Hi! So whats a..

[Suislide]

a) Hi-gain amp?
b) active pickup?

 

[wayne1991]

hi-gain amp means an amp that can reach high distortion,
active pickups means pickups that needs to use batterys,(most probably 9v)

hope im correct and hope this helps

 

[Suislide]

Thanks Wayne!
another question: for the active pickup, if the 9V battery isn't there, would the pickups still work? would there be a sound signal still present?

Thanks in advance for any replies

 

[wayne1991]

Active pickups require an electrical source of energy to operate and include an electronic preamp, active filters, active EQ and other sound-shaping features. They can sometimes give much higher possible output. They also are less affected in tone by varying lengths of amplifier lead, and amplifier input characteristics. Magnetic pickups used with 'active' circuitry usually feature a lower inductance (and initially lower output) winding that tends to give a flatter frequency response curve.

The disadvantages of active pickups are the power source (usually either a battery or phantom power), cost, and less defined unique tonal signature. They are more popular on bass guitars, because of their solid tone; most high-end bass guitars feature an active pickup. Most piezoelectric and all optical pickups are active and include some sort of preamp.

The main advantages of active pickups are that they are hum and noise free, at least compared to their passive single coil counterparts, as they require no ground wiring to connect to ground, which also may isolate the player from being electrocuted, should the wiring elsewhere, in other equipment such as a guitar amp, have become hazardous in any way.

well, i havent owned a guitar with active pickup before, but i dont think it would work without a battery..

 

[theunknown]

heh i tot active pickups are those with high output. so i was partly wrong....

 

[DIstortIoner]

Sorry for hikjackin thread.i really wonder how u put the batt inside ur active pickups?Can anyone enlighten me?

 

[fgl]

Active pick ups e.g emg need a 9V batteryto run. Normallythe battery wire from all 3 or 2 pups (depending on your config) with be linked toa a single 9V battery in the guitar cavity area. Active pups usually utilize 25K pots.

Active could also mean using normal normal passive pups with active controls e.g my old EC model with the mid range boost, EMG afterburner boost or my fav SPC tone boost where only the circuitary is active and not the entire pick up. Norm pups use 250K, 500K pots in general.

I like combining the best of both worlds. In my current on going strat project I'm having passive pups with active SPC tone controls. Best of both worlds really ..