Once you go active, you never go back


Izzy Phoreal
Full Access
Joined: 10/11/14
Posts: 18
Izzy Phoreal
Full Access
Joined: 10/11/14
Posts: 18
04/25/2019 2:43 pm

Disclaimer: I am not in any way shape or form affilitated EMG, nor am I being paid to promote them.

That being said, I am a big fan of some of their models. Ok, I can hear the moans and grunts of the passive pickup church followers... BLASPHEMY! they say.

Before you get your panties tied im a knot, here is a brief explanation of pickups.

A pickup in its simplest form is several turns of fine copper wire wrapped around a metal or plastic core, which usually has one or more permanent magnets attached to it.

When a string vibrates, it induces an alternating electric current in the wire windings. This current is an electrical analogy of the sound the string is making, which is commonly called a signal. The wire guage, the amount of turns, the placement of the magnets, the quality of the magnets, all play a role in shaping the tone the pickup produces.

Since this signal is very weak, several stages of amplification are needed to make it loud enough for any practical use. The problem with that, is that pickups not only pickup up the guitar strings, but also any strong electrical noise in the environment. Dimmers, lights, electrical motors, you name it, all cause some unwanted noise.

By putting two coils together in opposite phase, the same noise is induced in both pickups, but 180 degrees out of phase, so they cancel each other out. There is a small tone sacrifice there, but it's a tradeoff most can live with. And as a bonus, two coils together give you a higher output. A pickyp with a higher output will drive the amplifier's preamp a lot harder, driving it into distortion a lot sooner than a single coil would.

But no matter what you do, the signal still has travel through your guitar's wiring, through your cable and finally to your amp. If part of the ampllification is done at the source, you end up having a lot more signal than noise (signal to noise ratio).

EMG and other active pickup manufacturers have done just that, thus producing virtually noisless devices. I know purists that cringe when they hear the word active, and even more when they hear EMG.

The is mainly due to heavy metal guys adopting them. Slayer, Metallica, Panthera to name a few. Ok, so the 81/85 combo is standard metal fare. But to give credit where credit is due, there are other models which have a utility for all genres.

Years ago, I installed the SA/SA/89 set in my Stratocaster. This guitar sounds like a strat, it never lost any of its soul. The single coils perform better than the originals, and they are super quiet. The 89 is a split coil humbucker, which makes the guitar sing.

Just the variation of tone makes a huge difference, from the neck to the bridge and all the combinations in between. I'm mostly a blues player, and its easy to get that sweet spot where you are just on the edge of the amp breaking up. Listen to Blue Jeans Blues by ZZ Top, that's what I'm talking about.

I recently bought an American Special strat, with Texas Special pickups. What a great guitar for some SRV tunes I thought. Wrong! Too noisy for my liking. So I ordered another EMG set...

In the end, it all comes down to what you like. No gear is the best, or the worst. Its all about what works for you.

Keep on pickin'

Izzy


# 1

Please register with a free account to post on the forum.