whats the difference between active and passive pickups ?

[smush]

just seen some emg pickups and they where active and another set that where passive and noticed gus g uses passive on one guitar and active on the other but why ?

[Clecko]

'bout £35. Minimum.

[MattANJH]

Active pick-ups have a 9v battery in the circuit, gives a kick up the ass.

[Sporky_McGuffin]

Active pickups have a very low output, but this is then run through a preamp to get the signal to normal (or higher) levels.

I've got EMGs in my Parker Nitefly (the ZW set IIRC) - they sound much the same as the stock pickups, the DiMarzio set I tried and the Q-tuner medium/hot set.

[bertie]

Active pick-ups have a 9v battery in the circuit, gives a kick up the ass.

to increase the shiteness

[BucketheadRules]

Basically, actives are battery-powered, they work as Sporky described. Some examples are EMGs and Seymour Duncan Blackouts. I don't like them personally, they sound too artificial for my liking. James Hetfield, Mick Thomson and Gus G don't seem to have that problem though...

Passives aren't battery powered, they just work with coils of wire and magnets. Examples include Duncan JBs, Gibson PAFs and Strat single-coils. Dimebag Darrell always used passive pickups, as does John Petrucci, Steve Vai and Slash.

Only you can decide which you like most though...

[Sporky_McGuffin]

Active pickup systems comprise passive pickups and active preamps - the pickups aren't powered.

[mattbanshee]

I have active pickups in my Ibanez and unfortunately they're nigh on useless for anything except stupid metal stuff.

[keithm]

er, you're missing the point. Active pickups are low impeadence so they don't lose treble response on long cables or through fx pedals.

[stickyfiddle]

Active pickups are basically a horrible soulless solution to the hum and signal degradation that became a problem when stadium tours kicked off in the 80s.

There are better ways around those issues now so no-one has to suffer these toneless monstrosities, yet some still choose to