Lipstick Pickup

This is a type of single-coil pickup that has all of its parts enclosed in a chrome-plated metal tube. Inside, unlike most traditional single-coil pickups, the lipstick pickup has its inner coil wrapped around an Alnico bar magnet and wrapped in a tough cellophane-type tape. These pickups were first used on the Danelectro guitar line, which was also marketed and distributed through the Sears and Roebuck department stores under the brand name Silvertone. According to urban legend, the original lipstick pickups were manufactured using actual surplus lipstick tubes, and that very well may have been true, though no concrete proof of that has ever come to light. The late Stevie Ray Vaughan sometimes played a Strat that had been retrofitted with three lipstick tube pickups.