What’s the deal with passive pickups?

[JackB1]

Yesterday i tried a Yamaha LS16 at a local GC and LOVED it. Couldn’t believe the full sound coming out of that concert body size. But I am concerned about the “passive “ pickup system. No volume/tone knobs. You just plug in. Why is this system used? Would this be a bad choice if you play a lot of open mics where you plug straight into the board? Would I need to buy a foot pedal preamp? Are there any advantages to this type of passive pickup system? Are these guitars meant to be plugged into amps?

[fitness1]

Just because there are no volume or tone knobs doesn't mean it's passive, there could be internal, even jack mounted preamps that boost the signal.

I'm not familiar with what pickups Yamaha uses, but I'd be surprised if it's truly passive.

Well, I stand corrected (just googled this) - the SRT Zero Impact (if that's what the guitar you played has) IS a passive system and would require an outboard preamp for best results.

In my world, that's a good thing - I don't want any excessive cables, harnesses, batteries etc inside my instrument. That's why I use K&K exclusively (well, that and because they sound great!)

[RedJoker]

Originally Posted by JackB1

Yesterday i tried a Yamaha LS16 at a local GC and LOVED it. Couldn’t believe the full sound coming out of that concert body size. But I am concerned about the “passive “ pickup system. No volume/tone knobs. You just plug in. Why is this system used? Would this be a bad choice if you play a lot of open mics where you plug straight into the board? Would I need to buy a foot pedal preamp? Are there any advantages to this type of passive pickup system? Are these guitars meant to be plugged into amps?

I don't know about that particular pickup but I've done open mics with and without a foot pedal preamp and my passive JJB equipped Yamaha. I liked having the foot preamp as it gave me more control but plugging straight it worked too.

I chose to put a passive system in my Yamaha so I could keep the electronics outside the guitar. I have a 90's vintage Martin with an active system but when it dies, I either have to find an active system that fits the same size hole or close it up, or something else. That would not be an issue with a passive system. Passive makes it very easy for the electronics to be upgraded.

I'm having a new guitar built and it will also have a passive pickup with external electronics. Knowing how I use those knobs during performances, I'll likely go with a belt clip preamp for that one.

That's my perspective, anyway.

[Tnfiddler]

I have two ES system Taylors, 1 with a Fishman Matrix Infinity and 1 with a K&K. While I like the pure tone the K&K gives, I don't like not having onboard controls and having to use a preamp if you're playing in a band situation. I'm probably going to pull the K&K out and put an Anthem in it. Even with a feedback buster in the soundhole, I had problems with feedback when playing in our loud country band, so that guitar has been relegated to church or playing by myself, even though it's a great sounding guitar. I know there are tons who swear by the K&K or passive pickups, but I'm not a fan.

[Goat Mick]

I play over 150 live shows per year and all of my guitars are equipped with passive pickups. I use JJB Prestige 330 pickups in all my guitars except for my J-45 which has a K&K. I have never had a problem at any performance with my setup regardless of whether I was plugging into my system or if I was at the hands of a sound guy. They're clean, they work and you never have a bad battery with a passive system. Sometimes I'll use my Baggs Para-DI but most of the time I plug straight into the sound system.

[PorkPieGuy]

Advantage to passive pickups?

No batteries.

My guitar goes LONG stretches without being played or plugged in, but with my K&K mini, I know there's going to be a sound whenever it is plugged in. If I played out alot, I would have a volume pedal.

[Thom PC]

I have done an open mic type performance with a Yamaha LS6 that is very similar to the LS16 (same passive pickup system, but with laminated back and sides). I feeded the signal into a venue provided DI box - everything worked very well (technically, that is - I got confused and messed up a chord change so I had to start over with one of the songs).

Could be that this works best on a relatively quiet stage (singer/songwriter type stuff) - I couldn't say whether a full band might introduce feedback issues and what not.

[Athens]

Originally Posted by PorkPieGuy

Advantage to passive pickups?

No batteries.

My guitar goes LONG stretches without being played or plugged in, but with my K&K mini, I know there's going to be a sound whenever it is plugged in. If I played out alot, I would have a volume pedal.

Exactly........!

[Misifus]

When you play those open mics, you don’t have controls on your mic. You depend o the sound guy to get your voice right. Works the same for guitar, too. I seen players struggling to battle the sound man. Give him a good signal to work with and let him do his job. I only have controls on one of my instruments, the cheapest, and it came with them, I wouldn’t have paid to have knobs to twiddle.

[Perchman]

One extra mic cable and a Red Eye Fire Eye is not prohibitively cumbersome or complicated. I have JJB Prestige 330 on my D55 and that’s how I make it work.

[ripdotcom]

sounds like a volume pedal would fix this and more

[ripdotcom]

And I love the idea of a mic instead but if you cant get the soundguy at a church to let you use one, you will never get bruce at the 3:00am dive to do it either. "Guess you are gonna have to plug in for the next Larry Clinton/Bea Wain song" he said.

[1Charlie]

I host an open mic, and people come in with all manner of guitars. equipped with all manner of pickups.

All of them work just fine. I just have to adjust the gain and volume on the mixer accordingly.

I am a big K&K fan. Simple, fairly inexpensive, and sounds great.

[vindibona1]

Don't sweat the passive pickup. Almost every electric guitar out there today has passive pickups. Having a passive pickup with no volume or tone controls is no big deal in itself. For my vintage guitars I run with a Seymour Duncan Woody XL pickup that I can just pop into any of my guitars when needed. No V/T. It does have adjustable pole pieces which is a nice feature for string balance. For the Woody I bought a L.R. Baggs GigPro preamp. It cost $100 but for someone who has no internal controls it is indispensable.

Now I also have two Taylors, one with ES1 and one with ES2 system. Even with the onboard controls, I find that when I get plugged into a "house system" (95% of the time) I need the extra control the GigPro provides. So while I bought it for the Woody I don't go out without it on my Taylors either. There are many preamps that are better (and more expensive), but bigger too. This one just clips on my guitar strap on on my music stand. It's got volume, gain, phase inversion (I think that's what the red button is) and 2 band EQ.

But before I bought the GigPro I went super cheap and actually built myself a volume control box with and Altoids box, a 500k pot and a resistor. It actually worked quite well but lacked tone control and volume boost. If you're handy you can buy a cheap Chinese preamp kit for around $10 and build your own control box (I rewired a bass guitar with one of these with 3 band EQ). So you have so many different inexpensive (and expensive) options.

[raysachs]

One other advantage (for some) is if you use a wireless system, all of them work with passive electronics, some of them don't work with active electronics. I'm a home player these days but I use an Xvive wireless system for convenience (one receiver and a transmitter for each of my three electrics). I had a Yamaha with a passive system and I'd just borrow one of the transmitters for it. Now my plug-in acoustic is an Emerald X20 and it has an active pickup, so I'm back to using a cable when I want to play it into my looper or otherwise amplify it.