The advantage of an active pickup is that of noise reduction and a flatter frequency respose. This is very desirable if you use a lot of electronics in your audio chain, especially if you are using high gain. Active pickups have an internal preamplifer which gives the a signal a nice clean boost, across the whole frequency spectrum.
I play blues, rock, and country. I use a Digitec RP500 as my main pedal, and I must say that the EMGs perform very well for all those styles.
Pickups in general have tonal quality, sometimes this is by design and sometimes by accident (such as Gibson 59PAFs). This can be a good thing, if you are looking for a certain kind of sound. So in the end, its all about what your needs are, and what kind of sound you are after.
Izzy
