Question on pickups.

[Rammstein2452]

Hello. I've got a question for all you guys. I have a nice guitar with pickups that i reall dont know to much about and im thinking about upgrading. I hear the EMG-81's are good but whats with the battery thing? could someone explain a little about pickups for me please. thanks http://www.guitarforums.com/gtubb/smile.gif

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RAMMSTEIN RULESSS!!!!!!

[jake sommers]

damn, you read my mind i was gonna post the same thing, i saw it on ebay and was like"why the hell does a pickup need a battery." something that makes it active or something, i really want to know also.

[trendkillah]

I'm not an expert, but i'll try to explain.

Active pickups in a way are built in pre-amps.
They have a higher output then passive pickups, they need more electric power for that, that's why there is a battery.(those pickups dont use alot of power, the batteries last for about 600 hours)

But that's not the only difference; passive pickups have AC (alternating current), while active pickups have DC (direct current). So it's not possible to make a passive pickup active by attaching a battery.

Also, if you install an active pickup in your guitar, you need to make some adjustments(changing pot-meters, output plug), especially when you don't make the whole wiring active.
It's best to let a tech work on it, cause if you don't know what you're doing, you could ruïn your new pickup.


Greetz, trendkillah

[Jon68]

In the beginning there were single-coils. . .
After Oersted demonstrated that an electric current affected a magnetic compass needle in 1820, Faraday concluded that a magnetic field should be able to produce a current. Faraday demonstrated this in 1831. Over the next century came generators, alternators and finally, someone (Rickenbacker maybe?) applied these principles to a guitar pickup.
A single-coil guitar pickup is just that; a spool of many turns of wire wrapped around a series of magnets. The string moving through the magnetic "field" produces a tiny electrical signal, which can be amplified and processed. Single-coil pickups produce a clear, ringing tone, but are susceptible to outside interference. Humbucking pickups use two coils of wire connected so that the noise will be cancelled or reduced. Humbucking pickups also produce a much stronger electrical signal, and a darker, less clear sound than single-coils.
Most guitars use only one or more pickups with "passive" components such as resistors, capacitors and inductors for tone and volume control.
Active pickup systems include a preamplifier circuit and tone shaping circuitry such as equalizers or even effect processors. The active system consists of transistor or operational amplifiers which require a battery for operation (just like your effects pedals). Active systems provide a much stronger signal to your amplifier and allow greater variation in pickup design and placement.

[This message has been edited by Jon68 (edited 10-12-2000).]