cobrahead1030
Well-known member
i know it's been done a million times, but i'm curious to hear from some of you guys
namely what works best for you, and why
here's my take...i don't particularly believe i'm right or that anyone else is wrong, so feel free to disagree
let's try to keep it civil tho
i think both have their place...my favorite bridge pickup is the duncan JB; i like it because it's clear sounding, it's got a nice agressive upper-midrange, and it's pretty bright which balances out well with the darker sounding guitars i tend to prefer
i also own guitar with an EMG 81 in the bridge, and another with an 85...they have their place as well
i find that passive pickups let you hear more of the actual guitar than actives do (not that the guitar tone is completely lost with actives by any means...but you don't hear AS MUCH of it) either one can be beneficial depending on how your guitar sounds naturally (unplugged) and how you want it to sound...emg's tend to have THEIR tone heard in a very upfront way, moreso than i think passive pickups do
passives also respond to picking dynamics more and sound less compressed to my ears...the harder/softer i pick the more i hear the result with passives, and not so much with actives...again both can be beneficial, i think passives sound more raw but actives can be more consistent
actives tend to be less noisy and generally don't feed back as much...that's a plus for them all the way
i find that passives react in a different way when you roll back the volume knob, with some amps you can get really cool tones this way; actives tend to just get weak sounding...if you use this technique then it's a big plus for passives, if not then it probably doesn't matter much to you
and possibly the biggest of all...
PASSIVES OFFER MORE VARIETY!!!
between seymour duncan and dimarzio alone there are a ton of passive pickups to choose from to find what works for the individual player...if you like thick, thin, bright, dark, honky, scooped, balanced, high/medium/low output, etc. and every combination of them
not to mention a ton of other companies that put out great stuff
with active pickups you're limited to a few kinda generic EMG models, and a small handful that other companies make (i suppose one could argue that EMG found what worked and stuck with it...i for one would be very interested to hear an 81 or 85 with a few tweaks)
i suppose if you're not sure what you want in a pickup, having less choices can make actives more appealing...for me tho, i like being able to find something that's just what i want or close to it, and everyone has SOME passive pickups they're bound to like
namely what works best for you, and why
here's my take...i don't particularly believe i'm right or that anyone else is wrong, so feel free to disagree
let's try to keep it civil tho
i think both have their place...my favorite bridge pickup is the duncan JB; i like it because it's clear sounding, it's got a nice agressive upper-midrange, and it's pretty bright which balances out well with the darker sounding guitars i tend to prefer
i also own guitar with an EMG 81 in the bridge, and another with an 85...they have their place as well
i find that passive pickups let you hear more of the actual guitar than actives do (not that the guitar tone is completely lost with actives by any means...but you don't hear AS MUCH of it) either one can be beneficial depending on how your guitar sounds naturally (unplugged) and how you want it to sound...emg's tend to have THEIR tone heard in a very upfront way, moreso than i think passive pickups do
passives also respond to picking dynamics more and sound less compressed to my ears...the harder/softer i pick the more i hear the result with passives, and not so much with actives...again both can be beneficial, i think passives sound more raw but actives can be more consistent
actives tend to be less noisy and generally don't feed back as much...that's a plus for them all the way
i find that passives react in a different way when you roll back the volume knob, with some amps you can get really cool tones this way; actives tend to just get weak sounding...if you use this technique then it's a big plus for passives, if not then it probably doesn't matter much to you
and possibly the biggest of all...
PASSIVES OFFER MORE VARIETY!!!
between seymour duncan and dimarzio alone there are a ton of passive pickups to choose from to find what works for the individual player...if you like thick, thin, bright, dark, honky, scooped, balanced, high/medium/low output, etc. and every combination of them
not to mention a ton of other companies that put out great stuff
with active pickups you're limited to a few kinda generic EMG models, and a small handful that other companies make (i suppose one could argue that EMG found what worked and stuck with it...i for one would be very interested to hear an 81 or 85 with a few tweaks)
i suppose if you're not sure what you want in a pickup, having less choices can make actives more appealing...for me tho, i like being able to find something that's just what i want or close to it, and everyone has SOME passive pickups they're bound to like
Yeah it is a hot little sucker 
