Question about Active Pickups

Re: Question about Active Pickups

You will notice an immediate difference in tone, it will produce a fuzzy, weak signal, and after a while will reduce to a barely audible signal.
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

SwedeNuck said:
You will notice an immediate difference in tone, it will produce a fuzzy, weak signal, and after a while will reduce to a barely audible signal.
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With a full battery a nice rip your face off sound? and nice and crisp?
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

Depends on the pickups.

BTW, why don't they design an indicator light such as the ones used on e/acoustic guitars? Why do we have to wait for a problem before we know to change the battery? Inquiring minds want to know....
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

GuitarGuru88 said:
With a full battery a nice rip your face off sound? and nice and crisp?
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Basically the normal sound with a full battery...
As it gets low, the signal get's somehow strange and tends to change volume while a note rings (like it had less sustain)...

Btw... this is off topic, but:
NEVER LEAVE AN ACTIVE GUITAR PLUGGED INTO A TURNED OFF AMP!!!
Just sucks you battery dry if you do overnight... happened to me once.
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

LesStrat said:
Depends on the pickups.

BTW, why don't they design an indicator light such as the ones used on e/acoustic guitars? Why do we have to wait for a problem before we know to change the battery? Inquiring minds want to know....
Click to expand...

I think its because a single LED would draw about 10x the amount of current that an active pup draws. You'ld cut your battery life significantly by having an indicator.

I think. ;)

Artie
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

It could be a couple of different things: they have very low power LED's. (Its been awhile since I've measured one.)

Or, they simply require battery replacment more often than active pups do.

Not really sure. I haven't seen those guitars.
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

ArtieToo said:
....Or, they simply require battery replacment more often than active pups do.....
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This is the reason most acoustic preamps have a "check light"... Active pickups systems generally get around 3000 hours per battery.... That means if your´re playing ten hours a day it´s well on the safe side if you change the battery once every 6 months..., you´d still have about 120 days (4 months) left in that case :saeek:

As far as a guitar getting "sucked dry" overnight, on a fresh battery you´d have to leave the guitar plugged in for more than 3 months non stop for that to happen... Dunno ´bout you guys, but with me it´s highly unlikely that that would happen, almost impossible actually :rolleyes:

This assumes that we´re talking about a standard active setup, 1-3 pickups and max of of external preamp /tone tool such as a PA-2 or SPC... but even if you go nuts and add all of them in you should get almost as much time out of it, as the circuits generally don´t draw that much power.... The "Checklight" would likely draw more power than the whole rest combined, as Artie speculated ;)
 
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Re: Question about Active Pickups

wow. that means the pre-amps are really power efficient. imagine comsuming less power than a single LED. yet another educational thread. :) thanks guys.
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

Zerberus said:
As far as a guitar getting "sucked dry" overnight, on a fresh battery you´d have to leave the guitar plugged in for more than 3 months non stop for that to happen... Dunno ´bout you guys, but with me it´s highly unlikely that that would happen, almost impossible actually :rolleyes:
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What I meant is letting it plugged into an offed amp over night... it is a general problem that offed electronic devices still consume power, (take your printer, turn it off and get a measuring device if you don't trust me) in my case I guess it just took the power from the guitar...
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

There's really no need for a light. If you don't leave your guitar plugged in while you aren't using it they will last for over a YEAR. Just change the battery once a year....worked fine for me.
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

Zerberus said:
This is the reason most acoustic preamps have a "check light"... Active pickups systems generally get around 3000 hours per battery.... That means if your´re playing ten hours a day it´s well on the safe side if you change the battery once every 6 months..., you´d still have about 120 days (4 months) left in that case :saeek:

As far as a guitar getting "sucked dry" overnight, on a fresh battery you´d have to leave the guitar plugged in for more than 3 months non stop for that to happen... Dunno ´bout you guys, but with me it´s highly unlikely that that would happen, almost impossible actually :rolleyes:

This assumes that we´re talking about a standard active setup, 1-3 pickups and max of of external preamp /tone tool such as a PA-2 or SPC... but even if you go nuts and add all of them in you should get almost as much time out of it, as the circuits generally don´t draw that much power.... The "Checklight" would likely draw more power than the whole rest combined, as Artie speculated ;)
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I plan on getting a guitar with a set of emg 81's...i think those are normal active.... :rolleyes:
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

Kommerzbassist said:
Basically the normal sound with a full battery...
As it gets low, the signal get's somehow strange and tends to change volume while a note rings (like it had less sustain)...

Btw... this is off topic, but:
NEVER LEAVE AN ACTIVE GUITAR PLUGGED INTO A TURNED OFF AMP!!!
Just sucks you battery dry if you do overnight... happened to me once.
Click to expand...

Same with pedals....I always unplug everything...what if I have those planet wave cables with those circuit breaker button...it stops the signal to the amp, but I guess it would still drain the battery
 
Re: Question about Active Pickups

Kommerzbassist said:
What I meant is letting it plugged into an offed amp over night... it is a general problem that offed electronic devices still consume power, (take your printer, turn it off and get a measuring device if you don't trust me) in my case I guess it just took the power from the guitar...
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you meant.

What you´re referring to is absolutely normal with household appliances, but NOT with pickups..... EMGs or other actives have ZERO drain on the battery when unplugged because the circuit is BROKEN when the plug is pulled, almost all actives use the sleeve of the jack as the "switch" between the 2 negative-side contacts, when the jack is in current can flow... The issue isn´t the amp, yoiu can pluc a 1/4 inch jack hooked up to nothing and still close the EMG circuit... THe amp has nothing to do w/ it....

Again, on a battery that´s not on it´s last few mA anyway it will NOT drain overnight, unless you somehow manage to extend the day to a few hundred hours... And I know for a fact from personal experience that 1 WEEK of nonstop "plugging" will not drain the battery either, I just found Phoenix on Tuesday in the Studio, still plugged in from last week.... And whaddaya know, no problems, because I changed the 6 month old battery before we entered the studio... THis guitar has 3 pups and an onboard boost, so definitely a typical to lightly draining active setup ;)

Part of it is also preventive maintenance, very similar to: "Do you wait idly by doing nothing for strings to break or do you change them eariler so that doesn´t even happen?" :rolleyes:
 
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Re: Question about Active Pickups

you just try a new one and if its sound better , then you needed a new one
 
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