what does humbucking do?

Humbuckers are pickups that don't make humming or hissing noises when you aren't playing them.

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They "buck" the 60 cycle hum that is inherent with most single coil pickups.

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To get more technical, and hey why not? It doesn't hurt to understand what you're playing.

A humbucker is actually a pair of single coil pickups wired in series. The magnets of one face up. The magnets of the other face down. Also, the coil of one pickup is wrapped clockwise. The other is counter clockwise.

For signals generated by the vibrating strings, that arrangement produces two 180 degree phase reversals. The signals from the two coils are therefore reinforced. But the 60hz hum signals floating in the air or through a ground loop don't care about the magnets. They just get one phase reversal. So the signals from the two coils go through destructive interference. This is the hum canceling effect.

First developed by Seth Lover of Gibson and incorporated into the Gibson "P.A.F" pickup, which stands for Patent Applied For.

For more technical detail consult any college second year physics textbook and look up "Maxwell's Equations."

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humbucker in a Strat's bridge position provides more bite
and let the articulation stands out
Strat humbucker can take more gain than a Strat single coil
however, in a seperate case
Telecaster's bridge pickup should remain single coils
if you want a humbucker in your Telecaster
let it be in the neck position