Active Pickups

[unique name]

I've never been a fan of active pickups as they basically have no clean sound and seem super excessive. When is that much output necessary? Why can't you just use a high output passive with a high gain amp and an od pedal? (No hate towards active pickup users, genuinely curious as to why you would use them)

 

[Brandenburg]

Re: Active Pickups

I've never been a fan of active pickups as they basically have no clean sound and seem super excessive. When is that much output necessary? Why can't you just use a high output passive with a high gain amp and an od pedal? (No hate towards active pickup users, genuinely curious as to why you would use them)

active pickups have a few other advantages other than high output.. since its low impedance.. plug directly into a board.. no signal/ high frequency drop with long cables.. no noticable pull on the strings.. alot of higher output passives will tug on the strings if adjusted too close.. this will affect intonation

not sure about the no clean comment.. some perhaps..my ears arnt the best i guess but this hasnt been my experience with actives..I have a guitar with a pair of iron gear volts which sound pretty good clean.. also have an SG with an H and an 85.. they sound ok clean as well.. not stellar but not bad either

 

[loldman]

Re: Active Pickups

I've never been a fan of active pickups as they basically have no clean sound and seem super excessive. When is that much output necessary? Why can't you just use a high output passive with a high gain amp and an od pedal? (No hate towards active pickup users, genuinely curious as to why you would use them)

1) Active pickups tend to make a fine clean sound
2) They're higher output than most passive pickups, so you might need to adjust their hight and/or roll the volume knob off if you can't get a clean sound
3) Some people prefer to overdrive clean amps with output alone
4) They generate less noise. Humbuckers generate noise, it's noticeable at higher gains
5) Active single coils are dead silent
6) Some people prefer the tone and feel of active pickups

hope this helps

 

[loldman]

Re: Active Pickups

active pickups have a few other advantages other than high output.. since its low impedance.. plug directly into a board.. no signal/ high frequency drop with long cables.. no noticable pull on the strings.. alot of higher output passives will tug on the strings if adjusted too close.. this will affect intonation

not sure about the no clean comment.. some perhaps..my ears arnt the best i guess but this hasnt been my experience with actives..I have a guitar with a pair of iron gear volts which sound pretty good clean.. also have an SG with an H and an 85.. they sound ok clean as well.. not stellar but not bad either

I forgot to mention string pull and impedance. With Passive pickups, you need higher quality low capacitance guitar leads to retain high frequency response over any reasonable length guitar cable that allows you to walk around on stage. Same goes for if you are plugging into lots of true bypass stomp boxes with no buffer pedal, then you will benefit from the low impedance of active pickups

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Active Pickups

i think one thing that hasn't been mentioned that is important is the attack. it's very different.
also, actives do not pick up as much string noise, pick noise, slap noise etc.
as I understand, one coil cancels noise from the other. this means you don't actually have to have a string ground w them and they tend to be very quiet even with high gain.
they work well for metal and slap bass.
like you, I'm not crazy about the clean sounds from them (for guitar) but mark knopfler seemed to caox some nice tones from them!
you COULD use a passive plus an active pre, or a pedal and a high gain amp - many folks do. some folks use actives pu AND a pedal AND a high gain amp.
just another flavor, some like it some don't.

 

[unique name]

Re: Active Pickups

Alright thanks guy, I guess I was uninformed/ never heard them played well

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Active Pickups

Probably a simple case of somebody making a simplistic A/B comparison between active and passive pickups whilst making no attempt to compensate for their different output levels by adjusting amplifier control settings.