Can I make an active pickup passive?

[GangstaBean]

I know it's a pretty noobish question, but I'm just curious.

[colcifer]

Are you a mad scientist?

[GangstaBean]

Only on Thursday's.

[BigOldHarry]

sure.

Remove the preamp and wire the p'ups directly to the volume / pan-pot.

If it looks to complex, have a shop do it. It's not rocket science.

[GangstaBean]

So if I installed an active passive switch, it would work? They're not just an active preamplifier. But active pickups

[panda bass]

probably, but it may effect sound! You would bypass the active components directly to the output.

This is not sure fire, but I think it should work.

[tehbassist]

Are the pickups in question EMGs? And if so, then no you can't make them passive...

EDIT: Ok no if the pickups themselves are active you can't, you could if it was an active preamp though...

[GangstaBean]

Okay, that's what I thought. So if I replaced just one pickup, so it is a passive pickup with an active, would that work?

[tehbassist]

It's hard to know what you're asking, could you fill us in on the details of you're pickups and electronics here?

[GangstaBean]

I have a Spector with an emg bt preamplifier. The pickups are p/j and I want to replace the j, with a bartolini or a hot stack. Could I do that?

[tehbassist]

I would recommend against it in most situations. I'm not so familiar with the EMG BT preamp, but if you were even able to hook a traditional passive style pickup to it you'd have a hell of a time balancing volume levels between the two pickups, not to mention some type of potential impedance issues between the pickups. I really don't know what all the issues could be, but unless someone with more knowledge on the subject chimes in and says otherwise I'd say it's a no. You'll have to replace both or none...

[GangstaBean]

Do any other companies make active pickups?

[tehbassist]

Originally Posted by GangstaBean

Do any other companies make active pickups?

EMG is kind of their own little world when it comes to pickups, not really a bad thing, but they aren't really compatible with other systems to the best of my knowledge.

I'm not an EMG guy in the first place so again someone might know more than me...

[grendle]

You can't make an active pup passive. You may be able to wire them seperatly. Look at the guitar pup wiring diagrams on emg's site. Why do you want to do that to a great bass? Imo the emg BT preamp isn't the greatest for tone. Personally I would toss the BT circuit and buy the mighty mite mm114 preamp (us Spector pre copy) and make it the way stu intended. But that's just me.

[GangstaBean]

I love the p tone, and when I balance it with the j it sounds awesome. But when I solo with the j, it sounds weak, and boring.

[allexcosta]

EMG, Duncan and Bartolini make active pickups.

It's possible to make them passive, but you'd have to destroy part of the pickup housing and rewire a few things.

[GangstaBean]

Does anyone know how the Seymour Duncan pro actives are? They're active, right?

[DWBass]

Just replace both active pups with passive ones.

[DWBass]

Originally Posted by GangstaBean

Does anyone know how the Seymour Duncan pro actives are? They're active, right?

They are active.

[line6man]

There are two types of active pickups. Pickups with high-impedance winds with unity-gain buffers, and pickups with low-impedance winds with gain boosting buffers. If the pickup is epoxy potted, any sort of modification is impossible, but if you can get into the casing, you may be able to wire leads directly to the coil and disconnect the buffer, if you have a high impedance wind.

Trying to do this modification, if possible at all, is more trouble than it is worth. The bigger question is why you want them passive? If you don't like the tone of actives, replace them with something else.