Pickups, Active or Passive

gigawatt

gigawatt

Experienced
Seeing how this really isn't a fair comparasin since there are far more passive pickups available, what do you prefer and what type of music do you use it for? Please, no bashing of the one you don't favor, on second thought, if you have constructive criticism, I suppose that's ok ;). Remember actives aren't just for metal, David Gilmour uses them :).
 
I guess no-one's using them anymore. o_O Must have all switched to those Alumitone's or something new eh? ;) That's cool.
 
I typically use X2N's in passive guitars, but lately I've been using EMG's a lot. For the project I'm in now we decided to go with 7-strings, the one I settled on came with EMG's and I've gotta say I'm really liking them. I was die-hard passives for a decade, but the other guitarist sort of convinced me to give them a shot since the guitar was otherwise perfect. I'm not rushing out to switch my passive guitars over to active, but I'm also way more open to a guitar that comes loaded with EMG's now. I had an 8 string a few years back with SD Blackouts...they seemed OK but might have just been TOO much.

I mostly play metal of various sorts...lots of riffs & also lots of heavy chugga chugga stuff.
 
ChainOfThought said:
I typically use X2N's in passive guitars, but lately I've been using EMG's a lot
Click to expand...

Ahh the X2N, the most powerful handgun in the world...;), nice. How is its bottom end, is it as tight as the EMG's? (the 81 model correct?). A friend of mine had an X2N in a Hohner Les Paul copy but we didn't have the write wiring diagram, all we had was a Seymour Duncan diagram. Needless to say something didn't sound right and we more or less wrongfully dismissed the X2N, gosh that was back in 1985.

I'm quite familiar with EMG's on the other hand; the 81, 85, 89, 60, and SA single coil. I played in a Metallica tribute band between 1999 and 2007 and used EMG's almost exclusively. They really cut through the mix, especially in bright guitars, but I've never really found them ear piercing in that regard. Very clear, very tight bottom end, midrangy with a perfectly placed peak resonance frequency IMO (talkin bout the 81). Some folks call them sterile and lacking character, but if they'd only give them a chance for a good while might come to think otherwise. You can do a LOT of different genre's with them. For dual humbucker guitars an 89 in the neck position set to single coil with its push pull pot sound phenominal for clean tones. It'll get you that intro to Metallica's "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" quite easily. I know James Hetfield used the 60 in the neck but I prefered the 89. When I first got the 60 I thought it was his bridge pickup so I put it there. I thought it sounded awesome in the bridge, less gain than the 81, but crunchier and less sizzle in the top end, kinda like a SD Screamin Demon. The SA is half of an 85/89. I'm not familiar with any of the newer models like the Hetset, athough I did just get a guitar with the Kirk Hammett Bone Breakers set. I can only say they seem warmer than the 81's he used to use, highs a little more rolled off, could be the guitar but I doubt it, it's the same wood- alder body maple neck like most of his shred machines (as far as I know). ;)

Thanks for sharing by the way :).
 
So my main 7 is an Ibanez RGIT27FE. I bought it about a year ago and it came loaded with a pair of 707's. I fairly quickly replaced those with a set of 707-TW's from a Schecter I picked up as a beater and its been like that ever since. Very recently (this week sometime...) I picked up an LTD MH-417 that has an 81-7/707 set. So my experience with the 81-7 (and thereby the 81) is pretty limited. I know for a long time the 707 was billed as a 7 string version of the 85, so I guess its most similar to that. I find the low-end to be really massive and loose, but not flubby. I think the tone from that guitar stays pretty tight when I want it to, especially if I dial in a preset to BE super tight. But if I add in a touch of extra gain, maybe change the boost around to attenuate less of the low-end, it gets really massive, really sludgy, really fuckin great.

The x2n I would say can do pretty similar things to that, but its not been too often that I've tuned lower than D standard using an x2n, so its not really fair comparison. That said...in D, the x2n is tight as hell. Massive low-end, blazing highs and a fairly balanced mid-range IMHO. If you dig the super-saturated tone that still has a low-end that will jump out and kick you in the chest...x2n can punch your ticket for sure. I don't find it to be so hot that you can't tame it, which is how I felt about the blackouts that I used in the 8 string. To be fair, I pretty much started out with the x2n and its been the gold standard everything else I try gets compared to. The dude I used to jam with in high school that really laid the foundation that I built my technique on was obsessed with Chuck Schuldiner...so of course he played a Stealth and of course his Stealth had an x2n in it. When I eventually got to the point that I could start buying pickups and so-forth, I threw an x2n in whatever I had at the time (Kramer, I think) and that x2n swapped itself through a few different guitars until it found its permanent home in my 80's Carvin that I'll never get rid of.

Picture of the stealth for good measure...dude went batshit crazy so I wound up with his guitar when he went off to south america to ascend to heaven or something like that.

CIMG1172.jpg
 
Guitars should have XLR outputs where their active pickups are driven by phantom power, but this will never happen. But in some sense it doesn't really matter because the signal only need go a foot or so to reach the wireless. I still use EMG pickups, but there is no doubt that people don't want batteries in their axes.
 
I never used any active pickups, unless the neck driver pickup of a Fernandes Sustainer counts as one. I do want to try the EMG set that David Gilmour had in his red Strat though. I might give that a shot in one of my future guitar builds.

kgk said:
Guitars should have XLR outputs where their active pickups are driven by phantom power, but this will never happen. But in some sense it doesn't really matter because the signal only need go a foot or so to reach the wireless. I still use EMG pickups, but there is no doubt that people don't want batteries in their axes.
Click to expand...

You can substitute an XLR connector for a stereo 6.3 jack though. As long as it still connects the same three wires, red, white and ground, does it matter much what the connector is?

Also, if you use phantom power to power active pickups that pretty much means you can never use wireless. And personally if the choice for me is between wireless and a battery box, I'll break out the router and start chopping into my guitars ASAP. I usually install dual battery boxes in my guitars anyway, hell if there existed a triple battery box I'd install that instead, as it means even more gizmos in my guitars. :D:cool:
 
Wasn't a fan of active pickups until I tried the Fishman Fluence series. My Keith Merrow set is pretty sweet. At the end of the day, I still love passives most though.
 
kgk said:
Guitars should have XLR outputs where their active pickups are driven by phantom power, but this will never happen. But in some sense it doesn't really matter because the signal only need go a foot or so to reach the wireless. I still use EMG pickups, but there is no doubt that people don't want batteries in their axes.
Click to expand...

Has happened for bass guitars, why not for standard guitars too ?
 
I use EMG’s in all my gigging guitars for my Ozzy tribute. 85 in the bridge and the 81 in the neck. Opposite of what most people do. The 85 is very chunky in the bridge and the 81 really cuts in the neck position. All my other guitars have mostly Duncan’s or DiMarzio’s.
 
bishop5150 said:
I use EMG’s in all my gigging guitars for my Ozzy tribute. 85 in the bridge and the 81 in the neck. Opposite of what most people do. The 85 is very chunky in the bridge and the 81 really cuts in the neck position. All my other guitars have mostly Duncan’s or DiMarzio’s.
Click to expand...

Sweet! Have any of Randy's guitars? I tried the 85 in the bridge and felt it didn't have enough high end sizzle like the 81. It's almost like comparing the Seymour Duncan JB and the Distortion, I suppose they both have their attributes depending on the guitar's characteristics. However, I love the JB in my KV's and RR's, and to think I used to change them all out for the 81 & 89 when I was in a Metallica tribute band. I had dozens of CTS 500 and 250K pots in a tackle box. ;)
 
I use pretty much whatever, I have guitars with Dimarzo’s,Duncan’s, Bare Knuckles, EMG, Fishman,PRS,and MojoTone. I have no real preference on pickups, it’s cool to have all those tones though.
 
Every time I've played a guitar with actives, I felt like it did not let the fine nuances of my playing thru. The actives feel more compressed to me which can be good for some types of playing, tapping and what not.
 
I picked-up an EC 1000 which I actually bought years ago because of the active pickups in it, an 81/60? ..set. But those pickups just didn’t gel with me for the most part. To my less than perfect ears they seemed very clinical sounding; so I swapped them out for some Gibby burstbucker pros which to me sound much more organic in that particular guitar and how I play it.

For some styles of playing the actives really did the job, the heavier stuff, and especially rhythm, for example, was pristine; but I tend to play more in the very-slightly overdriven clean zone for the most part, and to me, the actives didn’t translate what I was trying to portray near as well as the passives.

...then Zakk Wylde can make them sound great, so ...must be me! :D

A hobby of mine is to pick up trashed 80’s era guitars and bring them back to showroom floor condition. I currently have a Yamaha RGX 612a with actives on my workbench... hmmmm...we’ll just hafta see.
 
I've played everything through the years but I've noticed I tend to put my guitars that have EMGs away.

I have found that the AxeFx seems to love EMGs though.
 
Rich5150 said:
I use pretty much whatever, I have guitars with Dimarzo’s,Duncan’s, Bare Knuckles, EMG, Fishman,PRS,and MojoTone. I have no real preference on pickups, it’s cool to have all those tones though.
Click to expand...

So you weren't "blown away" by the Bare Knuckles?

Hey another 5150, have you met bishop?
 
gigawatt said:
So you weren't "blown away" by the Bare Knuckles?

Hey another 5150, have you met bishop?
Click to expand...

Actually the BKP’s are some of my favorite pickups going I have a Miracle Man set and Holy Diver set it a couple of my main guitars, I also have a set of Ragnaroks that I’m trying to decide what im going to drop them in.
I have not met Bishop, watch his videos all the time though and am thoroughly impressed
 
I've become a big fan of Lace Sensor pickups. I had to install them when I joined a Radiohead tribute band, and I found them to be very versatile. A blue/silver/dual red or red/silver has become my favorite set.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom