that both world but rarely gets the
prior knowledge of what the other was working on. were concerned about a conflict between them. credit he deserves
Ray had found out about Lover’s pickup through ABOVE Guitarcheologist
Only that isn’t true. its announcement in the October issue of the Gibson Thomas Vincent ‘TV’ Jones
Gazette in 1956. He wrote to Gibson immediately excavating details from
As we revealed in issue 381, pickup manufacturer and raised the issue, informing them of his own the Butts archive
Thomas Vincent ‘TV’ Jones has been granted access invention. In his first response, McCarty is relatively
to a wealth of Ray Butts’ original schematics, business reserved. “Without knowing the principle of your
documents and personal correspondences that has pickup,” he says, “it is not possible to make a statement
been largely unpublished or unexplored up to this regarding the compatibility of the two units.” Ted
point. Searching through these papers has revealed goes on to write that Gibson had been researching
letters sent to Ray by the then-president of Gibson the concept for “quite a few years”, and mentions the
Ted McCarty, dated 12 October and 21 November company’s patent application for the design, which
1956. The contents are illuminating to say the least. was dated 22 June 1955.

GUITAR MAGAZINE 67