Active Pick ups

Jam10

Are active pick ups the only pick ups that require a battery? How common are active pick ups? I borrowed my buddies Strat last weekend and I wasn't getting any out put from his guitar and I couldn't figure it out until I took the back plate out and noticed there was a battery in his guitar and the battery was dead. I didn't even know Fender made guitars with active pickups. Wouldn't it be kind of a pain to have pick ups that require a battery. It's just another thing to worry about.

ianvomsaal

Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society) uses EMG's in his LP - Zakks Guitar: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/document?cpd=0OEY&doc_id=99371&base_pid=517124&index=0
And they make a signature set that's nice sounding (here, you can read) - Zakks Pickup Set: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/EMG-EMGZW-Zakk-Wylde-8185-Humbucker-Set?sku=301511
Most of the time they're used for high gain, high volume amps - I particularly like them them for heavy OD tones and some lead work.
But know that David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) also uses them, so they're not just for heavy driven Metal and Super High Gain amps.
This is David Gilmour's Strat Replacement set: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/document?cpd=0OEY&doc_id=99371&base_pid=301515&index=0, and it's a good one.

lucylespian

Active pups are notable for having very low hum levels, which becomes very useful for high gain, and high volume situations, and makes living with single coils much easier.
Yes, they have a battery. The battery will give you several thousand playing hours, and I've not needed to replace one yet. I plan to use one guitar with actives in a few weeks for a gig, so I will p[robably replace the battery in that, to avoid having it die at an inopportune moment.
Active pick-ups are have very flat eq response curves, which leads some people to label them as sterile, and a lot of other people to regurgitate that opinion.
A simpler way to put it is "garbage in-garbage out".
Personally, I love them, and if I had a Strat, I would surely be putting EMG actives in it.

westsidepie

lucylespian wrote:

Active pups are notable for having very low hum levels, which becomes very useful for high gain, and high volume situations, and makes living with single coils much easier.
Yes, they have a battery. The battery will give you several thousand playing hours, and I've not needed to replace one yet. I plan to use one guitar with actives in a few weeks for a gig, so I will p[robably replace the battery in that, to avoid having it die at an inopportune moment.
Active pick-ups are have very flat eq response curves, which leads some people to label them as sterile, and a lot of other people to regurgitate that opinion.
A simpler way to put it is "garbage in-garbage out".
Personally, I love them, and if I had a Strat, I would surely be putting EMG actives in it.

I second what lucylespian has said. EMG also make replacements for tone pots that are actually onboard EQs. One is called the SPC (single coil presence control) and the other is called an EXG (expander). The SPC boosts the midrange with something like 20DB of gain. The EXG boosts the bass and high frequencies while dipping the mids. I have an ESP vintage plus strat that I just put the David Gilmore set of EMG SAs into it. This set contains both the EQ controls. You can get sounds from chimey sparkling highs to quack to really aggressive distortion. I love them. Also, active pickups drop the impedance of the guitar signal, which means you don't degrade the signal through the guitar cord. Oh, they are also quiet.

mccreadyisgod

"Active" just refers to the fact that power is supplied to the unit. That is in contrast to "passive", which indicates that power is NOT supplied. This goes for guitar pickups, acoustic pickups, bass pickups, preamp controls, volume controls, EQ, DI boxes (which usually get "active" voltage from the mixer's phantom power, but can be battery-powered), etc. The advantage of "active" electronics is that you are able to boost signal as well as reduce it, where passive controls can only reduce signal, like in a volume, tone, or EQ control. That is why active pickups usually have a higher output level. Also, like westsidepie said, there is often an impedance drop, which allows you to drive the signal further than with a passive guitar.

So far as I understand it, the pickups themselves are not actually powered up or anything. In reality, there is a preamp in the guitar as part of the volume/tone network that recieves signal from the pickups, then actively (with power) preamplifies and shapes the guitar's output.

who's_pearljam?

Like said above, yup, they need a battery because they have a preamp.
Active and passive pickups are both creating an electric current by having the iron in the strings wave back and forth over them.
With a passive pickup, that strength of the magnet and the coil windings is needed to create enough current to hmmm, for lack of a better word, Do something! These send out a weak (Low impedance) signal.
They also act as an antenna, which picks up other electrical signals in the air, especially 60 cycle hum from the power company. In the chain to the amplifier that low powered needs to be amplified and is more susceptible outside noise.

The advantage with active pickups is that, like EMG’s, they are wound less and not as powerful compared to a passive pickup. The pickups are wound with less wire than passive, so they don’t create as much electrical current, so they pick up less outside interference, and, like with EMG’s they have a tiny little preamp inside the pickup so that the whole thing is self contained and shielded, and the signal out is lower impedance so it picks up less noise. Basically they're a weaker pickup with an amplifier inside with no noise.
The only noise coming out is the crap I play!

*sips coffee*

I think the older styles lost a little personality of a passive pickup when they’re active, but the newer ones are MUCH better and they’re great, especially if you’re sending your signal out through a bunch of pedals and processing your signal, for instance, like David Gilmour.
They’re also great if you’re playing on stage in cheesy bars with old wiring and lighting, (Like David Gilmour ok, maybe 45 years ago!) because that’s the cause of a lot of noise.
Also great when you're playing in big venues with a lot of lighting that creates electrical "noise".
Like Westsidepie said, you can have an onboard control system that gives you a lot of control right from the guitar and you can get a lot of strat quack and personality from them by doing this:
*everyone shudders when I say this*
Concentrating on how you play the guitar!


Haha! Thanks! Now you have me thinking about those EMG’s. There goes about another couple a hundred bucks or so!

westsidepie

who's_pearljam? wrote:

I think the older styles lost a little personality of a passive pickup when they’re active, but the newer ones are MUCH better and they’re great, especially if you’re sending your signal out through a bunch of pedals and processing your signal, for instance, like David Gilmour.
They’re also great if you’re playing on stage in cheesy bars with old wiring and lighting, (Like David Gilmour ok, maybe 45 years ago!) because that’s the cause of a lot of noise.
Also great when you're playing in big venues with a lot of lighting that creates electrical "noise".
Like Westsidepie said, you can have an onboard control system that gives you a lot of control right from the guitar and you can get a lot of strat quack and personality from them by doing this:
*everyone shudders when I say this*
Concentrating on how you play the guitar!

You are right about concentrating on how you play the guitar. That is another myth about EMGs, that they are not responsive to pick attack. I find these pickups extremely responsive, dynamic, and touch sensitive. You know how when you play through some distortion boxes no matter what you do the note sounds the same? That does not happen with these pups. Also, a little trick, if you use two batteries in series supplying the pups with 18v, it improves headroom and they respond to transients much faster. I have one guitar set up like this, and the sound is punchy and big.

lucylespian

EMG actives are also VERY popular in Tele's. I know a few people who swear by them, and there are a lot of serious pro players who love them, Keith Urban for example.

Pacomc79

lucylespian wrote:

EMG actives are also VERY popular in Tele's. I know a few people who swear by them, and there are a lot of serious pro players who love them, Keith Urban for example.

yeah steve luthaker as well for one in his Ernie Ball signature, and Vince Gill has his own signature version from EMG that's a little different sound than Gilmores... I believe Urban uses the Gill version.

Probably should mention Tom Morello too... even though I think the pups in his teles might be passive I know he uses the 81 and 85 in the Arm the Homeless guitar.

In my explorations I have learned most people find the SPC circuit to be extremely useful and they don't use the EXG circuit as much.

Most of the worlds great bass pickups use some semblence of active circuitry in thier pickups as well. I think the power of the control on the guitar is a pretty seductive thing in that sense.