Satyagraha
Group: Musicians
Posts: 103
Joined: June 2003 |
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Posted: June 04 2004, 06:14 |
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| Quote | | Most guitarists tend to prefer the warmer, less defined sound of passive pickups, whereas active pickups are quite popular amongst bassists for their clear, hifi sound. |
Exactly so. In my opinion, tradiotional active guitar pickups just won't give you that midrangey, British rock sound, no matter how much you tweak and boost and cut. They won't growl, they're always to refined. But for massive metal distortion and heavily modulated clean sounds, they're the best, because they still cut through and stay dead silent.
However, some active pickups, like the EMG SV line, are modelled to mimic the sound and response of traditional Stratocaster single-coils (without all the noise and hum, of course). I haven't tried them, but in theory, you'll get the best of both worlds with these, just boost the mids and bass for traditional active sounds.
By the way, the bassist in my band has an expensive Yamaha active bass. Some weeks ago, we recorded four songs in a high-end studio. He ended up using the in-house Fender Jazz bass on the rockier songs, and it just worked so much better. The upper midrange growl and graininess of the passive bass pickups somehow sat much better in the mix.
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Byrði betri berrat maðr brautu at en sé mannvit mikit
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