Combining Active And Passive Pickups

[Defiler]

Good day to everyone,

I have such problem: Recently i bought D'Imarzio Mo' Joe and EMG 89, and now i want to make such thing:

how can i wire them, with PA-2 (on EMG site, they said, that its better to use PA-2 with Passive humbucker to combine Active and Passive)

Plus, i want to make option of coil split on passive (EMG 89 already have this option, if you dont know)

Can anybody help me with schematics, cause i have real problems with it.

PS: i know, that its better to give it to workshop, but its really expensive for me - i'm having lack of funds right now.

PPS: excuse me for my bad English.

[black_labb]

Good day to everyone,

I have such problem: Recently i bought D'Imarzio Mo' Joe and EMG 89, and now i want to make such thing:

how can i wire them, with PA-2 (on EMG site, they said, that its better to use PA-2 with Passive humbucker to combine Active and Passive)

Plus, i want to make option of coil split on passive (EMG 89 already have this option, if you dont know)

Can anybody help me with schematics, cause i have real problems with it.

PS: i know, that its better to give it to workshop, but its really expensive for me - i'm having lack of funds right now.

PPS: excuse me for my bad English.

im not 100% on the wiring, but you should be able to figure it out. id put the active through the preamp adn then put the output from that into the circuit. just imagine that the active pup and the preamp are one passive pup. the active pup may be a bit louder than the passive so if you have volume controls for both pickups you might want to use them, but i havent ever had active pickups so that may not be a problem

[GregP]

Just to clarify-- I'm quite sure the above poster meant that you put the PASSIVE through a preamp, which, depending on the preamp itself, should bring the two pickups to the same level, and then you can use a wiring scheme that treats them as 2 active pickups. That's really the only "good" way to do it. There's the option of treating them as 2 discrete pathways going to the output jack, but it's a hack if you ask me.

Lots of people have done what you're after. I'm sure there are entries in Project Guitar. Though the search function doesn't always turn up the results you might hope it would, you could still give it a try. Google, of course. I know I've seen aftermarket circuits for blending active and passive, but I can't recall any names or costs I'm afraid. Some research should turn something up.

Greg

[Defiler]

Thank you all for the answers

[black_labb]

Just to clarify-- I'm quite sure the above poster meant that you put the PASSIVE through a preamp, which, depending on the preamp itself, should bring the two pickups to the same level, and then you can use a wiring scheme that treats them as 2 active pickups. That's really the only "good" way to do it. There's the option of treating them as 2 discrete pathways going to the output jack, but it's a hack if you ask me.

Lots of people have done what you're after. I'm sure there are entries in Project Guitar. Though the search function doesn't always turn up the results you might hope it would, you could still give it a try. Google, of course. I know I've seen aftermarket circuits for blending active and passive, but I can't recall any names or costs I'm afraid. Some research should turn something up.

Greg

i actually meant the active, but i may be wrong, arent active pickups low impedance pickups (giving a low output) and then amplified by the preamp to get them to the same signal strength of passive pickups? going by this logic you would want the active pickup going through the preamp and then into the circuit as if the preamp and anctive pickup were a single passive pickup.

i think the confusion is active pickups generally will be amplified more by the preamp so that it is of a higher output than the passive, so you are thinking of the active as louder, but this is only due to the preamp amplifying the signal.

thats why i mentioned that having seperate volume controls for each pup may be desireable.

[IbanezFreak666]

no active pickups have a large output at low impendience (i dont actully know what that means)

passives have a low output and a high impendience...and the preamp mod brings them up to a high output low impendience like the actives, which already have a pre amp in them.

[Defiler]

I've already solved this problem, tommorow i'll try to post my scheme, - it works:)

i've combined Emg 89 and Dimarzio Mo' Joe with PA-2, plus, Mo' Joe can be coil splitted, so guitar can be played:

Emg-Humb Joe- Humb

Emg-Humb Joe- Single

Emg-Single Joe- Humb

Emg-Single Joe- Single

Plus, Joe is boosted by PA-2.

I Hope, this will help somebody.

[black_labb]

no active pickups have a large output at low impendience (i dont actully know what that means)

passives have a low output and a high impendience...and the preamp mod brings them up to a high output low impendience like the actives, which already have a pre amp in them.

in actives, the preamp is usually seperate. hence me saying that you connect the preamp to the active. passives dont need a preamp, but depending on how much the active is boosted then using a pre to boost the passive can be a good idea so that seperate volume controls are not nessisary.

[GregP]

That's not correct logic, exactly. You need to put the passives through the preamp. The actives are ALSO going through a preamp, but in the case of actives like EMGs (the specific brand mentioned in this thread), they're already going through an inbuilt preamp. You don't want to put them through a second preamp stage, and it certainly wouldn't match its output to passives.

So, you're kinda sort of understanding EMG's active technology, but you're missing a crucial step which is throwing off your understanding. The other step that you're missing and which I, too, am guilty of not making clear... is that it's not actually raw volume that you're trying to match (though, altered output level is an effect of preamplification, too) but impedance.

[SwedishLuthier]

Exactly. The EMGs (like most modern “active pickups”) has an on board preamp that boost the low impedance, passive pickup in volume but keep the low impedance. That type of low impedance output pickups cannot be combined with a high output passive pickup. The impedance, not primarily the output, will be mismatched. The PA-2 has a low impedance output so that you can use the same value pots as for the actives. As a bolus the PA-2 has a trim pot so that you also match the output of the pickups and on top of that boost the pickup going through the PA-2 with the flick of a switch.