FireInCairo

if you are looking for actives
seek out some mastertones
a now defunct australian brand
i hate emg btw
these are the most amazing expressive pickups i have ever used or heard!

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Grunge_Junkie

Fenders for Guitars and Gibson for basses

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GuitarBizarre

Actually the output levels of most active pickups aren't that high... its just that they're 'FULL ON' nearly all the time, because of their more compressed response to picking dynamics. A high output passive pickup will actually be capable of more voltage than most passives, it just won't produce that voltage the vast majority of the time.

Now the conjecture starts...my theory on why this is (and trust me, it is, I have guitars with both and have verified it on more than one occasion, and Dimarzio's website says a very similar thing on some pup descriptions) is because most players with high outut pups are either a light enough touch that they like the extra response from digging in hard, or they're playing loud all the time through MASSIVE amounts of distortion. Distortion always compresses a signal, so they're getting a compressed sound anyway. In both cases the true output of the pickup is somewhat masked, for different reasons.

(Don't believe me about compression with distortion? Record a clean guitar then throw a boat load of distortion onto it and play the same thing. Look at the waveforms. The clean will have lots of peaks and valleys, the distorted will be pretty much 'On' or 'Off', and will actually be quieter all the way through, than the clean signals peaks are.)

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mr dave

i'm just going with what my ears say. i know you're right about loads of distortion compressing a sound. but when i run my esp with emgs through my setup it sounds louder than when i run my fender through the same line.

there's a significant difference in tone but that's expected. i just really didn't expect a noticeable amount of difference in the actual loudness.

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GuitarBizarre

Well single coils are generally much lower output anyway...compared to say....an evo, or a D-Sonic, you'll find that what I say holds true. The output of those pickups is roughly 3 times that of an average fender style single.

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mr dave

fair enough. i'll keep that info in mind whenever / if ever i get around to upgrading my strat hehehe

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Fishbowl Soul

Gibson... I'm such a conformist

Close_Smile

JACKSON!!!!!!!!

And Gibson, but I don't find Gibson guitars to be heavy, and I hate the SG, so I have my Jackson Randy Rhoads.

gunnels

Ibanez

Iceman...aaaah.

randomhero

I am quite fond of PRS guitars, they are a bit out of my price range atm tho =/.