"Active" vs "Passive" Pickups

[slooky]

I purchased a passive pickup today and I was wondering about using the tc electronic Bodyrez or boss AD-2. Would either of these pedals give me a rise in volume?

[RockerDuck]

All the Body rez and AD-2 do is utilize compression, Eq the Midrange, increase the impedence, and give a level/blend knob. I've owned both and both are good for strumming, but removes presence. Lots of other pedals are better, including the Fishman platinum pro, LL baggs Venue, para DI, and Radial pedals. These cost more and are worth it to shape your tone yourself. I chose the Platinum Pro because it includes compression and has an effects loop.

[Herb Hunter]

I would use a pedal intended for acoustic guitars like the one linked below. Compressing the pickup’s signal would make the guitar sound more like an electric guitar.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...c-preamp-pedal

[Mrgator1952]

After getting fed up with the aggravation caused by the 9v battery in my Seagull Coastline (short life, popping noises when losing power and a totally annoying replacement procedure) I am considering having the whole thing replaced by a K&K Mini (which I have and really like) in my Seagull SWS Maritime. Any experiences or thoughts appreciated. Thanks in advance-
MrG

[keithb7]

I am quite happy with the LR Baggs M1 active. It uses a tiny flat CR2032 battery. Good for about a year they estimate. Works great for me with the Empress Parametric EQ pedal.

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by philjs

If you gig extensively then the batteries in most active pickups are a real pain in the butt. ..

Something to keep in mind for sure. Fortunately for me all my guitars, including my Martins, have easily accessible battery doors that are part of or near the endpin jack. Same for the Taylors I've seen.

[aschroeder]

I much prefer passive pickups to keep batteries and excessive wires out of my guitars. It does require (in most cases) an external preamp. But I run my active pickup through a preamp for tone shaping, so I use one either way.

If you want an easy plug and play pickup, you'll most likely want to go with and active piezo pickup. But it is another battery to worry about going dead in the middle of a live gig. If you're okay with external preamp pedals, the passive option is much less invasive to a guitar.

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Piezo pickup elements, which includes everything from undersaddle pickups like the Baggs Element or the Fishman Matrix, and most SBTs such as K&Ks, Trance, etc all need to go into a high impedance. That's the *raw* pickup element - they're inherently high impedance. But with an active system, the manufacturer adds an onboard preamp that provides that expected high impedance input for the raw pickup, so the pickup element itself is "happy" :-).

The impact of impedance on a raw pickup element can be substantial, depending on many factors. But in active systems, you are buffered from that impact by the onboard preamp. Many active systems can be plugged into at least relatively lower input impedances, tho most acoustic amps and preamps offer 1M or more, so it's kind of a moot point. There are some systems, such as Taylor's balanced ES1 system, or Trance's Amulet M Phantom, specifically designed to go into a very low input impedance, like a mixer's mic input. So you sort of have to understand the specific system to know for sure. But it's reasonable to just always plug any guitar into a high impedance input, and good signal hygiene is to use a DI when plugging directly into any mixer.

BTW, AGF seems to talk about passive pickups a bit disproportionately. They're pretty rare in the grand scheme of things. I don't know of a manufacturer who ships a built-in system that is passive, for example. Probably 99% of pickups out there are active (wild guess, but it's "most" for sure). It's only among those of us who install after-market pickups (rare) that passive even comes up. There are only a handful of passive acoustic pickups. Most people don't have to worry about impedance matching, etc, etc, because the manufacturer has already dealt with the issue.

Doug knows from which he speaks.
I’m using a K&K in my J45 and generally going into a Bose S1. If I don’t run it through my Fire-eye pre amp, it sounds like trash. My J15 has an active Baggs Element system and it’s fine without it.

[BlueStarfish]

Warning, zombie thread! Looks like this discussion started in 2018.

Mr Gator, I’ll not comment on UST vs. SBT style pickups — plenty has already been said on the forum about that, you can ready the history. But regardless of the style of pickup you decide on, I wanted to point out (if you aren’t already aware) that you can use rechargeable 9V batteries with your existing pickup. This has the advantage that you can recharge the batteries (or, just swap in a freshly charged one) at every single string change, when you already have the strings off the guitar anyways. Assuming you are changing your strings on some reasonable cycle of at least a couple of times a year, this means that you’re pretty much guaranteed to have a battery that is adequately charged at all times. You’ll never again have to deal with a battery going dead at an inconvenient time. Maybe this will allow you to make peace with your existing pickup. And if you do decide to swap it out, it could give you more comfort with considering other active 9V systems such as the Baggs Anthem, Fishman Matrix Blend, Seymour-Duncan MagMic, etc.

Hope you find an approach that works for you, and happy picking!