Mixing passive pickups with active pickups?

wickerman

I Want some Emg pickups, i could save up for the single EMG81 but the set is to much money for me to save.

If i fitted the 81 in the bridge which is an active pickup it would mean i would still have the stock passive pickup in the neck.

I cant remember where i heard it but i thought i read somewhere that its a bad idea to mix passive and active pickups.Could any of u guys tell me if its a good idea or not?

Thanks

shredd

I'm no tech expert - there are other guys here who are master ax mechanics - but I'll tell you what I know about it.
I acquired an excellent Ibanez that had EMG's in it. Thing is...it had come with passive EMG's and the guy had replaced the bridge pup with an active. What that means is you have to change the electronics to work with it, and those electronics won't work with a passive. So he totally disabled the neck pup and just played the bridge one.
Needless to say I wasn't happy with this setup and I went about replacing the active bridge pup he'd stuck in there with a matching passive pup, along with new controls, and now it sounds incredible.
Moral of the story: DON'T. Mix pups, that is...save your money and do them both at once, unless you don't mind your neck pup being totally disconnected until you can buy the matching active pup.
And don't forget actives require a 9V battery... :?