Spectors and emgs

[MustBeBrutal]

I own a Spector legend 5 and I play in a death metal band and we play in G#
The pickups that are currently in my bass are EMG SSD and I belive they are passive pickups.
My problem is is that my lows are not strong and powerful as I would like them and I've been considering switching to active pickups.
The question(s) is can I active pickups in my bass and if I can what are some good pickups for the sitution that I am in?

 

[Double Agent]

Yes...one of the beauty's of EMGs is that they the same size casings for their passive pickups as they for their active models. The models you would want to look would be the 40xx models. IOW, there are a variety of active EMGs that will fit in your bass. The 40DC is their most aggressive pickup and its what Spector uses in many of their Czech and USA models. Given your situation, I would recommend either 2 40DCs or a combo of 40DC in the bridge, 40P in the neck.

One thing you won't be able to do is mix and match between active and passive...if you go active, you have to go all in. Also, there are a few companies, besides EMG, that make pickups for that size cavity. Seymour Duncan has a stacked-Jazz type pickup that fits directly in an EMG-sized cavity. Nordstrand also make pickups which would require little or no modification. But, these other models tend to have more traditional tone and I doubt that is what you are after. Just mentioning it in case. But, I would stick with the active EMGs for metal.

One more thing...even with passive pickups, don't overlook how good a new preamp can make your bass sound. Either the EMG BQS or the Aguilar OBP-3 come with a 4-hole configuration and are great sounding preamps. In fact, I would probably change that out before changing the pickups....you might be surprised at how alive it makes your bass sound.