Do I need a bridge ground for an active system?

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

From the EMG site:

'"When installing EMG Active Pickups, DO NOT connect the bridge ground wire.
This wire is usually soldered to a Volume or Tone control casing and goes to the bridge.
This wire grounds the strings and uses them and your body as a shield against hum and buzz. It also creates a shock hazard.
EMG Pickups are shielded internally and DO NOT require string grounding. This greatly reduces the possibility of reverse polarity shock from microphones and other equipment."

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^^^ game over !
Honestly speaking I would and I will follow EMG's indications rather than those of Roger Sadowsky, even if he's one of the more competent persons who can speak here about this subject ...

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

Well ive gone ahead and installed everything. Without a bridge ground that is. And its dead silent, its fair to say a bridge ground was not needed at all.

Now i don't know if this is the case for all active systems but for emg I can personally confirm that a bridge ground is not needed.

Ka-Boom !!! Nice when finally people talk with facts and evidence in their hands

 

[mcnach]

And this is why all my basses are passive...

That makes no sense...

It's like saying "that's why all my basses are red" because you saw an example of another colour being noisy...

 

[Kukulkan61]

That makes no sense...

It's like saying "that's why all my basses are red" because you saw an example of another colour being noisy...

I don't have any red basses..

 

[yberwaffe]

That's false. If the ground and hot are inverted, such as in a situation where various pieces of equipment are running on different breakers, then you can have grounds at different potentials. For instance, you can have a situation where your bass is plugged into an amp on one breaker, and a microphone plugged into a mixing console on another breaker. Touching the bass and the microphone at the same time will give you a potentially lethal shock.

The hot and NEUTRAL wires can be inverted, the GROUND wire is always the same.

 

[mcnach]

I don't have any red basses..

So that's where you've been going wrong all this time!

 

[yberwaffe]

Active pickups do not have to be confused with onboard electronics for passive pickups signal pre-amplification.
Different designs and different aims.

How do active pickups work ???
Do they not have a coil and magnets as all the other pickups on the market ?

 

[gumtown]

How do active pickups work ???
Do they not have a coil and magnets as all the other pickups on the market ?

Yes they do, and an active preamp built in, so they have an extra wire for battery +.

 

[yberwaffe]

Yes they do, and an active preamp built in, so they have an extra wire for battery +.

So there is no difference in the end.
The only thing that differs is the lenght of the wires.
Good to know.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

They are shielded and don't pick up unwanted external signals (don't know in which way and I don't need to honestly .. EMG state this and i follow their instructions) .. I just put a set of EMG PAX pickup plus control electronics on my Classic '50s P bass and there's no noise without any ground wire from the bridge ... the stock electronics, with the ground wire from the bridge, was noticeably less quiet ... sounded good but this is better