Passive and Active Pickups in the same guitar

I have heard that you can have an Active and Passive pickup in the same guitar, but it takes more work and the pickups cannot be wired to the same volume pots due to the fact that an Active takes 3 times as much power as a passive, but I have also heard that it isn't possible, so tell me, is it possible, and if so, how much work would have to go into making it happen.

Of course it's possible... Like you said you'd need seperate volume and tone pots for each... Since generally a passive humbucker uses a 500k pot and an active pickup generally uses a 25k pot.... A passive single coil pickups generally uses a 250k pot.... You would need to install a stereo output jack. Most passive guitars use mono jacks... Beyond that you'd just have to have the wiring diagrammed.... It would be an impractical application but it could work... It depends on what kind of guitar you're looking at putting the pickups in... It's almost not worth ruining an expensive gutiar with an active pickup.... and not worth the trouble spending the cash on a lesser value guitar... but it's all about what you want. It can be done though. You'll just have a whole hell of a lot of wires along with a 9v battery.... I can't imagine that any tech would be thrilled to open up a guitar and find the schematic... haha

ha well its my bc rich platinum, and i know a guy who put one in his Bronze series which those go for 150$ a piece, my bc rich cost me about 400$ and I know a lot of guys who have turned these cheap ass guitars (Dime's original Dean From Hell) into these bad ass guitars with hotpickups and floyd roses and stuff, but I only plan to change the pickup.

It is indeed possible, but as Aschleman said, rather compicated and usually not worth the trouble. Why not just use a really hot passive pickup? or replace both pickups? I hear the Seymour Duncan Livewire active pickup set is pretty good...although I'm a passive pickup man myself...look into it, it can be done, even email the companies whose pickups you intend to purchase and ack them for wiring advice and such, I've found they're usually very happy to help.
Lastly, I would say, dont try and wire it yourself, this will be a rather tricky pickup circuit and will probably even take a good tech a while to perfect.

Honestly.... if you're even thinking about active pickups... you might as well just put a set of active pickups in it... A BC Rich isn't exactly a guitar that is engineered to get "tone"... It's a metal guitar built for a killer look and for killer distortion... So it would actually fit the guitar more... I can't imagine a BC Rich guitar with anything besides high output pickups in it... A Zakk Wylde 81/85 set should be what you're after... and it comes with all the pots and everything that you need for installation.... I would never put active pickups in a high end Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, or PRS though... A BC Rich though, would be a perfect fit for active pickups.

see now the livewire im talking about though, only comes in ONE position, the bridge, there is no neck pickup . The Dave Mustaine Livewire is a set, but the one im looking into, is nothing but one pickup for the bridge

Personally, a guitar with one pickup would be as worthless to me as a guitar with no strings... I coudn't image my tone being restricted to a a bridge pickup...... I only use my bridge pickup in my strat when I need that seering lead tone... Any other time I'm usually using the middle/bridge... the middle... or the neck. I like smooth tones but I like the verstaility of the single coils to get a tone a variety in my tones... I would shoot myself if I had a guitar with only one pickup...

If you're looking for a high output pickup to put in the bridge.. just grab a Dimebucker from Seymour Duncan... it's got a ceramic magnet and it's almost as hot as any other active pickup. You won't need to alter anything it's pretty much a direct replacement pickup for any guitar that already has passive pickups.... If you have your heart set on a "livewire" then go for it... But i gaurantee that the tone isn't going to be much different from any other high output pickup... Once you start getting into active and high output pickups the tones are pretty similar because the thresholds of "tone" have already been crossed... Normally you're going to get a harsh tone either way.... which compromises the clean tone... But whatever works for you.

AHA after doing some research, I have found that these do come in a set, its weird because they weren't there before, or I just never found them, so forget the passive/active thing, I have found a set and Im gonna buy the set, thanks guys, you helped me outta a rut.
joe

good luck man, hope it gives you what you want out of your guitar.