Will active pickups damage effects pedals?

[spaz21387]

I remember hearing a rumor that you aren't supposed to plug an active bass into pedals because the signal from the active bass frys them. And that you are supposed to plug your pedals into your effects loop on your amp instead.

[73jbass]

Nope.

[tk4207]

Originally Posted by 73jbass

Nope.

Agreed. That's utter nonsense.

[spaz21387]

Ok thanks this is my first dumb question for a while. Im new to active basses.

[phatbass]

It's perfectly safe; however you *might* find the occasional pedal that reacts (sound-wise) differently to active Basses than they do to passive Basses.

[DeathFromBelow]

^What he said.

[spaz21387]

Ok Just wanted to make sure before plugging my new bass with active emgs into my black russian big muff. the older big muffs are harder to find and I didnt want to go through the hassle of finding another one.

[Mark Olson]

Won't damage them but it'll sound like crap.

[DeathFromBelow]

Originally Posted by Mark Olson

Won't damage them but it'll sound like crap.IMO.

Fixed.

[spaz21387]

Ha now I have to try it.

[seanm]

And, FYI, you probably don't want to put effects pedals into an effects loop on your amp. It can easily overdrive them since it is generally meant for line level effects, not instrument level. But YMMV.

[Headless Llama]

Of course it will damage them! I will be glad to take the offending pups off your hands. I offer this service free of charge (and fees). I can use the pups on my non-effect gigs. Thank you. Together we can all help each other.

[vegas532]

The only thing that reacts weirdly to active pickups are dirt boxes. I tend to prefer passives for overdrive/distortion/fuzz. Some dirt boxes react well to both, but you'll have some that don't take kindly to actives at all.

YMMV

[slaphappychappy]

I use both passive and active. I can use the passive setting on my amp when my active bass goes thru the effects first.

[spaz21387]

tommarow ill try out the emgs with the big muff and see if I like it. I have yet to drop tune the new bass with emgs in it but I have a really good feeling that that bass will be amazing drop tuned.

[slaphappychappy]

Think about it, if they made effects for only active basses, would there not be effects available for active as well? Which there is not to my knowledge.

[Silent Fly]

Originally Posted by spaz21387

I remember hearing a rumor that you aren't supposed to plug an active bass into pedals because the signal from the active bass frys them. And that you are supposed to plug your pedals into your effects loop on your amp instead.

If a pedal gets damaged by active pickups, there is something seriously wrong in its design. It is like a car that gets damages if it goes faster than 20 m/h.

The majority of pedals are not designed to operate in the effect loop and equally, the majority of effect loops are not designed for pedals. Effect loops should be used with units that operate at line level.

[Headless Llama]

Originally Posted by Silent Fly

Effect loops should be used with units that operate at line level.

Then they should be referred to as "line level loops"

[cheapbasslovin]

Only if you use them as a blunt object, and usually the pickup will take most of the abuse .

[tech21nyc]

I've never heard of an active bass damaging a pedal. For the most part effects have both input impedance and level requirements (line or instrument level.) Active bass' are low Z and low Z works with just about everything with the exception of some vintage germanium based effects units.

At worst if your bass signal is too hot for the input of an effects unit you will probably hear that you are overloading it. Simple solution is to merely turn down your bass guitar's volume. With active bass there is no tonal loss in reducing the volume like on a passive instrument.