Seth Lover

Seth E. Lover (January 1, 1910 in Kalamazoo, Michigan – January 31, 1997 in Garden Grove,
California) was a designer of amplifiers and musical instrument electronics and effects. He is most
famous for developing the Gibson humbucker or hum-cancelling electric stringed instrument pickup,
most often used on the electric guitar.

Contents
Life and career
Designs with Gibson, Fender, and Seymour Duncan
With Gibson
With Fender
With Seymour Duncan
References

Life and career

Seth Lover began working with electronics as a child, and continued working with them during and after
his first service with the US Army in the 1930s. He then worked in an electronics shop in Kalamazoo,
repairing radios and building amplifiers. In the 1940s he worked for Gibson Guitars before joining the
service a second time during World War II. During the rest of the 1940s and 1950s, his career fluctuated
between working for Gibson and the US Navy.[1] He developed the humbucking pickup for Gibson in
1955, and designed the first fuzztone distortion device,[2] called the Varitone, in 1961. He stayed with
Gibson until 1967 when he took a designing job with Fender Musical Instruments.

Lover died on January 31, 1997 at the age of 87 after a brief illness. He was survived by his wife, his two
sons, and his three grandchildren.

Designs with Gibson, Fender, and Seymour Duncan

With Gibson
Lover's most famous humbucker design was the P.A.F. (Patent Applied For) designed while working for
Gibson in 1955. This pickup was utilized in a range of Gibson guitars, most notably the Les Paul model.

Before Lover, electric guitarists were forced to cope with the 60-cycle hum received by single coil
pickups. It was in the mid-'50s, while working as an amplifier designer at Gibson Guitars, that Lover
figured out how to wire two coils electrically out of phase and with reversed magnetic polarities. The
effect was to cancel the hum before it reached the amp and the result was the birth of the humbucking
pickup.[3]
Lover applied for the patent on the humbucking pickup in 1955 and it was finally granted in 1959 (U.S.
Patent 2,896,491 (https://www.google.com/patents/US2896491)). During this five-year period, Gibson
adhered a "Patent Applied For" sticker to the underside of their humbucker pickups. These "P.A.F."
pickups are among the most collectable and desirable pickups today, fetching upwards of $1,000 each
among vintage guitar collectors.

While working under Ted McCarty at Gibson, Lover was also involved in guitar design. He liked to tell
how he helped contribute to the design of the famous "Flying V." Lover said that he thought up the
design as a way to lean the guitar against a wall without it tipping over.

Lover worked for Gibson from 1952 to 1967 as a design engineer.

With Fender
Another of his designs, known as the Fender Wide Range humbucking pickup (WRHP), was used in the
three Telecaster models (Deluxe, Custom, and Thinline) produced by Fender in the 1960-1970s. The
Wide Range pickup was also used in the Fender Starcaster.

In 1967, he transferred to Fender Musical Instruments where he worked until 1975 as a project engineer.
In addition to his two Gibson patents, he authored three more at Fender—two for loudspeaker cabinets
and one for an electric piano pickup. He retired to the Southern California town of Garden Grove.

With Seymour Duncan

Seymour W. Duncan, a guitar pickup designer and manufacturer, considered Lover his "humbucker
mentor." The two were associated for nearly 20 years. In 1994, Duncan and Lover jointly produced the
Seth Lover Model pickup, a re-creation of the "Patent Applied For" humbucker. After numerous full-
page ads, NAMM Show appearances, and magazine interviews, Lover became a minor celebrity at age
84. During his final years, Lover was a regular member of the Seymour Duncan NAMM-team.

References
1. "Seth Lover: Humbuckers and other Lover Innovations" (http://www.vintageguitar.com/3601/
seth-lover-3/). Vintage Guitar Magazine. Mar 2005. Retrieved Jan 3, 2015.
2. "Ahhh, Humbuck! : Seth Lover's amplitude of talent turned up the volume of pop--including
'horrible music'--and produced the Humbucker pickup. His Garden Grove garage is an
electronic treasure trove" (http://articles.latimes.com/1993-03-10/news/vw-1323_1_humbuc
king-pickup). Los Angeles Times. Mar 10, 1993. Retrieved Jan 3, 2015.
3. The humbucking pickup was simultaneously and independently developed by Ray Butts,
whose patent application was slightly earlier than Lover's; Butts' pickup was licensed to
Gretsch as the Filter'Tron

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This page was last edited on 10 November 2018, at 18:58 (UTC).

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