help! very confused about active and passive pickups

[woaheasylang]

hello sirs, i was wondering if anyone can explain to me the main difference between the two.. any info would be great. i'm also very confused about pickups and onboard preamps.. like if you get an active pickup that needs a battery, then get a seperate onboard preamp that also needs battery, would that mean you need two different batteries on your bass? im thinking of fitting my bass with active seymour duncan basslines and an aguilar obp3 preamp.. sorry for the noobness

 

[line6man]

Active pickups require battery power, and passive pickups do not.

There are some preamps available suitable to accept the low impedance output of active pickups, but not every preamp can.

One battery (Though many basses will use two batteries in series for higher headroom.) is fine for all of your active electronics, as the current draw is very low.

 

[Chasarms]

Just to add to what was already mentioned, you should not expect to be able to pair any preamp with any set up pickups. There are several different designs out there. They all manage and manipulate the signal in different ways.

In the example you offered, I believe that you could combine those, but you probably would not be able to use the "standard" blend and/or volume pots. You'd need low impedence pots.

FWIW, I would seriously consider a circuit that was passive/active -- that is passive pickups and an active preamp. Passive pickups tend to have more "character" and you still get the EQ functionality of the active pre. The added benefit is that you can wire it with a bypass to run in passive mode, giving you another tone option as well as an insurance policy when the preamp misbehaves on gig night.