Got the Gus G Fire Active Humbucker set and here are some impressions.
The Guitar is a Mahogany Body Charvel San Dimas (early 1990's) with Maple neck and rosewood fingerboard with an original Floyd Rose floating trem.
First off the pickups behave just like passives, well because they are. I have always tended to favor passives due to the better dynamics and touch sensitivity as well as a more organic tone.
The voicing is very fat and is similar to the tone of a Dimarzio Tone Zone, with a lot of lows, low mids. The highs are more subdued. But this pickup was made for a guy who uses floating Floyds which tend to be weak in these frequencies.
I found that the pickups was less dark with the floating configuration on my guitar than the "dive only" configuration.
As with blackouts these pickups have tons of gain, even too much possibly. I find I get a better clearer tone with the volume backed off so I am not too concerned about that aspect.
Overall I like them.
My biggest complaint is they are extremely noisy when you are not playing. The typical buzz/hiss you hear in a high gain amp when you are not playing is amplified to much higher levels that you must use a noise gate when using them. When you play the noise is gone, but re-appears when you stop. Turning the guitar volume down quite a bit will also kill the noise. This is the same noise that varies when you move the guitar around or change position relative to the amp. All pickups have it, but with these it is the same amplitude as the normal guitar signal.
I don't have this issue with regular passives or EMG's or even the original potted/sealed blackouts.
It is not a ground issue or guitar shielding issue, (been installing actives and passives for over 25 years) and am well versed in ground and ground loop prevention.
My guess is that these are picking up the same stuff that all passives pickup and the preamp is just maginfying the noise floor.
I could be wrong but I do believe that the epoxy sealed EMGs and Duncans are shielded this the epoxy resin case where boosting conventional pickups as these although lower gain contributes to the noise.
Overall I like them, but the noise is a big negative. But with a noise suppressor like the ISP they work just fine. I also like how the base tone does not change when the volume is turned down.
The Guitar is a Mahogany Body Charvel San Dimas (early 1990's) with Maple neck and rosewood fingerboard with an original Floyd Rose floating trem.
First off the pickups behave just like passives, well because they are. I have always tended to favor passives due to the better dynamics and touch sensitivity as well as a more organic tone.
The voicing is very fat and is similar to the tone of a Dimarzio Tone Zone, with a lot of lows, low mids. The highs are more subdued. But this pickup was made for a guy who uses floating Floyds which tend to be weak in these frequencies.
I found that the pickups was less dark with the floating configuration on my guitar than the "dive only" configuration.
As with blackouts these pickups have tons of gain, even too much possibly. I find I get a better clearer tone with the volume backed off so I am not too concerned about that aspect.
Overall I like them.
My biggest complaint is they are extremely noisy when you are not playing. The typical buzz/hiss you hear in a high gain amp when you are not playing is amplified to much higher levels that you must use a noise gate when using them. When you play the noise is gone, but re-appears when you stop. Turning the guitar volume down quite a bit will also kill the noise. This is the same noise that varies when you move the guitar around or change position relative to the amp. All pickups have it, but with these it is the same amplitude as the normal guitar signal.
I don't have this issue with regular passives or EMG's or even the original potted/sealed blackouts.
It is not a ground issue or guitar shielding issue, (been installing actives and passives for over 25 years) and am well versed in ground and ground loop prevention.
My guess is that these are picking up the same stuff that all passives pickup and the preamp is just maginfying the noise floor.
I could be wrong but I do believe that the epoxy sealed EMGs and Duncans are shielded this the epoxy resin case where boosting conventional pickups as these although lower gain contributes to the noise.
Overall I like them, but the noise is a big negative. But with a noise suppressor like the ISP they work just fine. I also like how the base tone does not change when the volume is turned down.
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