Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I know the basic difference in that the active pickups have a power sourse of their own and send a"stronger" signal to the amp. Or at least in theory. Those of you who have played both what are the advantages and disadvantages of these two system?

The active pickup has a volume control.
And a passive pickup, in some situations (e.g. recording), may not send a strong enough signal.

Oh it's on now..

This is actually part of the story about how I ended up going through my tube experimentation Sanshouheil.

Let me just say this.. I know the kind of music you play, and active pickups are not for you man.. They're more for extreme metal. ( I know, David Gilmour uses them, but he also has the equipment to compliment them better) Since they operate by using a 9-volt, the wood-tone of the guitar becomes all but taken away.. One of the worst decisions I made was to put some in my Strat. It was one of the most synthetic sounds I'd ever heard. I yanked them out a week later and sold them.

If you want to get some new pickups, I would recommend some good old Dimarzio or Seymour Duncan passives. They'll compliment your Carvin very well. Plenty of signal, they're great. Watch out for the "vintage" pickups in the bridge, they can be really ear piercing. But "vintage" neck pickups can be really cool for tone. A lot of bass in them.

Do yourself a favor and don't buy into the actives. You have to take your pickguard halfway off to change the battery. The battery goes dead in a hurry (especially if you leave your cable plugged in overnight a few times). And when the battery starts to go bad, you have no led to tell you. The guitar just starts sounding like crap. And they usually go bad before your strings do. They're a huge pain in the ass. And the sound just wouldn't be right for you.

Stick with the passives. Find yourself one good one for the bridge. That's usually all you need.

If I remember, your guitar has a humbucker in the bridge..

My recommendations:

Dimarzio:

Evolution
Super Distortion
Tone Zone

Seymour Duncan:

Duncan Custom SH-5
JB Model
'59 model

You can't go wrong with any of those. Do some research, and see if you can decide further which one is for you. You can read the descriptions on their websites. Or you can usually find what you need here:

http://stores.ebay.com/banjomikez

That's where I buy all of my pickups.

*Remember, F-Spaced is for Floyd Rose Tremolos. Standard Strat fixed Trems take regular spacing.

Hope this helps man..

wut shredd sed !

I had an EMG guitar and it had one sound.......Raw fuzz.
In the 80's my friend had a bass with actives that just
stopped working 15 minutes before the show. It was
easily tracked down to a bad solder connection, but who
needs that ?
My opinion is low impedence / power pick ups will always
sound better. Get distortion through the amp

I play an acoustic w/an active pickup.
I've gotten lots of compliments on how clean it sounds, and my battery lasts about 9 months (with about 15 - 20 hours /week usage).
. . . the battery is right there, too: 15 seconds to change.
.
Different guitars, different situations . . .

I think for acoustics actives are great, but for electrics I prefer passive.

I have actives in my bass and like them. On bass I just get a nice sound out of whatever amp Im using and then use the tone and volume on the bass to dial in my sound.

I can't comment on the sound since I have never used them but the main difference besides boosting the signal is that passive tone controls can only cut frequencies while active controls can boost as well as cut like the tone controls on an amp.

Personally they always seemed like a lot of trouble. My Ric gives me all the output I could want and my amp has all the tone and EQ adjustments I could possibly need.

first let me debunk the bad info: active has nothing whatsoever to do with having or not having a volume control - it could be wired to a straight up on/off switch if one desires. actives require a longer taper so they typically employ 1meg pots. they can be wired (just like passives) to a vol/treb/mid/bass boost but don't require it.

actives are great for tons of gain. If you want endless sustain they are great... but note that you cannot boost vol w/o boosting noise. The subtle tone that can only come from a passive pickup is lost by using actives. A happy medium is passive pickups wired to an active eq... but this has it's own problems.

don't bother mixing actives with passives... the output difference is way too noticeable (unless you like that sort of thing), and you will likely notice a difference in the tone of the passives in this circuit.

in short... If you are doing shred - actives are great - anything else - stick to passives.

I can't comment on the sound since I have never used them but the main difference besides boosting the signal is that passive tone controls can only cut frequencies while active controls can boost as well as cut like the tone controls on an amp.

this is simply not true (sorry). active EQ's can boost and cut and so can passives... it is the amount in db's that is the dif.

My Strat has EMG-HZ pickups installed in the neck and mid positions. The original fender double at the bridge in the Mex - Tex style.
I'm not going to jack with it at all but am still in the market search mode for a new guitar. Hence my questions on A vs P (sounds like a monster movie) Thanks for all the input. I am no shredder any of you who have heard me play knows that for a fact. Ive always had an affinity for the longer blended notes with slides, bends, hammers and such. I have been working on my speed some but dont see myself playing any blistering fast riff any time soon. So I guess its more about getting all the tone I can out of my amp for now. Sounds to me like passive is the way to go for what I am about at this point in time. Thanks again all.

I can't comment on the sound since I have never used them but the main difference besides boosting the signal is that passive tone controls can only cut frequencies while active controls can boost as well as cut like the tone controls on an amp.

this is simply not true (sorry). active EQ's can boost and cut and so can passives... it is the amount in db's that is the dif.

Really? I always thought that the passive tone controls on guitars and such were really nothing more than a filter that filtered out the treble frequencys. Wouldn't it require some kind of amplification to boost them?

oops my bad... got carried away with my debunking...
technically passives cannot 'boost' anything...
( a common schematic I am familiar with is called a 'passive treble boost' but upon looking into it, it actually shunts bass freq's to ground. The end result is brighter sound... but in fact... )

the passive circuit is only filtering and you sir - are spot on in your proclamation.


makes sense since you need an amplifier to boost anything... and amps require power... so...

once again MY BAD!

^^^ Heh heh, no worries. At least I still remember something from my high school electronics classes several decades ago.

George,

Im a Les Paul guy, I just think they are thicker sounding and to me sustain better than Strats. If you like a Bad Company type sound a Les Paul will get you there quicker, If you want a more Stevie Ray type sound that cleans up easy then a Strat might be the ticket. I have put mini humbuckers in my Strat but it still doesnt sound like a Les Paul.

I have played a couple of hotrod Ibanez's at GC that sound really good and have a humbucker in the back and a single coil in the front so you can get the best of both worlds. I just like the classic guitars better.

I would stay away from active pickups on an electric guitar if I were you. Its just one more thing that needs a battery and they will go out at the worst times.

Thanks John. Always did like the sound of a Les Paul, But I've always considered it more of a lead players tool vs a rythem players tool.
Is this a dumb thought? Strats are easy to find. Les Paul, I dont feel like I know enough to go shop for one without getting ripped off.
Any advice?