Since their invention in the 1930s, few instruments have influenced modern music more deeply than the electric guitar. But when you plug a guitar into an amp, what actually happens inside that strange black box to broadcast and distort the sound? The magic is in the guitar’s pickups, which change the kinetic energy of the guitar strings vibrating into electric energy.
In this animated short, Stone Suess demonstrates how the same law of electromagnetism that explains how wind turbines can generate electricity can also explain groovy sonic pickups!
