Active Vs Passive Pickups
Active Vs Passive Pickups
Bare Nuckle Pickups (Warpig/Painkiller/Nailbomb/Miracle Man/etc...) in the bridge
With/
Seymour Duncan '59 or Jazz in the neck
Di Marzio Paf/Paf Pro/Paf Joe in the neck
Those should work for passives
If you cant get a BKP, id say go with a Seymour Duncan Custom 5/Full Shred/Screamin Deamon/Duncan Custom or a Di Marzio Tone Zone/X2N/D Sonic in the bridge will do.
As for actives, ive heard a few mixed reviews on SD Blackouts, Mustaine Livewires are pretty good as well from what ive heard but they have still a way to go to beat EMGs as they are probably the best way to go for actives as they have the experience and years of getting it right.
Passives, hands down. I have a Schecter C-1 Hellraiser equipped with active EMG's (85n/81b) and they are among the worst sounding pickups I've ever heard. I plan on switching them out for some passive Duncans pretty soon. You could try the new SD Blackouts, but I imagine they aren't much better.
Simply put, EMG's sound the same no matter which guitar you have them installed in. If you like that tone, great, but many guitarists prefer having a tone they can call their own. The lack of dynamics combined with the oversaturation of distortion make active pickups attractive to those seeking the Metallica tone or something similar. Oh, and if your seeking more bottom end, stay away from the EMG 81.
So overall, I'd say go to a local guitar shop and try out some guitars equipped with active pickups. Thats the only real way to know if you like the tone actives give or not. I for one do not like any guitar that is equipped with them, even if the guitar is of high quality, the actives just take away the natural tone of the guitar and replace it with tone that is from the pickup rather than the guitar itself.
Passives, hands down. I have a Schecter C-1 Hellraiser equipped with active EMG's (85n/81b) and they are among the worst sounding pickups I've ever heard. I plan on switching them out for some passive Duncans pretty soon. You could try the new SD Blackouts, but I imagine they aren't much better.
Simply put, EMG's sound the same no matter which guitar you have them installed in. If you like that tone, great, but many guitarists prefer having a tone they can call their own. The lack of dynamics combined with the oversaturation of distortion make active pickups attractive to those seeking the Metallica tone or something similar. Oh, and if your seeking more bottom end, stay away from the EMG 81.
So overall, I'd say go to a local guitar shop and try out some guitars equipped with active pickups. Thats the only real way to know if you like the tone actives give or not. I for one do not like any guitar that is equipped with them, even if the guitar is of high quality, the actives just take away the natural tone of the guitar and replace it with tone that is from the pickup rather than the guitar itself.
phail. :p
Your statement was pretty good except for teh hi -lighted part. Guitars certainly sound different even with the same EMG set. Not as drastic as passives but IMO you def here a difference.
Many things can affect the way your guitar sounds-woods, pups, amps, pedals, your fingerstyle/technique... all affect the outcome. Pups are an integral part of the larger puzzle, however passive or active-they are not the be all end all.
Actives do NOT make all guitars sound alike. Nor do passives. However, someones shitty playing will make all guitars sound alike, be they $12,000 PRS Private Stock Modern Eagles or $150 First Acts. ;)
Here's what I know in my exp w/ actives: I have 2 different guitars based upon the same basic shape & both equipped with Active EMGs-the same 81/60 set even.
An Ibanez 540 LTD Sabre-mahog bod, maple neck w/rw board & floyd.
And an SZ530QM-mahog bod w/maple cap, mahog neck w/rw board, & string thru.
Both sound very different from each other, hell the SZ was based on the basic outline of the Sabre. But the SZ is about 3x as thick. Anyways, the differences abound & the pups are the same-the tones are still quite different from each other though.
Truth be told, all my guitars sound different from each other as they almost all have something that makes them unlike the others.. be it the pups, the wood combinations, or even the bridge type. They are all bolt on but that is another story entirely.
To the OG Poster:buy some pups. Any kind you like. If you got the room for a battery get some actives. What style music do you play? I'd recommend a pair of EMG 60s if you like classic rock. I love em, even tho I only have the in the neck pos. of my axes. I should also note that the guitars that have EMGs in them came equipped like that when I bought them.
Im thinking the Invaders are gona be something that suits me. Im looking for the metallica type tone...ive got the equip that gets me there but need a little bit more to enhance my sound which i think may help/come from the pickups.
Ive looked on ebay and see a few sets of both for the bridge and neck pickups. ones are basic black and then i see there is some that are binded with white paint. The white looks cool and would match my guitar since is white Explorer. But the blacks are cool to so i dunno. Is the Invader pickup in the neck still gona get the smooth warm sparkly cleans?
Damn i should have changed that statement. id be looking for a bit more tightness in my sound like another guy described. And I dunno maybe i dont need it with the equip i got...yeah my Cab is half open back but i still find it sounds amazing.
I just started this thread cus someone said to me how come i didnt have emgs in my guitar. So i dunno maybe i dont know what im looking for, just from someone saying that it kindof struck a cord with me and i thought well i dunno i never really had equipment that was good enough for me to think about adding different pups. Now that i do i was thinking maybe it would enhance my sound a bit even more.
And ive also have had a hard time EQing out the pick scrape sound in my setup too. And i thought well maybe its because they are cheap pups...But that just takes more time for me to get to know the quad and stuff. So i dont know maybe i dont need anything. Just wanted to hear everyones thoughts and it seems its pretty 5050.
okay maybe sinse there are some biased opinions on here that don't know the functionalities between the two types i'll explain, maybe help you find what you are looking for. The way actives are designed they have a larger frequency response, or a larger bandwidth whereas passives centralize more on the mids. The certain section of mids i am talking about are known to enhance the volume of pick attack, which is not really a good thing, and the section known to make the overall tone harshly "chimey" like a les paul clean tone, its really harsh, very centralized on a section of mids that almost lack depth. forget being able to strum an electric guitar like an acoustic the mids will totally ruin it, seems to blah everything together, just turn your amp to a decent volume, go in the neck position and start strumming away, it wont sound too hot, you wont get those acoustic dynamics and the tone of the strings; with actives, since they have a wider range, you will notice that even on a bridge pickup, it sounds fuller more in depth and natural, almost acoustic like, your not being bombarded with harsh mids and a steep low and high pass filters that are a part of passive pickups. However passives are very raw and organic, even so, this is really not a feature your going to notice with hi gain, you will ntoice the "raw" defined tone, you will have a bit more thickness. but there is a warmth/thickness to tightness ratio that you must understand. the warmer/thicker your tone is, the looser the attack (the tone is muddy) the tighter your tone is, you loose warmth, this is where people don't like active because the claim them to be "sterile". its a battle where you have to sacrifice one. Tight low end and crisp highs to go actives, raw meaty sound goes to passives. On last note i have noticed that actives handle high gain better without loosing definition, most metal bands that use passives usually have their gain a bit down, whereas active players have their gain turned up a bit higher than normal and they still retain all the clarity, this is just my speculation though.
so to sum it up:
Passives: Very warm, moderate to loose attack, dynamic/uncompressed, moderate sustain, very raw and mid oriented (meaty)
Actives: Very tight, very fast response, tight attack, compressed, large sustain, very balanced tone, more natural/flat frequency response.
the choice is ultimately yours, unfortunately you can't have best of both worlds...yet, some day we might have hybrid pickups half active half passive.
It's all about personal preference, and Deathtoll described both types of pups quite well.
I myself detest active pickups. Like another poster mentioned, I think they sound cold and sterile, lifeless. In short, I think they sound like shit. I just don't like that sound, and they are nowhere near versatile enough for the types of music I play.
I've been using the Bill Lawrence XL500 for ages, and it's a great pickup. I also use SD Invaders, the DiMarzio X2N, etc. The Invader in the bridge with a SD Pearly Gates in the neck is pure WIN. Totally awesome and something an active pickup couldn't pull off no matter how hard you tried.
Passives help bring out the natural characterists of the woods in your guitar. If you were to put a 81/60 set on a piece of plywood it would most likely sound the same, if not very similar, to a mahagony body. I just think it's stupid to have a guitar made of awesome tone woods and expert craftsmanshit to have it ruined by putting in a set of EMG's in there. It just doesn't make sense to me.
On an end note, the guy who said that passives are "vintage".. I can do nothing but laugh. Try a set of Bareknuckle Warpigs and tell me if you think they sound vintage. It makes any EMG look like a baby who's just shat itself.
^very true, the reason why passives have a meatier tone comes from the characteristics of the wood, which the wood holds the mid tonal characteristics. Essentially passives take in both the wood and strings into the overall tone, coloring the strings tone that comes from the wood, where actives only pickup the strings (this is why they have a higher bandwidth) giving that acoustic like tone. in turn passives are bright and full of mids and actives are dark, and hold a little bit more edge.
one of the few reasons i prefer active a bit more than passive is that its worth the warmth sacrifice to get a tight bottom end. however i do know that the DiMarzio D-Sonic is an amazing pickup, my favorite passive by far. Almost as tight as actives and i think even warmer than the JB/59 setup imo.
^haha you couldn't have said it better, its like the psycho petrucci vids "if you can't play that, then you are shit, just stop, put down the guitar, sell it on ebay, becuase you'll never be as good as me"
pickups give you characteristics, not "eq", those two words are used interchangeably when they shouldn't be. i really can't define the differences without making it confusing, maybe poid or someone else can. all i can say is that eq is the amp, the characteristics is the way the pickups and the wood of the guitar interact with the strings and how that relates to the signal that is sent to your amp. Idealistically, you can get almost any tone from just about any pickup if you know what you are doing, some pickups with contribute to an overall different tone through its characteristics ie. your not going to get a huge crushing tone with a strat loaded with single coils, but you can still get something heavy/big with it, just ask yngwie.
Very cool guys excellent info on this second page!
As i said ive never really had a problem with my pups just cus the equipment i was using was only par stuff. Where as now with the Quad and Stereo 395 i can hear my guitar shine through my pups. I just thought EMG's were an industry standard that everyone must love...not so much with the opinions ive read deffinatly reassuring that i should be good.
Also i love the explanation dethroll very thorough, and it makes sense that my pick attack is alot more noticed on this setup then ive ever experienced. Also brings credence to my judgment of my pups. So i dont know i think ill be fine for now but maybe down the line ill pick up some invaders down the line.
One last question is it possible to have an Invader in my bridge and my current one in the neck?? since they are both in the passive category.
the industry standard is definitely the EMG's/Actives in the metal category, just because they are tight and have the best sustain even at high gain, they can be pushed harder because they have a higher headroom, meaning that they can still have good definition at the highest of gain, where passives start to break down and loose clarity. That us why EMG's have been popular all these years. Be sure to check out EMG's Blackouts, SD, DiMarzio, and Bareknuckle's and see what you like.
and for the record, to close the statement on EMG's are cold and lifeless, take a listen to Killswitch Engage and tell me thats the tone doesn't show the characteristics that passive fanatics claim actives don't have.
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Hahah alright. My bad yeah i knew Papahet uses the 60. But maybe i used my words wrong "Bottom End" I was kindof thinking about tightness as well.
Ive forgotten about the Duncan Invaders....just cuz everyone out there has EMGs.
How does the duncan compair in sound next to an Emg...and a duncan is a passive as well? How much installation does that require?