Active Pickups or Active Circuitry or Both?

[Jon Kon]

Hello all! Relatively new to the Alembic world as well as their awesome electronics. My question is out of curiosity and in hopes to become more familiar with my instrument. Do Alembics usually have active pickups, active circuity, or both? I know items such as the popular blaster require a battery, but I'm not sure about the pickups and/or things such as the q filter. Thanks all for the knowledge!

[lbpesq]

Alembic employs active circuitry on all of their instruments.   I believe that all "active" pickups are actually passive pickups that are paired with active circuitry, either external or internal.  Alembic pickups are low impedance low output PUs  They will work without active circuitry, but the output will be quite low.  On Alembics, the "volume" is essentially a preamp, the "tone" is a low pass filter, and some add Q switches. The Q switch increases the signal at the cut-off frequency set by the filter. This system runs on 9v on non-Series instruments, and on18v on Series instruments.

Bill, tgo

[StephenR]

Hi Jon,

For detailed overviews of everything Alembic try going through the FAQs and Must Read sections of the forum. I think all of your questions will be answered, there is lots of detailed info. To get you started here is the thread about Alembic pickups...
https://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=293.0

If finding answers leads to more questions ask away and someone will fill you in. There is info here about all the various instrument models, pickups, and electronic packages. You can look up the model of the instrument you own, remember that if you bought used, so many Alembic builds have custom features or "non-standard for that "model" electronics packages.

[mica]

Everything Alembic requires a power source, either a battery or external power supply.

I've seen people market active pickups, and these seems to be pickups with the active electronics cast inside. We don't put any electronics inside the pickups, they are all external and repairable.

Please feel free to ask questions!

[gearhed289]

"I believe that all "active" pickups are actually passive pickups that are paired with active circuitry"

I know that with EMG, the pickups themselves are active. There's a built-in preamp in the pickup itself. OTOH, I'm pretty sure Barts are passive.

[lbpesq]

EMGs have a built-in pre-amp.   The PUs themselves aren’t active, it’s the pre-amp.

Bill, tgo

[lbpesq]

This post was originally in response to another post by a mod which apparently was removed as I was writing this.  So, In the immortal words of Emily Litella, "Never mind!"
Bill, tgo   

[adriaan]

I was attempting to refute your assertion re EMG pickups, but I realize I don't know enough about them. Other than the fact that they do offer pickups that you can run without the need for a preamp, and that some of their wiring diagrams show pickups with three pin connectors, suggesting they can be powered.

[lbpesq]

EMG offers PUs that have a pre-amp built into the PU casing.  Whether one calls these "active" pickups or "passive pickups" with internal active circuitry, it's the same thing.  The pickup part, wire wrapped around a magnet, (or Fishman Fluence stack of plates), is itself passive.  Active circuitry can be added, either externally like Alembic or internally like EMG.

Bill, tgo

[gearhed289]

I guess I consider them "active pickups" because they won't function without battery power. And to be clear, I'm talking about the "classic" EMG designs. I know in more recent years (I have no concept of time anymore, LOL!) they've introduced completely passive pickups, but those are another animal.