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Wednesday

Post subject: Active pickups

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:26 pm

Mahogany

Joined: Sun May 08, 2011 10:24 am
Posts: 57
Location: Israel
First name: Hillel
Last Name: Levy
City: Rehovot
Country: Israel
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

For my first build I'm making a mahogany neck through, hardtail, HH, maple top guitar.
Pictures will be uploaded as soon as there's something worth seing.
I'm looking for a warm and fat tone.
I thought about using active pickups, maybe some EMG's.
Problem is, I want to use coil tap to split the humbuckers and as far as I know the EMG humbuckers can't be split since they are prewired in series and have only the live and ground wires bare.
1. Does anyone have suggestions for other active pickup brands/models?
2. Is it possible, and hopefully simple enough, to split EMG's?

Hillel

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Chris Pile

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:45 pm

Contributing Member

Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:04 am
Posts: 5825
First name: Chris
Last Name: Pile
City: Wichita
State: Kansas
Country: Good old US of A
Focus: Repair
Status: Professional

EMG's cannot be split as far as I know.

Further to that, you mentioned wanting a warm, fat tone. To my ears, EMG's don't deliver that with their humbucking guitar pickups.

Just my opinion, but you can't go wrong with Duncan JB's. It's my understanding they are the most popular-selling pickup in history. Of course, there are tons of choice pickups available, and everyone has their own ideas.

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HaMMerHeD

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:56 pm

Cocobolo

Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:22 pm
Posts: 116
First name: Mark
Last Name: Warner
City: Norman
State: OK
Country: USA
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

The EMG 81TW, 89, and 89R are tappable. They actually contain 3 coils each. In one mode, they act like a standard dual-coil humbucker. In the other, they operate as a stacked humbucker, which gives you the single-coil sound by also eliminates hum. They also come with volume and tone controls, as well as a battery clip and output jack. The volume control is a push/pull switch for changing modes.

Link.

From my experience with their dual-mode bass pickups, I can say that their dual-mode humbuckers have a different sound than most EMGs. It is decidedly warmer.

That said, Bare Knuckle Pickups makes some amazing pickups. And they have audio samples on their site.

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alan stassforth

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 9:04 pm

Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Sat May 22, 2010 10:32 am
Posts: 2616
First name: alan
Last Name: stassforth
City: Santa Rosa
State: ca
Zip/Postal Code: 95404
Country: usa
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

My last build has 2 EMG H4 pups in it,
passive. My "go to" electric.
Many tonal possibilities.
I use a Baggs DI box with them recently,
and so they are kind of active.
My understanding is the active pups are more in your face,
and the passive ones favor mids,
which is what I favor.

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Jim_H

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:36 pm

Koa

Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:41 pm
Posts: 708
Location: Bothell, WA USA
First name: Jim
Last Name: Hansen
Country: USA
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

I have a set of EMG DG20's in a red "Gilmourish" strat clone. I love them, but they seem to go through batteries much faster than they should.

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Wednesday

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 4:49 pm

Mahogany

Joined: Sun May 08, 2011 10:24 am
Posts: 57
Location: Israel
First name: Hillel
Last Name: Levy
City: Rehovot
Country: Israel
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

From my experience and judging by the samples on the EMG site they are too much in your face for me.
Same goes for the 81/89's even though they are played on a very punchy looking guitar which makes it hard to imagine how they would sound on my build.
Thing is, the luthier I'm working with says since there is a lot of "involvement of the wood" in my plan, it might need some compensating pickups. Something that will give some fullness to the sound. But i can't seem to find active pickups that don't sound too sharp to me.

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B. Howard

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 6:19 pm

Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:06 pm
Posts: 2739
Location: Magnolia DE
First name: Brian
Last Name: Howard
City: Magnolia
State: Delaware
Zip/Postal Code: 19962
Country: United States
Focus: Repair
Status: Professional

Never liked active electronics myself, always seemed to go out at the worst possible time. IMHO it would be a wiser to invest that money in some front end signal processing to really get the tone you crave. Warm & fat? sounds like a PAF to me. As for brand, I've always liked Dimarzio's myself, though SD makes some sweet sounding P-ups as well. Dimarzio has a P-up selector on their site that may help you out. http://www.dimarzio.com/pickup-picker. Seymore-Duncan has something similar http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/tone-wizard/

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

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Wednesday

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 1:51 am

Mahogany

Joined: Sun May 08, 2011 10:24 am
Posts: 57
Location: Israel
First name: Hillel
Last Name: Levy
City: Rehovot
Country: Israel
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

Anyone have any experience with Batolini guitar pickup or active circuits ?
Their website is a mess and has no sound clips or contact information.

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HaMMerHeD

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 6:31 pm

Cocobolo

Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:22 pm
Posts: 116
First name: Mark
Last Name: Warner
City: Norman
State: OK
Country: USA
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

Wednesday wrote:

Anyone have any experience with Batolini guitar pickup or active circuits ?
Their website is a mess and has no sound clips or contact information.

I have experience with their bass pickups, though not active. In general, Bartolini pickups are...polite. They don't tend to bark, scream or honk. Like any pickup, they can be made to do so, but that's not what they're for. In your original post, you said you are looking for a warm and fat tone...I think that is pretty much Bartolini's bread and butter. When bassists look for warmth and a smooth and mellow tone, they tend to look at Bartolini.

The good folks at Best Bass Gear sell them (here: http://www.bestbassgear.com/bartolini-g ... ickups.htm) and they are very knowledgable and helpful people.

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Wednesday

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 7:48 pm

Mahogany

Joined: Sun May 08, 2011 10:24 am
Posts: 57
Location: Israel
First name: Hillel
Last Name: Levy
City: Rehovot
Country: Israel
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

HaMMerHeD wrote:

Wednesday wrote:

Anyone have any experience with Batolini guitar pickup or active circuits ?
Their website is a mess and has no sound clips or contact information.

I have experience with their bass pickups, though not active. In general, Bartolini pickups are...polite. They don't tend to bark, scream or honk. Like any pickup, they can be made to do so, but that's not what they're for. In your original post, you said you are looking for a warm and fat tone...I think that is pretty much Bartolini's bread and butter. When bassists look for warmth and a smooth and mellow tone, they tend to look at Bartolini.

<span>The good folks at Best Bass Gear sell them (here: <a href="http://www.bestbassgear.com/bartolini-guitar-pickups.htm" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://www.bestbassgear.com/bartolini-guitar-pickups.htm</a>) and they are very knowledgable and helpful people.</span>

Thanks a lot.
I sent a mail to their customer support.
I think Bartolinis guitar pickups or passive but I know they have active preamp circuits so I might use that.

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Wednesday

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 9:26 am

Mahogany

Joined: Sun May 08, 2011 10:24 am
Posts: 57
Location: Israel
First name: Hillel
Last Name: Levy
City: Rehovot
Country: Israel
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

Filippo Morelli wrote:

I just had a guitar come in day before yesterday for this setup. Put an EMG 85 and 89 in an Ibanez Iceman. The 89 is coil tapped. When you put them together make sure you get the orientation of the plug correct on the back of the pickups. It will plug either way. Instructions mention nothing about this.

Filippo

Thanks Filippo but their sound is to sharp for me.
Don't think I'll be using EMGs.

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HaMMerHeD

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 10:19 am

Cocobolo

Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:22 pm
Posts: 116
First name: Mark
Last Name: Warner
City: Norman
State: OK
Country: USA
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

Wednesday wrote:

Thanks a lot.
I sent a mail to their customer support.
I think Bartolinis guitar pickups or passive but I know they have active preamp circuits so I might use that.

Sure thing. I also enjoy the fact that the model and serial number information on my Bartolini pickups are written by hand....no bar-code or other computer generated label. I'm not sure what kind of volume Mr. Bartolini does, but its definitely not as big a shop as EMG, DiMarzio, Duncan, et al.

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Wednesday

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 1:37 pm

Mahogany

Joined: Sun May 08, 2011 10:24 am
Posts: 57
Location: Israel
First name: Hillel
Last Name: Levy
City: Rehovot
Country: Israel
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur

After a very long struggle I have decided I'm not going for active pickups.
Anyone have some experience with bare knuckles ? Looking into "The Mule" humbuckers.
Another thought is Doug Aldrich signatures by Suhr.
Any input on them or other suggestions will be strongly appreciated.

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alan stassforth

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 11:08 pm

Brazilian Rosewood

Depends on what kind of music the guitar is intended for.

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Mattia Valente

Post subject: Re: Active pickups

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:26 am

Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2005 6:25 pm
Posts: 2749
Location: Netherlands

Warm and Fat and EMG are not things I associate with each other. I've got EMGs in a guitar, and I don't dislike them, but I think 'accurate' or 'precise' are the better adjectives to use.

A lot of folks I know really, really love Bareknuckle's stuff - they're also pretty responsive in general, maybe drop them an e-mail and ask for a little advice from the guys making the product.

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