Pickup Output?

[rocket]

What output can I expect from guitar pickups?
And for which pickup output do you design your pedals?

EMGs are rated anywhere from 1.5Vpp to 4.5Vpp.

[arawn]

The best output i have ever seen from a pickup is a couple hundred mv pp, I don't know what emg is measuring.

[CynicalMan]

Most EMGs are active, meaning that there's a booster circuit built in to the guitar. So most passive pickups will have a lower output, generally under 1Vp. Humbuckers will have a higher output than single coils since they have two coils producing signal.

Headroom isn't often a concern in a well-designed circuit, but to test it I just grab a guitar with humbuckers and check if I get any clipping.

[Seljer]

I've got really really hot humbuckers in my guitar. I once hooked it up to my oscilloscope and measured the voltage, while raising the trigger level. I managed to hit 8V peak to peak on the first three or four humps of the signal. Though this was picking thrash metal riffs really hard with a very thick pick, literally abusing the strings. Strumming open chords had around 4V peak to peak, 1 or 2 volts on calmer playing/single notes. This was all on the attack, it quickly tapers of and is more in the range of (hundreds of) millivolts afterwards.

So yeah, I can easily distort a buffer powered from 9V.

[R O Tiree]

All these figures below are amplitude, not P-P

Typical single-coils give about 1-200mV

Typical humbuckers around 1-1.5V.

Soap-bars around 1-2V (?)

EMGs, as stated above, up to 4.5V

And then there's Seljer's insanely powerful humbuckers...  Barking mental

[Quackzed]

i was surprised by how hot passive single coils and humbuckers can be, a full on e chord with attitude can be 3v plus,with  a pretty cool 7 or 8k hum...
single coils can also be up near 1v in that situation (bangin open chord). its that the higher frequencies ride on top of the lower frequencies. so although a single may have a 200mv average signal, with a big wide chord, the high string notes ride the lower ones and in the right instant each strings 150mv or so can add up...200 + 150 + 100 + 50 etc... add some muscle and you can hit the 1v mark with em.
definately a consideration if your looking for clean headroom. you start to hit the limits of a 9v circuit pretty quickly in a booster say. 3x gain and your 'ultra cleen' boost pedal turns into a dirty boost! just food for thought.

[anchovie]

The best output i have ever seen from a pickup is a couple hundred mv pp, I don't know what emg is measuring.

Are your picks made of gossamer?