Take the 2-minute tour ×
Musical Practice & Performance Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for musicians, students, and enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.

I have two guitars, one with "passive" pickups and one with "active" pickups.
Although I looked on the web, I'm not really sure to understand what is the difference in terms of sound.
Yes my guitars sound different and the "active" one sound crappy if I remove the batteries but I'm interested to know what are the benefits and drawbacks of active pickups?

I see a drawback : it needs batteries !
And I'm not sure but I think that it has an easier tendency to produce a "larsen" sound (just personal experience during rehearsals).

share|improve this question
add comment

2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

http://www.elevation-music.com/guqu.html:

Passive Pickups: Passive pickups send a low output, raw signal to the amp that can only be affected by the volume and tone controls on the instrument itself. Passive pickups tend to lose the extremes of high and low frequencies, but still give a very even and punchy tone. This is because passive pickups tend to push out more midrange frequencies. While passive pickups might give players less dynamic control, their smooth sound is still very unique and desirable.

Active Pickups: Active pickups have preamps that are built into the pickup housing; so they can drive the signal to the amp themselves. This preamp must be powered by a source other than the amp, so active pickups require a separate battery to operate. This allows the pickup to send a higher output signal, producing a more complete, full-range sound than most passive pickup systems and giving players more control of instrument dynamics, projection and tone.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Another benefit of active pickups is they often have much lower noise than passive pickups. This isn't such an issue with humbuckers, since their two coils are wired in such a way as to cancel much (though not, actually, all) of the 60-cycle hum. But single-coil pickups often have a lot of hum, even when well-shielded, while active pickups typically have very little.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.
{"cc_re__cc_re__cc_by_sa_3_0": ["        <li><a href=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com\" title=\"proposing new sites in the Stack Exchange network\">Area 51</a></li>\r\n                        <li><a href=\"http://careers.stackoverflow.com\">Stack Overflow Careers</a></li>\r\n                    \r\n                </ol>\r\n            </td>\r\n    </tr>\r\n</table>\r\n                </div>\r\n            </div>\r\n\r\n            <div id=\"copyright\">\r\n                site design / logo &#169; 2014 stack exchange inc; user contributions licensed under <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license\">cc by-sa 3.0</a> \r\n                with <a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/06/attribution-required/\" rel=\"license\">attribution required</a>\r\n            </div>\r\n            <div id=\"svnrev\">\r\n                rev 2014.4.24.1565\r\n            </div>\r\n            \r\n        </div>\r\n    </div>\r\n    <noscript>\r\n        <div id=\"noscript-warning\">Musical Practice &amp; Performance Stack Exchange works best with JavaScript enabled<img src=\"http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-c1rF4kxgLUzNc.gif\" a"], "copyright__copyright__copyright": ["such an issue with humbuckers, since their two coils are wired in such a way as to cancel much (though not, actually, all) of the 60-cycle hum. But single-coil pickups often have a lot of hum, even when well-shielded, while active pickups typically have very little.\n\nshare|improve this answer\nadd comment\n\nYour Answer\n\n\u00a0\ndiscard\n\nBy posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.\n\nNot the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question."]}