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- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: Active Pickups vs Passive Pickups
so yeah, we were jammin and the questions was raised as to have i ever considered upgrading the pickups in my guitar to an active pickup for a more of a metal tone
so i got to looking into it and am curious if its actually worth it to even bother upgrading....
Seems that the ones to get for active pickups are the EMG 81/85 set (Kerry King /Zakk Wylde) but there are some new Hetfeild EMG 81/60 set and the seymour duncan blackouts and the seymour duncan hotrodded dave mustaine JB2/jb4 active set
then there are dimarzio's are supposed to be good
or i could stay passive and look at some slash ones (I know not very metal) ... or even the Seymour duncan Dimebucker/SD '59 setup that dimebag darryl used
or i jsut leave my standard epi stock alnico v's in
what benefit would i get by upgrading pickups and on top of that upgrade what would the benefit be of going to active pickups?
i have no idea i've never even considered it before (i think the stock epi ones are pretty decent) is it a case of leaving it and being none the wiser?
its a pretty expensive proposition...$225 for the pickups and about $80 to install passives and about $135 to install actives
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Active Pickups vs Passive Pickups
Yeah i'm not much use for advise either as all the guitars I own are passive...I've often pondered the same thing...should I start adding in some gadgets!
Re: Active Pickups vs Passive Pickups
you guys should watch those vids above and let me know ur thoughts...i think they sound pretty sweet...i guess the alternative for my LP would be the slash APH-2's
the slash ones have a higher output than the SH-2 one (neck) above...but the SH-4 is a hotter pickup than the slash one...
- dr_love6977
- Rep: 38
Re: Active Pickups vs Passive Pickups
Hey, sorry. Russ reminded me twice about this thread, but I keep forgetting. ANYWAY.... here are my thoughts:
I went through an active pickup phase. I had EMG 81/85s in three different guitars. They sound great distorted, but are kind of lifeless clean. My other qualm is that they sound the same no matter what guitar you put them in. If you want something dependable and quiet, actives are great, so long as you don't do much clean playing and you don't mind your sound being completely comprised of your pickups and amp. Russ has EMGs in his Strat that he's looking to swap for passives as well.
All that said, I've been back to passive pickups for about 5 years now. I've got a Duncan '59 in the neck of my LP, and a Bare Knuckle Rebel Yell in the bridge, though I'm preparing to swap the bridge for a Motor City Angel Dust. I had a Gibson Burstbucker 3 in the bridge before, but it fed back like a son of a bitch. I also had an Alnico 2 in there, but it was also a noisy pickup. If you like the sound of your Alico V's, you might want to look into the Motor City Angel Dust. It has Alnico V magnets in it, so it'll be in the same ballpark as your current pups, just BEEFIER!
I hope this was helpful. I'm kind of a gear whore though, so by this time next year, I may have gone through 2 or 3 more pickups.
- dr_love6977
- Rep: 38
Re: Active Pickups vs Passive Pickups
Sorry, I didn't elaborate on the Duncan '59. I love that pickup. I would never consider swapping it for anything else. That is all.
Also, I failed to mention that passives let more of the sound of your actual guitar come through. You said you were looking at the Slash pups, or the Alnico Pro 2s. They're a medium output pickup, so you'll definitely get more of the sound of your guitar through them. Unfortunately, they'll feedback easier. If you're not using a ton of gain (ie Slash,) that's cool. Unfortunately, with my Dual Rectifier, that's not an option for me haha.
