Which effects for use with active pickups?

[funkysam]

Hi all!

I was just about to build a germanium fuzz but I've read that those won't sound good with active PU's.
Hence my question, which fuzz to build? Will Gagan hybrid Si/Ge fuzzes work good?

More generally speaking, how do active pickups interact with analog effects?
I think I can use other effects than germ fuzzes without hassles?
I was thinking about a FET booster (the one at tonepad, don't remember the name), but there may be some problems too... (as I've read on this forum).

Any active pickup user here that can help me?

Thaks,
Sam.

[petemoore]

Hi all!

I was just about to build a germanium fuzz but I've read that those won't sound good with active PU's.
Hence my question, which fuzz to build? Will Gagan hybrid Si/Ge fuzzes work good?

More generally speaking, how do active pickups interact with analog effects?
 >>>Active pickup is LIKE an effect or IS one...boosts / alters impedance / and probably has a 'voiceing'.
 >>>I think I can use other effects than germ fuzzes without hassles?..Try something like A DIST +, TS, [opamp clippers[ or more of a linear transistor design like Blackfire or Big Muff...one trick that may work...turn the volume down on the guitar. The output of your guitars amp [active uses OA or other amp] probably is hotter than many inputs would like to see.
 >>>I bought and installed an Active Pickup in a LP , played for a about 1/2 hour, took it back. It was blasterloading the inputs of my 3203 MArshall Artist [Chuck Norris eat your heart out], the amp said "GAACHK"
 I was thinking about a FET booster (the one at tonepad, don't remember the name), but there may be some problems too... (as I've read on this forum).
 >>>I think you won't be needing any more boost than what that amp in your guitar is putting out !!!

Any active pickup user here that can help me?
 I'm not an active User...I quit a few years back...lol !!!
Thaks,
Sam.

[bluesdevil]

I hear you brother, I hear ya. I'm going through the same thing. I've been using EMG's in my ol' Les Paul for 15 years and just now realized those pickups are a bit too strong for some of these pedals I'm starting to build here. Backing off the volume about halfway works, but also there are a couple of other electronic things you can do to trick the pedal you are running into.  Use a install 50k linear pot at your input to use as a "bias" control on the pedal (s). Also using an audio tranformer at the beginning of circuit like Mouser #42TM018 or #42TM019 (Small Bear carries 'em also) has reported to work. Right now, I'm just using my volume knob to bias, but I am thinking of just building a couple of passive boxes with the tranformer in it to patch where I need the job done in my effect boxes chain.
      Hope that helped a bit.

[KORGULL]

The Hornet (Si/Ge hybrid) I just built sounds great with my EMG 81 active pickups.
I think it sounds way better with the EMG's than with my guitar that has  passive pickups.

[bwanasonic]

I don't use active pickups, but buffered pedals like the Tube Screamer, Boss SD-1, DS-1, etc. should work. A lot more complicated build than a Ge Fuzz, but...


Kerry M

[Mark Hammer]

Active pickups are simply pickups with a preamp.  No more, no less.  The preamp brings the level of underwound pickups up a bit.  The pickups are underwound to reduce hum and retain bandwidth.  This has two effects.  One is that they will have a bit more high end than some other pickups (though not always).  The other is that they will be hotter.

The impact on pedals is that they will all "work" but will work the same way they would if you fed them a hotter signal that was treble-boosted.  Certainly ANY distortion will distort harder when pushed, but subtler grind will be harder to get unless the guitar is turned down a bit or the gain in the distortion pedal is dropped a bit OR the clipping threshold is raised.  Some distortion devices will want a "rounder" signal with some treble-shaving in front, while others will happily do the treble-shaving themselves.

Pedals that are varieties of "tracking" devices, like compressors, noise gates, and envelope-controlled  filters are designed in anticipation of a certain range of input levels.  If you leave the guitar full tilt, you'll generally have to keep the sensitivity on the pedal down.

Phasers MAY be a problem.  FETs found in some phasers are not too tolerant of high signal levels, but my hunch is that unless you're feeding your guirtar into a hot gain pedal and diming that before feeding it to a phaser, you'll probably not have too many problems.

I will end by noting that I have had one of my guitars with a preamp for over 20 years and like it a lot.  Does a nice job of pushing the amp.  When I built myself a TS-808 clone I found there was none of the "magic" that many love.  Just hated the pedal.  When I picked up another guitar eventually that had "normal" pickups without any boost, all of a sudden the TS started producing desirable sounds.  The lesson, for softer grind from some pedals, guitar output can make a big difference.  Not insurmountable, though.

[petemoore]

I'm curious what pre-amp you used in your guitar for that time Mark.

[funkysam]

Thanks all for your answers,especially Mark for his very complete end understandable answer.
I should get my guitar with active PU soon, so I'll try it with my Voodoo lab overdrive and with my homemade TS, and compare the results with my passive strat.

Thanks Korgull for suggesting the hornet, I'll try it.

I know the inductor trick, maybe I'll try it too, but I prefer avoiding such things and build a stock circuit that works good, but if there's no choice...