Active Pickups

[daemon barbeque]

Well i won't put all actives in the same shelf ,but An EMG 81 is nothing but cold sounding for me!I own a EMG 60 a ,and that thing is really really great.

There is allways the right tool for the job ,and actives can do some jobs better than many passives..But this rule covers the passives as well.

[MikeS]

I did really like the emg60. I regret not trying it in the bridge before selling it. Ever tried it in the bridge daemon?

[Gr8Scott]

Every set I've used and have heard were completely noiseless when not playing. Almost like a natural noise supressor kicked in. They don't fix amp hiss however. The active EQ may have been adding more gain to the amp therefore making it hiss more.

I'm not trying to correct you... I just think it's weird that it happened when EMGs known for having little to no noise whatsoever.

At high gain, both guitars emitted very audible noise all on their own that completely goes away when you roll the volume on the guitar off. I wouldn't call that amp hiss unless I was rolling off the volume of the amp. Passive pickups didn't seem to make that hissing noise, but they did hum if they weren't humbucking pickups. Call it what you like, but I heard audible hissing coming from two EMG guitars and that hissing gets louder when you turned on the active EQ's. Maybe the active EQ's were hissing all the time and just got louder with use as both guitars were equipped (one guitar had a pre-wired David Gilmour pickguard) with the active eq's.

[Beer$]

ok, I'll take your word for it. That sucks... do you know what kind they were? I've never had a set that had both active pickups AND an active system, I think it very well could be the active EQ system being the source of the noise.

[Gr8Scott]

RMG SPC and RPC on one guitar. EMG SPC and EXG on the DG-20 Set. Both hissed quite a bit.

[barbarianbrute]

i heard that about the emg 85, but when i finally got one and put it in my strat, it was anything but. very good sounding pickup indeed and much more versatile than you would expect. i could get some really nice blues and jazz tones with it.

as far as being cold and sterile, there are plenty of dimarzio or duncan high-output ceramics that i would place before emgs.

i currently use a gilmour set in which i only employ hte spc control and i get a toneful sound from it. they really sing with a lot of clarity and punch. to each his own i guess. i've only played emg actives though, so i can't speak for anything else. i'd imagine they're just as suitable.

[alex1fly]

I bet a lot of the anti-active opinions come from hearing the same kind of music played with the same kind of pickups in the same kind of guitar through the same kind of amp... like an EMG 81 in a Schecter cranking some metal through a dual rec. That is a pretty lifeless, sterile tone to me, but its not the pickups causing it, its a result of all the other elements in the chain. I've never played actives myself, but I doubt that many people would hear SA's or the Gilmour EMGs and call the tone cold, especially in the hands of a guitarist who knows his way around actives. As far as batteries go, I love them in my pedal! Eliminates one more cord and one more necessary power outlet

[PFDarkside]

There was a cool thread a while ago, I think Wicked Lester started it. It all comes down to your preference, as Perameter Man said. I like them for what they do well, hard rock and metal are great with actives. While some people CAN get good sounds for roots rock, blues and country, I like the passives better. I'm definately not going to rag on anyone's choice (unless they sound like garbage). Well, I will rag on them if they have Lace Sensors, those really ARE garbage for every style. lol EMGs may be very HiFi and crisp, but at least they have character of SOME kind.

[Beer$]

I bet a lot of the anti-active opinions come from hearing the same kind of music played with the same kind of pickups in the same kind of guitar through the same kind of amp...

Bingo... it is most definitely the massive mid cut that seems to be ever so popular in modern metal that makes it "sterile" not the little black boxes the "scooper" happens to be using.

[fab.regnaut]

From Dimarzio "D-activator"

"Tech Talk: An interesting fact about the most popular active bridge pickups is that they aren’t incredibly loud. Instead, they have a strong, focused attack that hits the amp very hard and makes them ‘feel’ more powerful than they actually spec out to be. This is an important characteristic that we needed to capture with the D Activator™ bridge pickup. We also wanted to avoid the limiting effect that can occur with active pickups when they are played hard. Our pickup is passive with a lot of headroom, and it responds quickly and accurately to changes in pick attack. A hard pick attack doesn’t cause the signal to flatten out, and picking more softly or rolling the volume control down lets the sound clean up naturally."

EMG receipe is a low impedance winding ( so clean ouput and neutral EQ ) boosted by a preamp so you'll have a compressed attack (boosted) , not much warmth (EQ) and , as Dimarzio explains , a
lack of dynamics .
That should be enough to get the feeling of coldness and sterility ...

Apparently Seymour claim to solve part of the problem with its "Blackout" .

[uOpt]

I love the EMG-60 in the neck. Hate the 89 in both settings. Need to try an 81.

But in general, the reason why I'm not too enthusiastic is that I like to fiddle with the tone. Try a capacitor here. Take volume back there, which changes the tone on a passive guitar. Plus I have a tendency to let the batteries drain.

Mine are totally noiseless, though. I would check the shielding around the cables to the pots if they hiss, or try an additional layer of grounded aluminium foil around the cable if you have the space.

[mi_canuck]

i've heard some people mention (using EMG as example) that they sound the same no matter what guitar they are in.... any truth to this or does the type of guitar style have an effect on tone even with active pickups? i would think it still would...


cheers

[Benjy_26]

ANY type of pickup will sound different in different guitars. An 81 in a LP will sound like an 81 in a LP, but it won't make a tele sound like that LP. It'll just be an 81 in a tele.

[baritone]

Because people just repeat the stuff they read online even if they have no relevant experience on the subject matter.

Exactly. Just like "Gibson and their quality control issues".

Most of the complaints about active pickups are based on what people have heard about the EMG 81, which happens to be the most popular active pickup out there. the 81 was designed for aggressive playing styles, but there are active pickups designed and marketed for all styles. The EMG active single coil pickups are awesome Strat pickups, and they sound nothing like Metallica, Slayer, or Zakk.

[blueman335]

EMG receipe is a low impedance winding ( so clean ouput and neutral EQ ) boosted by a preamp so you'll have a compressed attack (boosted), not much warmth (EQ) and, as Dimarzio explains, a lack of dynamics. That should be enough to get the feeling of coldness and sterility.

I think the EMG 81/85 combo is probably responsible for turning off most people from actives. I tried a pair in a SG, & they were just as you said, sterile & lacking dynamics. But even if DiMarzio solved that (fortunately some manufacturer realized it was a problem), there's SO many choices with passives, that I don't see any big advantage to putting a battery in my guitar. I like the coloring passives give to tone, but then I'm playing blues & classic rock, which are more traditional that what some of you guys are playing.