- - - Andrew Scott Man you gave half of you information to big mislead to other people !! You mix some of the right facts with some of myths and misunderstanding about pickups. Please *explore, investigate, examine, research* these theme much farter & deeper. And remake this videos. For example (mistakes): 1. magnetic field dosen`t suck sustain in any *considerable* level for human perception. 2. in classic PAF-designed pups baseplate *must* be non -magnetic material , instead case it will shunt and decrease M-field to the strings.
+The Bishop One Allan Holdsworth against whole physics ??? ---- I doubt !!! Even greatest guitarist in Universe can`t to challenge fundamental nature statute.
This is simply the finest, most intelligent, informative explanation I've ever seen on how pickups work. Thank you for doing this. It is extremely helpful to guitar players and helps take away a lot of the mystery, which is a good thing. I've been playing since the 80s and learned a lot of things about pickups and equipment the hard way. This really helps explain why pickups work as they do and produce the sorts of tones they do. Excellent.
after playing for decades, and meeting pickup reps at NAMM, this video actually explains the difference between pickup types that many people could not
This was THE video I have been looking for! Have been looking to get to know the inside and the build up of the guitar a lot better and the biggest hurdle was always "can I find a clear and comprehensive explanation of each different type of pickup?" Yes, did you answer with this video! I was impressed with how scientifically and thoroughly you approached this topic! You've helped me immensely! :D
+Arturo Sánchez Thanks for that Arturo. I am a fan of details and the science of things. I believe that just offering my opinions are not going to inform people about a topic.
You deserve it , this is probably the most accurately represented comparison and hence the best one no one shows the stats and neither does anyone open up a pickup for the viewers to understand WE love the hard work that u put in ur videos
I´ve seen many videos about pick-ups differences (most of them poorly explained) and this is by far the best, with the best explanation, EXACTLY what I needed to know... New Subscriber.
I never cared about the anatomy of a pickup as long as they sound good. I have wondered what makes a pickup high output vs not high output. Not until about 6 months ago did I begin looking into pickups. Great video that is easily understandable. Thank you for taking your time to put this together.
Genuinely a greatly informative video with none of the bull shit. Why is it so hard to get to the science behind this?! I understood every word. Your presentation style was thorough and really refreshing. Keep up the good work. I am subscribed and hungry.
Finally someone who knows what he is talking about - in contrast to those hundreds of amateurs whereof some even claim to be proffesionals. My compliments to your no b...s... approach to the subject - clean technical without being more technical than most non-technical poeple can follow. It suited your video that you didn't talk about how the coils are wound (differently) as you would have had to do impedance measurments on all the coils, compare the impedances and explain how that "play" with the loading impedances of a multitude of fx padals and amplifier input stages - thats a full 8 hour seminar for poeple with a sertain minimum of technical knowledge.
very very good presentation. I learned stuff from this and its not just opinion. You are setting the bar high with this. Hope to watch a lot more of your stuff.
The volume on the guitar amplifies a low voltage (passive) signal (your playing) after it has been sent (made). The Active signal (pushed by the 9 volt battery) add power to the signal before it's sent to volume. So, basically a stronger signal sent can allow for louder amplification.
I think that those fixed bridges might affect the sustain as well, I thought I would see pickup interchanging for consistency, different guitar means different character, but at that point, it may not affect the average voltage output. nice video. the content is way more complete than I expected.
The most informative video on pickup construction and performance I have ever seen. Would love you to take it still further, comparing the nuances of various active and passive pickups in even more detail- I suspect from the depth of information you have already shown you already have enough data drom your analysis to do this. Absolutely fascinating, thanks!
The difference in frequency response between alnico and ceramic magnets is down to alnico magnet adding to the inductance of the pickup. The greater the inductance, the lower the resort peak. Note however that whilst a ceramic magnet does not alter the inductance of a pickup, a single coil with iron pole pieces and a ceramic magnet will have a much greater inductance than one with alnico poles.
The movement of a metal type string within a magnetic field, will result in an emf/voltage at the terminals of the coil, which is wound around a magnet or magnets. Current flows in a coil when it’s terminals are connected to a load such as a volume pot for example (or e.g. into the input circuit of a pre-amp).
This guy is doing a good job to help you out there, to make a proper decision. He is maybe working for 10 to 20 hours on such a video. Evnb is it is not valuable for you. Why and who the hell is giving him a thumb down for his work. First do it better you haters.
Thanks for the video. One thing I never understood. An active pickup is basically a passive pickup with a built in pre-amp. So, why would it not be the same thing to just run a passive pickup through a pre-amp?
This is brilliant, and as much as I loved the wife analogy, if she sees this, you're in TROUBLE, hahaha! Great work - Subscribed on this one vid alone...
I whish this video was made a few years ago when I was looking for new pickups for my guitar (even though I ended up with a killer set regardless haha). I tried to do as much research as I could about the difference between passives and actives, but nothing I found was as comprehensive as this video. Very clear description of both how each type of pickup works and what their notable differences are soundwise (I haven't seen a side by side comparison in output between passives and actives for example). Overall: awesome video!
This is very well done and well explained. I'm taking a look at the other videos in the channel, hopefully you continue making more videos like this one!
Interesting video,. Just a quick point to note that of course most mixing desks like the one shown have a much lower input impedance 10 to 50 Kilo-ohms than a guitar amp which is usually around 1 Meg-ohm. This loading on the guitar by a low impedance input alters how pickups output. Active pickups which have a low impedance output will output the same level and tone to a 10k or IMegaohm input and tone to either.... BUT a passive pickup does not and will be greatly affected by the loading of the input stage it is feeding,( often loosing HF and definitely level for 10 to 150k). Most guitarists are familiar with this problem if they have experienced the tone sucking of original Waa Waa designs, where even on bypass the pedal didn't isolate the low impedance input of the Waa Circuit usually between 60k and 100k from the guiatr as a result tone sucking. The exact character of tone sucking that low impedance inputs experience on passive pickups of course varies with the output impedance of the pickup which is as you know dependent on the turns, wire gauge and DC resistance etc. Thanks for your work very interesting. I hope that people will find the subject of loading and its interrelationship with pickup design of interest. Any one of the Boss pedal range on bypass is an easy way round the necessity to feed a low 10k to 50 k impedance desk or interface input from a passive guitar taht prefers a higher impedance load. Left on bypass the Boss buffer stage is still in circuit, this presents around a 500 k or higher load to the guitar, but can easily feed onward to a 50k input without tone sucking. (Many other brands of pedals can achieve the same useful function if they are not "True Bypass".)
I was so disappointed by the simplicity of the active circuit. It's just a basic IC chipset amplifying the frequency and with SMD resistors and capacitors they change the respective frequencies to boost. That demystifies emgs completely! Thanks for explaining and pulling apart!
This is such an amazing video! Great great demonstration and explanation. I been attempting to see if there is a way to create my own Active pickup out of a passive.
Very cool.. I'm already subscribed, but I sent this to a friend who's always asking me pickup questions. I knew this stuff for the most part, but I learned why here too, so a great great video.. Thank you kind sir, and I'll check out your other vids and music.. Best Regards from the heartland (South Central State of Indiana. USA) Tim
Hearing was not the purpose of this video (I guess) because then it would only had been valid for whatever amplifier Andrew would have used - for the passive pickups at least.
Thanks for that. I have an active guitar (only one) I feel less control from the guitar volume than I do on other guitars I have. I love them for their "one trick" but I'm Probly going to switch them out
+Alex Rysham Cheers Alex... yes - high output is good for so many applications. I do also enjoy dynamic every now and then.... you know, gain around 25% and let you're picking provide the feel.
im using dirty fingers at the moment, that thing is HOT, my gain is just 2.5/10 @ my Laney Ironheart. with aggressive picking the sound just breath and so punching, still dynamic, from lamb of god aggression to warm bluesy tones just by picking intensity
I've always wanted to know if an EMG looked the same on the inside - I know it was a copy but my 15 year old self was very satisfied to see that happen.
Your volume and tone pots are sized differently to avoid losses of volume, highs lows etc... Emg has 25k tone and volume pots for retention of potential losses due to pot resistance. Your other pickups are probably 250k pots or even 500k which causes a substacial loss in pickup performance and output. When hooking an active with an inactive with emg, they run both pickups through the 25k pots. There is a big difference.
There's numerous RU-vid tutorials and articles and guides on making your own pickups. Looks pretty easy. I am actually wondering about DIY active pickups. Haven't seen any guides on it but probably not hard. And probably beats spending a ridiculous amount on EMGs or whatever
I’m currently gathering intel so I can make a active pickup- I got everything I need including the microchip preamp that’s getting wired into a passive set up
Not sure why this came up again. I actually found a frequency response of EMG 51/81 pickups over at guitarnutz. They cut the bass and the treble and increased the mid-range. No wonder some people complain about them. But it's possible to have an active pickup to have any frequency response you want, so some of them are very similar to passives. So the question is if you build an active pickup to have a flat frequency response and a passive to do the same Will there be any difference? Who knows?
Great information. Measured and 'perceived' results are not the same. The human ear is not nearly so well calibrated as we think it is, and not as determinate as is our ability to 'imagine' suggested differences is. The volume 'may' demonstrate itself, but the tone...not so much.
so basically active pickups are just normal passive pickups connected to a standard(ok it's a little fancy) TL051 op amp that amplifies it a little bit. Got it.
Great job, you answered a lot of questions I`ve had for awhile, about actives,still not sure how I feel about a battery operated guitar tho !!! Thanks much !
My advice would be to change the 9v battery for 2x lithium cells, maybe 18650s for their availability. Find some with under and over-voltage protection, as well as a charger.
+Benjamin Pennington Hello again Ben... Coil resistance in the simplest terms is the potential to produce voltage (inductance). "Resistance" is a confusing term in this instance... consider an electric motor... if you spin a motor it be comes a generator (windmill, turbine etc...), whereas if you put power through it, it spins itself. The more wire windings in the motor - the more power it generates... it also means it takes more power to run it (if you were to plug it into a power socket). Resistance refers to how hard it is for current to pass through the coil. However, this is reversed if the coil is producing the current (like in a magnetic environment). Hopefully this is not confusing.
The coil resistance on the 81s isn't 10k, the output impedance is 10k. Coil resist is likely much much less than a traditional passive pickup, the amp in the pickup making up for the loss of output from the coil.
