Hey! I played actives for years, especially live while I was touring back in the late 90's to early 00's. The Fishman series, to my ears sound much clearer and brighter to me, even compared to Duncan Blackouts and EMG's. I love actives and personally feel they have a place, but I have really gotten back to passives, for a warmer, more dynamic, organic, open tone. Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio have great offerings, and the service from Duncan is great. I use The Invader, JB and JB-7 string, Jazz and Jazz 7 string from Duncan. I have used the Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Blaze, and PAF 7 in the past, but they sounded slightly sterile to my ears at times. I used EMG's a lot. My favorites now are the 85x series pickups from them, but the classic 81, 60 and 85 are great all-around pickups and sound less sterile to my ears than the 57/66 set with the different preamp.
If you want a more dynamic sound, passive is the way to go, in my experience. My favorite pickups are the Bare Knuckle Nailbomb Alnico 5 set and Holy Divers. The Nailbomb just rocks and if you need a tighter bass response, the ceramic magnet option for the bridge pickup is great. The Aftermath set is the closest to an active set beside the Black Hawk. Tim Mills is great and they have gone above and beyond for me here in the states, especially when my Bridge nailbomb had a crack in the coils. Hope that helps! I can get so many sounds from my BKPs, but Duncans are great as well. Les Pauls can be picky...some are darker sounding than others and can even be painfully bright. Feel free to reach out. Good luck!
