EMG 81/85 passive sound same as active?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JimmyTheSaint
  • Start date Start date
J

JimmyTheSaint

New member
I've installed 81/85 in one of my guitars, no problem. Active pickups don't work well with the input of my computer's Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 audio interface, so I've removed the battery and shorted my guitar's battery terminal, which gives just the right input level for the Scarlett 2i4. Everything sounds fine, only I'm not an expert with the sound of these pickups, especially going through my DAW with monitors and not a real rig. I can't judge if the good sound I'm getting is close to the 81 used actively.

In theory, all I'm doing is cutting out the pickups' pre-amps and substituting the Focusrite's outboard one. Or does this change the pickups' character in some way that a different passive set will give a sound that's closer to the 81 and 85 used in active mode? That seems unlikely to me, but perhaps the 81's and 85's pre-amps have such a distinctive character that, even though I'm getting a good sound, I'm not getting the true 81/85 sound. Has anyone ever tried using 81 and 85 passively.
 
yeah, I should have thought of that. But the guitar's in another location and I won't actually have it back here for several weeks. I was hoping that someone with a longer experience of these pickups could do a quick A/B.
 
I've never actually thought of shorting the battery and using another preamp. Don't know if it sounds the same, but it's a good idea anyway!
 
I do that on all my active guitars and basses, and then power them using a Line 6 adapter and TRS cable. With the 81/85 guitar, I discovered I had accidentally left the adapter unplugged, but saw the guitar was still putting out signal from the pickups. Maybe all onboard preamps will pass the unamplified signal through.
 
Gibson made that Recording guitar with Low impedence pickups for a reason i guess.

I think what your doing is similar
 
Mesa\Kramer":jyubu5iy said:
Gibson made that Recording guitar with Low impedence pickups for a reason i guess.

I think what your doing is similar
Click to expand...
I really don't know exactly what's going on. I mean, without power do we know for sure that the 81 and 85 remain low impedance? And if they're still low impedance, they seem to work the same as high Z pickups--how does that work?

In any case, I'm just wondering if, unpowered, they're still giving me the "authentic" 81/85 sound. I guess that's basically asking if the the EMG pickups' amps are voiced in some hard-to-match way that gives the pickups their characteristic sound, or if the character is mostly in the pickups and the amps are fairly generic.
 
I just fiddle with the guitar volume knob... Even barely cracked open the active still has plenty to track...I have a Jackson with EMG-HZ passives and much prefer tracking active.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top