Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

[B2D]

This question is directed at players that have used both actives and passives in their main instrument for a good period of time; which did you wind up sticking with and why?

Did you use passives, switch to actives, and not look back?

Did you use passives, switch to actives, and then go back to passives?

I'm asking because my EC1000 has EMGs (60A bridge/85 neck) and my Music Man has passives (Tone Zone bridge/Air Norton neck) and I'm about to switch the latter guitar over to an EMG 57/66 set. However, I've also wondered how the EC1000 would sound with a nice set of passive, especially after seeing Keith Merrow's great hi-gain pickup shootout.

Both guitars have different tonal characteristics between them - the EC1000 tends to have that typical Les Paul sound and push the bottom end more no matter what I've got in there, and the Music Man tends to be more malleable and take on the characteristics of what pickups are in it currently, which is why I tend to keep DiMarzios in that one.

My thing is that when I switch from guitar to guitar in the middle of a session, the feel changes a lot and I find myself having to adjust my amp to stay consistent. My line of thinking here is that if I stick with one type of pickup in both guitars I'll get a little more consistency and predictability out of my axes.

So back to the task at hand - I just wanna hear from other players who have used both for a good amount of time and eventually made a decision one way or the other, and why.

 

[LatsMcGee]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

To be honest I really like both and use guitars regularly with both, I was never an "active" guy until on a whim I tried the Blackouts and I really really liked them, I've been toying with taking my blackouts out of my EC1000 for another set of pups I am dying to try but can't bring myself to give them the yank....

I 100% get what you are saying about the consistency issues with your tone in a band setting....my co guitarist in my last band had these issues...He had his Mesa Eq'd just fine for his axe loaded with EMG 81s but when he would use his other gigging guitar loaded with Super D's his tone was complete ass.....and not the good kind of ass....

both guitars were SGs.....

 

[B2D]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

To be honest I really like both and use guitars regularly with both, I was never an "active" guy until on a whim I tried the Blackouts and I really really liked them, I've been toying with taking my blackouts out of my EC1000 for another set of pups I am dying to try but can't bring myself to give them the yank....

I 100% get what you are saying about the consistency issues with your tone in a band setting....my co guitarist in my last band had these issues...He had his Mesa Eq'd just fine for his axe loaded with EMG 81s but when he would use his other gigging guitar loaded with Super D's his tone was complete ass.....and not the good kind of ass....

both guitars were SGs.....

OK, so you understand what I'm saying, that's good.

I think Blackouts, tonally, were slightly superior to EMGs to my ears but good lordy they were waaaay too hot for me, and slightly too compressed.

Both SG's huh? Wow. Super D's aren't bad sounding pickups by my ears but they are pretty hot. That's even more of an apples to apples comparison guitar-wise.

 

[LatsMcGee]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

OK, so you understand what I'm saying, that's good.

I think Blackouts, tonally, were slightly superior to EMGs to my ears but good lordy they were waaaay too hot for me, and slightly too compressed.

Both SG's huh? Wow. Super D's aren't bad sounding pickups by my ears but they are pretty hot. That's even more of an apples to apples comparison guitar-wise.

Yeah the Super D's would have been great if he would have just dialed back some of his gain...Just sounded like butt mudd with the gain jacked way up on his triple rec....

Fella was obsessed with having the loudest rig, was kind of a pain to play with....

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I have used both. I still do.

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I want to chime in here, but then again I don't. You'll understand why in a minute.

My "main" player is a Schecter C-1 w/ an EMG 81 in the bridge and an SAV in the neck via an adapter ring. I call it my main player because it's what I do a good 75% of everything on. Lessons, practice, etc...It's the one guitar I don't give a rats arse if it gets the chit knocked out of it or not. It looks like Josh held a chicken fight on it. I always run it straight into the Tremoverb. For a modern metal tone, that guitar w/ those pickups, into that amp is it for me. So I have that amp specifically set to those EMG's. Ironically enough, I can run my Pearly Gates loaded Dean EVO(basically and LP) into the Tremoverb, and it still sounds good, but I usually roll some of the bass off the amp depending on how I'm feeling that day. The RTM, the P90 goldtop, Strats, etc... into this amp the way it's set right now, sounds like Josh is having a chicken fight on the guitars. I can knob twiddle to get any of the guitars to sound good, but in general, only those 2 guitars sound "right" into that amp w/ those settings.

This is why I really didn't want to chime in. The upside/downside of having as many amps as I keep here, they're generally set for a specific guitar or guitars. For instance, I've currently got the triple rect set for my LP studio w/ stock Gibby 490 pickups. I'll be changing pickups soon, so will the settings on the amp or possibly amp all together. The Nomad 55 is still undergoing testing w/ various guitars, but sounds really good w/ the RTM loaded Bengal Baretta and oddly enough, the goldtop w/ P90's. <<<I'm still blown away by that last one. The only guitar that really sounds bad w/ the Blue Angel is the Schecter. The Marshall is out of commission at the moment, but it was geared for the LP's and a pushed breakup. Can't say much about the Mesa VTwin until I get a power amp in next week.

So yeah. I hope you see what I'm saying. I probably don't experiment as much I could, but if I did, I'd be stuck being the same crappy player that I am and I'd never get any practice in lol. From what experience I do have....If I were a gigging guitarist, I'd probably stick w/ either actives or passives in my gigging guitars. It's a lot easier to drag a long 2 guitars of slightly similar ilk, than dragging 140lbs of amp heads to suit your different guitars. Then again, I'm lazy so my opinion really means little in that regard.

 

[Justin Read]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I llllooooovvvvveeeee Blackouts!!!

I have an 8 string set, Ahb1's, Asn1's and Ahb3's. Have used Dimarzio's and other Duncan's previously. I don't find them too hot. I get great cleans. I guess it just depends on your rig?

I've just ordered the EMG spc and rpc to test on them in 1 guitar with the Blackouts. Fingers crossed that they work.

PS thanks to forum member Funkfingers for his help

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I llllooooovvvvveeeee Blackouts!!!

I have an 8 string set, Ahb1's, Asn1's and Ahb3's. Have used Dimarzio's and other Duncan's previously. I don't find them too hot. I get great cleans. I guess it just depends on your rig?

I've just ordered the EMG spc and rpc to test on them in 1 guitar with the Blackouts. Fingers crossed that they work.

PS thanks to forum member Funkfingers for his help

You shouldn't have any problems with the EMG accessory circuits working with Blackouts. I got them to work just fine in a friends guitar.

PS Funk is a pretty good dude.

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I have noticed that between different guitars, you have to set up your amps for EMG's, and any other guitars have to sound however they sound. I think that they're too finicky to be messed with. I did own a Schecter Hellraiser for a month or two, before I returned it because my amp had to be set for the 81, which wasn't even in my main axe.

 

[BRHGM]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I like both. Each have different tone characteristics. It all depends on what I am playing or which guitar I pickup. I have an active strat, tele and SG as well as passive versions. Sometimes, I mix and match active and passive guitars. My basses are all active and I seem to prefer active basses more and more these days.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

Stop it, you guys. I was recently made redundant. I cannot afford to keep paying the bribes.

 

[gman128]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I have both and they excel in different areas- blackouts in my RG570s are used for the guitars i heavily downtune - no passive pickups feels tight enough to deal with B standard tuning when playing metal.

That said i like having passives in my E and Eb RG550s because of the versatility they bring - especially with the middle single coils i have in those axes.

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I like both, 81 for C or lower, 85 for C# and higher. I don't change my settings very drastically to accomidate either, but I use hot passives.

I liked the BO neck a lot, but the bridge didn't do it for me. The other thing about them, the finger noise, over the top... really sensitive, which can be good or bad.

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

no passive pickups feels tight enough to deal with B standard tuning when playing metal.

I disagree with this.

 

[Dahla]

Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I have 4 guitars, 2 active and 2 passive. Since I tried the het set, I've mostly been playing the actives. They are rediculously good!

 

[dominus]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I have both and they excel in different areas- blackouts in my RG570s are used for the guitars i heavily downtune - no passive pickups feels tight enough to deal with B standard tuning when playing metal.

Get yourself an Evolution in there.

That said I've switched back to actives recently, I just like slamming the front end of the amp.

 

[dominus]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I'm asking because my EC1000 has EMGs (60A bridge/85 neck)

Sure it's not the other way around?

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

I used actives for about 13 years, when I was almost completely ignorant of technical stuff, then switched to passives and never looked back. I have a few active instruments still (including my first two basses and my first guitar), but I have played them only a handful of times in the past 10-12 years. It isn't that the difference is that huge; I just never seem to gravitate toward the active instruments. They are the best for super-sterile, super clean, "solid statey" sounds, though. But they sound like **** to me when they start breaking up. And they tend to be really ugly too.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

My 'active' career was very brief. I was sent an SG with EMG's by mistake. Did not like them at all. Too sterile and toneless. Promptly sold it and got an SG with passives. Ahhh, much better.

 

[gman128]

Re: Active vs. Passive - for those that have used both, what did you stick with?

Get yourself an Evolution in there.

That said I've switched back to actives recently, I just like slamming the front end of the amp.

I think I should clarify what i meant when i said tight - i meant tight and quiet (ie hum free) - every passive i've tried (Distortion, JB, invader, Alt 8, d activator) has this inherently present noise when played under high gain (and please don't mention using a noise gate etc - i already do) - it's something i don't mind when playing metal tuned above Db, but for all that super tight riffing like Fear Factory and bands like them, i find that blackouts have this whole "noise gate built into the pickup" thing going, and no passive i've tried has that - something i find essential for playing in B. Plus it allows me to not shut the noise gate too tightly and ruin attack, but when you stop playing, there is absolute silence. I love blackouts for that application, not so much for playing in more standard tunings.