Kirk Hammett: “Maybe the age of active pickups is over”

  • Thread starter Thread starter RaceU4her
  • Start date Start date
I agree 100%. Actives go from sounding good, to stale. That's how they age for me. Now, that's primarily EMG's. Not a fan.

Fluence Moderns, much better, but I still prefer passives.
 
napalmdeath said:
I agree 100%. Actives go from sounding good, to stale. That's how they age for me. Now, that's primarily EMG's. Not a fan.

Fluence Moderns, much better, but I still prefer passives.
Click to expand...
Try the Classics. They're great!
 
While I have guitars with both actives and passives, in a certain fashion, I feel as if the high gain amplifier market has evolved in such a way that it has outgrown the necessity for active pickups. When the EMG 81 hit the market it was a really effective and efficient means of adding gain, attack, tightness and brightness to the amplifiers of that late 80s to early 90s period. But as the amp manufacturers began to recognize these trends and respond to the tastes of hard rock and metal players the amps inherent high gain capabilities began to get tighter and more aggressive ( to the point of overkill in my opinion ). When you add in a high output active pickup to many of these amps, not only can it be aggregous, but you are often sacrificing too much character, warmth and well...just plain old tone in the process. While a Marshall 800 can really benefit from the output and frequency bump of an active pickup, many modern high gain amps seem to sound better ( to my ears ) with a medium output passive as the front end of the amp is doing all the heavy lifting in regard to gain, tightness and attack. Then there are amplifiers that seem to take well to both...such as the Diezel VH4. Just some thoughts.
 
dave74 said:
Kirk says wacky stuff all the time;

“You can push a PAF pickup; you can take an amp and fully just gain it out. That PAF will just take it and take it,” observes Hammett.
Click to expand...
It's common for musicians to say wacky stuff, you shouldn't be surprised :)
 
I’ve got both and there’s a place for both.

Honestly I prefer tracking solos over EMGs as the sustain is insane and great for adding smear to a stiff amp. No you don’t have volume rolling dynamics which is where passives come into play. Both have their purposes, anyone solely in one camp is missing out on the benefits of the other.
 
dave74 said:
Kirk says wacky stuff all the time;

“You can push a PAF pickup; you can take an amp and fully just gain it out. That PAF will just take it and take it,” observes Hammett.
Click to expand...
Wait are we talking about pickups or… ?
 
I personally find it odd what some people will sometimes say.

For example, people were swearing 57/66's were more dynamic than 81's. All you have to do is look at waveforms of DI's tracked with them. They're actually more compressed.

I always thought the benefits people claim from using PAF's for high-gain are kind of... errr...

Whatever clarity and dynamics you gain from them is quickly negated by the fact you have to raise the gain in the amp for them not to feel scratchy, weak, dry, and undergained compared to higher output pickups.

I also cannot stand unpotted pickups that squeal like a pig, but that's just me.

That being said, though, I'm back to loving (modern) PAF types for metal. Something about the twangy attack and the broad EQ voicing makes them feel right for me.

JME.
 
Never gelled with any actives. Tried a couple sets, couldn't do it. Any guitars that came with 'em, they got yanked and replaced with passives.

Couldn't care less what KH thinks about actives although I'm sure some people would find it of interest. I just play what I've always liked and played, and haven't really "trended" in or out of anything.

I'm the worst type of consumer ?
 
I think the combination of modern, saturated high gain amps and the preference a lot of guys developed for boosting with an OD pedal are what started to push people away from the EMGs in particular.

EMGs into a boost works great with something like a JCM 800 but I find it way too much into something like a 5150. EMG equipped guitar straight in sounds great and so does a passive into a boost, but they do something very different to the final sound, to say nothing of the “feel.”

That said I have recently rediscovered EMG’s and am about to put em in my old Explorer.
 
dave74 said:
Kirk says wacky stuff all the time;

“You can push a PAF pickup; you can take an amp and fully just gain it out. That PAF will just take it and take it,” observes Hammett.
Click to expand...
He has it somewhat backwards but I think the point he's making is legit. A bright, twangy PAF type humbucker can be feed through a totally gained out signal chain and the tone will hold together better than a darker, higher output pickup (which will turn to mush and noisy sooner).
 
cardinal said:
He has it somewhat backwards but I think the point he's making is legit. A bright, twangy PAF type humbucker can be feed through a totally gained out signal chain and the tone will hold together better than a darker, higher output pickup (which will turn to mush and noisy sooner).
Click to expand...
I agree with that, although my preference would be for “hot” PAF or medium output humbuckers. With some exceptions I really soured on high output passives over the years for just those reasons and the fact that some manufacturers (i.e. Dimarzio) can’t make a high output pickup that doesn’t make it sound like you rolled your tone knob halfway down.
 
SBlue said:
An active pickup will never do what a PAF can do. On the other hand, a PAF will never do what an active pickup can do.
But just as with politics, you must hate one and love the other.
Small minded people.
Click to expand...
I’ve got real PAF’s and ‘80’s EMG’s. My ‘86 Schecter came stock with emg’s. I tried so many different pickups in it including various Fishman Fluence’s, and paf style pickups, and the emg’s just sounded best for that particular guitar. I find those paf modes on Fluence’s sound like PAF’s in the same way that cherry flavored medicine tastes like real cherries lol. Like you said gotta have both! And there’s also tons of great vintage pickups that fall tonally somewhere in between those 2. Great vintage pickups are a deep and rather unexplored rabbit hole it seems
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top