Active pickups

Neck is usually for rhythm, bridge is usually for lead.

Neck is usually for rhythm, bridge is usually for lead.

Yeah. I meant more, where will it have the most effect? Or what effect would it have were it to be put into each position, etc. :)

I believe active pickups actually have less noise and they actually run for quite a long time without needing to change the battery. I've never played one however and this is just from what I've heard.

Yup, there should be less loise with active pickups. Anyway, the most favourite 'louder' ones are the EMGs. The output is much higher then regular pickups, so you'll overdrive your amp faster.

Also you'll probably need to replace your pots. 25k ohms, I believe.

So active pickups always require battery power?

Is that opposed to passive pickups like the majority of electric guitars have, like what I'm familiar with?

Correct, Bish.

I know what you mean by the harsh screetching Clazon.

A good example is Tom Morello in Rage Against the Machine. His favorite guitar "Arm the Homeless" has the EMG 81/85 combination, and when it come to making a guitar not sound like a guitar, Tom Morello is king.

You might also have to change the cable plug, my bass has an active pickup and you turn it off by unplugging it. It takes 2 9 volt batteries but I've been using the same batteries for months now. I play around an 30 minutes a day on average (I get in the mood to play and play a bit, if I'm having an on day I might play for 2 hours before I know it... an off day, 15 mins and I'm looking for something else to do..). The batteries should last quite a while, you would only need to replace them frequently if they were always left on which there won't be any obvious visual cues, worst case you have to pull the battery out when not in use. When I record I generally use a line in so that I don't have background noise in the recording, with my bass it very quickly overdrives and sounds bad, it's hard to find the right balance. I personally will probably avoid active pickups on future instruments or at least consider them a minor negative, someone with a better ear might care more.

As someone who primarily plays in the bedroom, an active pickup is something of an annoyance, it's one more step I have to fool with before I can play (because I always unplug it when not in use), that won't matter much to people who are gigging regularly. If I had an accoustic guitar I'd almost always grab that to play, no amp, no plugs, just pick it up and play, no matter what room I'm in.

I am not a big fan of active pickups. First thing you notice with active pickups is they have huge output. So you get far more volume out of your guitar with your amp volume turned lower. Now some like this, they want all the volume they can get. But the problem with active pickups (to me) is they have too much output. It is difficult to play clean tones, they push so much output into your amp that even your clean channel distorts. So if all you do is play hyper-distortion, yeah, they are great. But if you also like some super clean tones, you might find them difficult to get. Even impossible.

And there is another problem. If you use your overdrive channel on your amp or a distortion pedal, the high output of active pickups is almost like chaining two distortion pedals together. It just turns into this hyper distorted MUSH.

The truth is, some of the greatest tones ever heard were made with relatively weak pickups. A passive pickup will not over distort. With a distortion pedal you can get definition of notes. You can get crunch. There are lots of fans of Angus Young and the AC/DC tone here at GN. It is old-school overdrive and doesn't compare with modern distortions. But man, it is great sounding. But really listen to it, it is just barely overdriven. It is practically clean guitar tone.You can hear the individual strings in a power chord.

Lots of companies advertise these super high gain pickups and distortion pedals. They sound cool through a little practice amp in your bedroom. But get the volume up and they sound terrible, pure mush or else they buzz like a hive of bees. Listen carefully to the pros, they really do not use that much gain or distortion in their tones.

Thanks, CFB.

Good info, Wes!! 8)

I've always been appreciative that pedals/effects should have as low an effect setting as possible when playing live/loud. Maybe the same is true for pickups?

Certainly an intresting point that I'm pleased to have heard. Thanks!

Wes: I think Mr. Gilmour has plenty of cool clean tones and great melodic overdriven sounds and he swears by his active pups.

Wes: I think Mr. Gilmour has plenty of cool clean tones and great melodic overdriven sounds and he swears by his active pups.

Right. Got to turn down the volume on an active pup guitar if you want clean. One of the advantages of properly designed active pups, is turning down the volume (to a level comparible to passive pups -- say alinico magnet 'buckers) does not bleed away the treble. The reason is the very strength of an active pup: low driving impedance means cable (lead) capacitance is not an issue.

As Wes says, some of the best sounds in guitardom also come from weaker, passive pups. Fundamentally an active pup IS a weak passive pup with an added amplifier in the same pup body. The problem is that most of us are programmed to play with the guitar volume control at 6 to 10 (or 11) as this usually gets us the best tone and the least noise from our passive pup guitars. The same settings on active pups produce fairly high, amp crunching levels due to the amplification. So the trick when exploring cleaner tones with active pups is to think about those 1 - 5 volume settings on the guitar. Will the low volume tone of an active pup sound like a weaker, vintage 'bucker? Not likely, but it may have it's own sweet clean tone of a different nature.