Signature pickups active or passive?

[Matt Wildman]

I’m assuming Syns pickups that are for sale here at the store are active. Can someone confirm that for me? Cause I’m planning on buying a guitar soon and some day I play on putting his pickups in the guitar. So I need to know wether I need to buy a guitar with active or passive pickups.

 

[idssdi]

I’m about 99.9% sure Syn’s pickups are passive!
Edit:I just checked for you and they passive pickups so now I’m 100% sure!

 

[Matt Wildman]

Awesome thanks Ids!

 

[Ed Seith]

Now 200% – they are definitely passive pickups.
The Sustainiac in some of his guitars requires active circuitry, but Syn’s pickups are otherwise all passive.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

What’s the actual difference between active and passive? All I think I know is that active requires a battery and sound hotter but that’s it

 

[idssdi]

If you want the physical explanation that will take a while

 

[Matt Wildman]

That’s really the only difference Jak

 

[idssdi]

I won’t go into the physics that much because that may mostly bore people and is a long explanation.
Basically, an active pickup has an incredibly low output. To deal with this low output there is a pre-amp build in to the guitar and that’s where the battery comes in.
A passive pickup has a high enough output by itself so it doesn’t need the pre-amp and therefore does not need a battery.
This is the short explanation. Where the high/low output comes from goes a little deeper.

 

[Ed Seith]

Additionally, a passive pickup draws more from the tonal qualities of the wood, the strings, etc, where an active pickup will sound the same in a 59 Strat as it would strapped to a garbage can. This is either good or bad, depending on your particular point of view.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Thank you SO much guys! I didn’t mean to hijack your post, Matt I just realized I didn’t know anything about this topic. Thanks for the words, boys!

 

[Luke G]

They are passive I just bought one with the new pups

 

[Matt Wildman]

Your good Jak!