Cort A6 Pickup Modification Question

[BeowulfKingsley]

Here's one for you more technically inclined than myself...I like the active electronics on the Cort A6 well enough, but I'd like to see what the pickups would be like sans preamp, for some of the more rootsy material I sometimes play. What kind of hoops would I have to jump through to set it up so I could switch the active electronics on and off? You can switch out the EQ on my model, but it's still going through the preamp. Thank you for your expertise and experience!!

 

[JustForSport]

Usually, switching off the EQ bypasses the preamp, but sometimes the grounding circuit still goes thru the board, and the power is not disconnected (usually to avoid 'pops' associated with true active/passive switching). The signal should bypass the EQ when switched off, tho.
If you have active pickups, they still need power even if the preamp is bypassed.

 

[BeowulfKingsley]

I'm not sure if those Bartolini MK1 pickups are active or not...I've heard other forumites maintain that they sound good as passive pickups. But I'd like to get other informed opinions about that!!

 

[Aidil]

Bartolini MK1 pickups in Cort Artisan A6 are passive. The active MK1 or AMK1 is the one they put in Cort Curbow single pickup models (MK1s in Cort Curbow dual pickups models are also passive).

The pickups in A6 are routed through the MK1 pre-amp board, or in other words, the pre-amp bypass switch won't give you direct connection to the pickups. This causes the bass needs to be battery powered even though the pre-amp switch is in bypass position.

Yet, switching the pre-amp bypass should give you what supposed to be uncolored tone of the MK1 pickups, or at least close to their original sound if directly connected without the pre-amp.

You can always install a true bypass switch, but I would choose to change the pre-amp, lets say to the Bart NTMB+ pre, if I'd like to explore more to its sound.