Does anyone run active pups into an active onboard preamp?

[Sammybass]

Hello! 
I’ve had plenty of basses with passive pups running into an active preamp (eg. Stingray) but are there any benefits/ downsides of say, running active EMG’s into an active 3band pre? 
 

Thanks!

Sammy

[Doctor J]

No downsides at all. I have active EMGs, active Ibanez, active MECs, active Levinsons, active Alembic and active Barts going into different onboard preamps. It's all good once the preamp is designed to handle active pickups. The only thing to be cautious of is some active pickups have a higher output so you don't want to boost the crap out of everything to stupid levels where you introduce clipping.

Edited April 14, 2022 by Doctor J

[Chienmortbb]

Firstly let me say that there are no active, magnetic pickups. If we look at say EMGs, they are (or were) low impedance pickups that had a pre-amp or booster encapsulated within the pickup housing. This kept the noise down as high impedance pickups can be noisy due due to their higher output. It had some advantages and some disadvantages. In the early days, putting some of the electronics on the pickup meant a smaller control cavity and lower noise However as components have become smaller  and we understood how to shield and wire more effectively these advantages have all but dissipated. It also meant that each pickup needed at least 3 wires instead of the two on a passive single coil pickup.

Low impedance coilshave a lower resonant peak that is often outside the range of the instrument meaning a more balanced output.

 

These advantages of "active" pickups were, in my opinion, fewer on bass than on guitar so you will here less difference between them.

[crazycloud]

On 15/04/2022 at 02:43, Doctor J said:

active Alembic

Which Alembic pickups are active?

[Boodang]

Active EMGs into active preamp = no problems. My experience of active EMGs is that they have a much wider frequency response than passive pickups (less coil windings = greater frequency response), with the consequence that I end up using more EQ to tailor the sound than I would with passive pups, especially the top end (unless of course you like that wide open sound). There's a good jazz pickup comparison video on youtube where they go through about a dozen different pickup manufacturers (Bartolini, Dimarzio etc) and the EMG's come out really trebly.

[fleabag]

On 28/05/2022 at 09:29, crazycloud said:

Which Alembic pickups are active?

 

I have never seen ' active ' Barts either. Or MECs

[Bagman]

10 hours ago, fleabag said:

 

I have never seen ' active ' Barts either. Or MECs

I have 3 Basses with Bartolini Pick ups, all are Passive with an active pre-amp

 

 

[fleabag]

Most pickups are passive.

[Woodinblack]

Yes, the spector is active into active. The benifits are that you get the sound of the pickups you like with the sound of the pre-amp you like, no more than that. It has to be said that although the spector is new, the amount it cuts through, especially on the high end is quite striking. I don't know what this benefit is down to, but it is certainly noticeable.