I was reading up on pickups the other day...

[batterypowered]

So yeah, I was doing some reading, kind of doing preliminary research for what kind of pickups I'm going to put in my old Ibanez when I rebuild it in the not-so-distant future. And you know what I never realised? EMG makes active systems. I always thought they were passive... I've been playing for many a year now, and I realise I know nothing about these things. Which, in a way, I guess is good, since I don't go too gear crazy, about bits and pieces, really. Just instruments (which is probably worse), so I put it to you:

 

Thoughts/opinions on active electronics vs. passive? Do they just run hotter, or is there a definite response improvement? What kind of tones do you recommend them for?

[Guitar Geezer]

Never used them either, but hear great comments. I mean David Gilmour uses em

 

LynnG

[Mudcat]

My experience with active guitar pick-ups in general (and EMG in particular) is that they sound more "hi-fi" than passives. Some would say they sound clinical. Either way they can sound really good.

 

However, this assumes you've got a good set of pick-ups that are also a good match for your amp. If you've got mediocre active pick-ups, or ones that are a poor match for your amp, it can sound pretty brittle.

 

As is the case with any pick-up selection, this is a matter of personal taste. I've heard several guitarists with active pick-ups who I thought sounded great. I don't think they would work for my style of playing though. You need to try them out to see if they will work for you.

[telepaul]

never had any active pickups on an eletric guitar. do a lot of research and check out Zakk Wylde!

[Blue Strat]

Buying any pickups that you haven't personally heard in your guitar is a gamble. The best thing to do is to go to a mega-store and find a guitar that has the pickups you're interested in already installed, and then give it a workout through a lot of different amps or at least through your main amp.

[Dave da Dude]

I had a mid '80's Ibanez (maybe RG600 model) with active pickups.

 

I liked the sound real well, and in retrospect, having both Bass and Treble controls instead of "just" Tone was nice (it was my first electric). I found the tone very "open" and just what I was looking for at the time. I ran it through a Roland JC-55.

 

Like bluestrat said, try to find a guitar with the same pickups (or at least close) and put it through its (your) paces.

 

Good luck, Dave.

[Dave da Dude]

I had a mid '80's Ibanez (maybe RG600 model) with active pickups.

 

I liked the sound real well, and in retrospect, having both Bass and Treble controls instead of "just" Tone was nice (it was my first electric). I found the tone very "open" and just what I was looking for at the time. I ran it through a Roland JC-55.

 

Like bluestrat said, try to find a guitar with the same pickups (or at least close) and put it through its (your) paces.

 

Good luck, Dave.

[fantasticsound]

FYI - EMG Select pickups, which are standard equipment on a lot of inexpensive instruments, are not active. Only the "real" EMG pickups are utilize active electronics.

 

You really have to take a listen to them to decide whether they suit you. My experience says that you either love 'em or hate 'em. There's not much middle ground when it comes to Steinberger guitars or EMG pickups. (Not coincidentally, Steinberger's came stock with EMG pickups. I don't know about the current, Gibson built Steinbergers...)

[batterypowered]

Well, I guess I'm on a pickup hunt, then. I personally think active is an addition I don't need, but I might as well check it out.

[dougsthang]

I'll try and give you a quick idea of "why active?".

My guitars have EMG's as well as Duncans and Dimarzio's. In other words some are active and some are passive.

 

I've heard the analogy "sterile" enough. I respect peoples thoughts but have to disagree with this choice of discription. "balanced" is a better word. Vince Gill, Steve Lukather, David Gilmore, Larry Carlton...sterile sound?...

 

I digress, all EMG's, except the SV's have a bar magnets instead of pole pieces. The advantage of a bar magnet is the string always is within the magnetic field even when bending the string. This gives you a very even balanced sound between all strings.

 

You can have excessivly long cable runs without any signal degridation. Active pickups are your best choice if you run through effect processors or wireless systems.

 

Low impedance (passive pickups are high impedance) eliminate microphone shock when playing live. No more Mike Tyson uppercut voltage blast to the face from a poorly grounded mic.

 

The quitest setup you can attain. Great for recording. Once you lay tracks with them it's hard to go back. Don't get me wrong, I love tracking with my Tele with Duncan's, it's just got a loud track with alot going on to mask the noise.

 

Sorry, tried to make this short. This just get's me going because I preached this for almost 5 years.

[B3Nut]

Um, the shock one gets from a microphone isn't poor mic grounding, it's 120V leakage to the guitar amplifier's chassis ground. This is especially common in older tube amplifiers as the wax potting often found in the windings absorbs moisture over the years, and becomes slightly conductive.

 

Whether or not your guitar has active or passive pickups is completely irrelevant. Any metal parts on the guitar that are grounded to the 1/4" jack's sleeve terminal are going to be at whatever potential the amp's chassis is at. This leakage from the amplifier chassis ground to real earth ground is easily measured.

 

The worst case of this I ever encountered was not with a guitar at all - it was my '52 Hammond B-2. If I touched the organ's chassis and touched the mic with my lips...ZAP!

 

Amps with switchable line polarity can do this too, especially if the capacitor that the polarity switch toggles from ground to either side of the AC line is leaking.

 

TP