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Passive to active pups in Schecter bass & distortion pedal

M

Mr. Metal Smith

Feb 7, 2005
34
0
Copenhagen, Denmark
www.myspace.com
#1
I own a Schecter Stiletto Studio-5 bass which has the EMG HZ pups and Im considdering changing them to some active ones.

I play metal and Ive read some good things about the EMG DC pickups. Would these fit me well? Or any others which fit my bass?

Im looking for an agressive tone for fingerstyle playing, firm low end (not muddy), some growly mids, clear highs and good note definition.

Im also wondering if there are any problems using active pickups when going through a distortion pedal? I've heard they can sound pretty artificial with distortion. On the other hand I've heard that passive ones (like the HZs) can be noisier and this combined with a distortion pedal can lead to a lot of noise.

I hope someone can help out >)
 
#3
Different distortion pedals will react differently. A big part of it is the level of the signal--hotter signal into the pedal = harsher distortion, generally. Another factor, relevant mostly just to fuzz pedals, is impedance. Active pups do not mix well with many fuzzes (unless you like that sound, which I would say sounds "artificial" and extra harsh).

Distortion does usually increase noise; it depends on how noisy your instrument is to start with. It's not related to active or passive pickups in general.

FWIW the tone in that vid can't be gotten from most distortion pedals. It's probably his amp distorting, plus some string buzz, and scooped EQ giving him that tone. You best bet would be to post that vid over in the Effects forum, and ask specifically if there is any pedal that will help you get that tone. Don't mention "distortion", because with pedals that usually implies a higher level of dirt than you want.
 
#4
Ok thanks a lot Bongo :)

Now I'm not concerned so much about active vs. passive pups regarding distortion pedal use. I guess you could just adjust your input volume on the pedal or output level on the bass if the distortion gets too harsh.

The tone in the video is just the general tone I like when I'm not using distortion. Just wondering if the EMG DC pickups or others would help me achieve it
 
#5
Mr. Metal Smith said:
I own a Schecter Stiletto Studio-5 bass which has the EMG HZ pups and Im considdering changing them to some active ones.

I play metal and Ive read some good things about the EMG DC pickups. Would these fit me well? Or any others which fit my bass?

Im looking for an agressive tone for fingerstyle playing, firm low end (not muddy), some growly mids, clear highs and good note definition.

Im also wondering if there are any problems using active pickups when going through a distortion pedal? I've heard they can sound pretty artificial with distortion. On the other hand I've heard that passive ones (like the HZs) can be noisier and this combined with a distortion pedal can lead to a lot of noise.

I hope someone can help out >)
Click to expand...

Have you considered looking into adding a EMG-PA-2 booster to your Stiletto Studio-5? It will give you up to 20db of (adjustable) added boost to your output.

I'm looking into adding one to my Stiletto Elite-5 to increase the output and add to the tone.

TD
 
#6
I have the same bass and I've been considering adding some active emg's for awhile, at first I wasn't sure which emg's to get, because you can get single coils, humbuckers/dc's or precision style pickups, and then the various combinations. I really like the way voice of the bass, and have an equalizer before the amp, but I just feel like the pickups could be a little hotter. So based on the idea that I like the way it sounds I just want the pickups to pickup a little better, I'm gonna get the dc's. There's a douche on youtube that did a really ****** job at showing all the different emg pickups in the various positions and combinations. He sucks at playing bass and listening to him is really annoying, but the videos are still useful. He sometimes uses distortion so it will be really helpful to you. Personally, with a genre like metal I think distorting a bass is a bad choice. If you listen to the first 3 metallica albums, you hear cliff plucking away and it gives an aggressively soft bass and a nice mid/low-mid range backing up the guitars. Let the distortion to the guitars and be the low end with an edge, I find the using distortion kills the low end and only in unique situations is it ever useful.
 
#8
I have a Schecter Stiletto custom and I took the passive (35 HZ's) pickups out and replaced them w/ EMG 35P4's and let me tell you the 35HZ's sounded so much better to me so I changed back to the HZ's.... the 35P4's sounded so thini really like The Barts better than EMG in any case....
 
#10
Same problem here. I have a Schecter Elite 5 string with EMG-HZ's. Something happened to the blend pot or what I guess is a pre-amp and now it isn't working. I have my HZ's hooked up straight to the output right now bypassing everything. Do I go with Active EMG's or try to fix what I have? I keep hearing all these bad things about EMG-HZ then you guys are saying they are better. And the guy on you tube is annoying.
 
#12
If Jack's tone is what you're aiming for changing your pickups will not solve your issue. His tone is tone is bass --> ampeg svt. That tone is literally the most asked for tone in the effects board. "Tube grind" is what it is usually called.

The VT bass pedal can get you close to that tone. So can a POD X3 if you blend a cleanish bass tone with a mid/high focused sound using either a guitar amp (Vox, Hiwatt, Marshall 800) or the "Invader" bass model.

Another thing you will have to keep in mind is your attack. You will need to hit the strings relatively hard to get that sound.
 

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