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Active Pickups: Basslines/EMG/ect...

M

mykailmason13

Oct 3, 2012
63
0
33
St. Petersburg, Florida
#1
So I haven't had the opportunity to try a whole lot of active electronics with my basses but I do know I like activeness. As for my guitars I use almost strictly Seymour Duncan pickups and I really like Blackouts. Is there anything like this or better for basses? All the added gain of active with the passive feel?
 
#2
Whether a pickup is active or passive has no inherent relation to anything. Though generally the low impedance buffered output of active pickups allows them to function differently than typical passive setups. In any case, you have to figure out what you want before just arbitrarily deciding on random design factors.
 
#4
mykailmason13 said:
So I haven't had the opportunity to try a whole lot of active electronics with my basses but I do know I like activeness. As for my guitars I use almost strictly Seymour Duncan pickups and I really like Blackouts. Is there anything like this or better for basses? All the added gain of active with the passive feel?
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Try looking to Duncan bass pickups if you like your blackouts, that being said most active basses have passive pickups and an active pre-amp which Duncan also makes.
 
#8
line6man said:
What is "activeness?" The term means nothing. It's like saying you like humbuckers. What kind? The ones with a a wide aperture, or the ones with a narrow aperture? Bright and clear ones, or darker ones? Anything that has two coils?
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When people say "activeness" they're usually talking about high gain outputting pickups! Its like when people refer to stretched ears as "gauges", its just a commonly used term people use when they're not technical about or know the actual terminology.
 
#9
mykailmason13 said:
When people say "activeness" they're usually talking about high gain outputting pickups! Its like when people refer to stretched ears as "gauges", its just a commonly used term people use when they're not technical about or know the actual terminology.
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Gain has no inherent influence on tonality, and many active pickups and preamps are unity gain, or close to it. There are two main types of active pickups. Some have a low impedance winding into a gain boosting buffer to produce a brighter tone with a flatter frequency response, and low noise; more commonly, however, such as with EMGs, there is simply a high impedance coil with a buffer. As far as the effects of the buffer, input impedance is often identical to that of an amp/effects pedal/whatever, and the effects of parasitic capacitance from cables can be compensated for in other ways, so it all comes down to whether or not there is any specific fixed-voicing to color the sound. Again, you're referencing a very broad category of design specs, without any specific info on what you want.
 
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#10
line6man said:
Gain has no inherent influence on tonality, and many active pickups and preamps are unity gain, or close to it. There are two main types of active pickups. Some have a low impedance winding into a gain boosting buffer to produce a brighter tone with a flatter frequency response, and low noise; more commonly, however, such as with EMGs, there is simply a high impedance coil with a buffer. As far as the effects of the buffer, input impedance is often identical to that of an amp/effects pedal/whatever, and the effects of parasitic capacitance from cables can be compensated for in other ways, so it all comes down to whether or not there is any specific fixed-voicing to color the sound. Again, you're referencing a very broad category of design specs, without any specific info on what you want.
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That's the thing idk all the technical crap, I just know what sounds good (which is why I said "something like Blackouts") I didn't realize they had Blackout bass pickups. Im just gonna get those.
 

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