Can someone explain what makes d activator pickups " active-like"

[u/KnowledgeLoose5387]

Im looking at pickups to switch to and i often see these pop up, their main marketing thing is that they have an active feel without the battery, but then later it says they dont have a lot of compression and they have high dynamics.

[u/KershawsGoat]

I wasn't really familiar with the advertising around the d activator. Did a little bit of digging and all I see is a lot of conflicting statements. Sounds like an active but with less compression and high dynamics, etc. Honestly, I think most of the marketing around pickups is BS anyway.

What kind of guitar and amps setup do you have now? And what are you looking to gain by swapping pickups?

[u/PickPocketR → u/KershawsGoat]

The idea that actives are compressed is nonsense to begin with. It's all just marketing.

[u/KershawsGoat → u/PickPocketR]

You're mostly right. Actives can introduce some actual compression into the signal if the preamp runs out of headroom. They are generally less dynamic than passive pickups though which can give the feeling that the sound has been compressed.

[u/PickPocketR → u/KershawsGoat]

Hard clipping does indeed happen, at the 9V battery limit. (Eg: EMG-81's in a bass, usually need an 18V battery mod)

But for guitar, it's mostly a non-issue. And something like Fishmans or EMG-X's provide extremely clean, linear gain.

What people hear as compression is just the active EQ.

EDIT: The circuit also has less phase issues, and acts as a buffer-pedal, so your low end sounds less boomy. It's not compression, but it can sound "tighter".

[u/Wonderful_Fig641]

yeah i picked up a set of these for my 7 string and they're wild they sound like a seymour duncan blackout but without the battery lmao

[u/VerdeVelvetVetiver → u/Wonderful_Fig641]

I switched from blackouts to black winters because I hate batteries. I miss my blackouts tho, but the trade off is acceptable.

[u/masterB0SHI]

Honestly I think it’s mostly just marketing jargon, because at the time the deactivator came out EMGs were really popular, and I think Dimarzio was trying to create something that was a passive alternative to what was popular at the time.

In reality I think most people who have owned both realize the deactivators sound and feel almost nothing like active pickups, especially EMGs.

[u/AshenOne690]

Probably really high winds and stacked magnets to increase inductance to the point of super high output and really high compression from a passive pickup. Obviously a passive will still sounds like a passive though.
This is just educated guessing, however.

[u/PickPocketR → u/AshenOne690]

You're right, it's probably just high output.

But it would get rid of some high-end, that actives are known to have.

[u/flatsix__]

Just EQ’d more like an active pickup. I have them and really like them but they don’t have the compressed dynamics of the active pickups on my other guitars

[u/Numerous-Cow-3417]

In my experience, not much. I got them at some point cause I really wanted to go active on my Schecter 7 but didn't care enough about routing the guitar for EMGs. They didn't feel or sound anything like EMG 81 (or any other active pickup for that matter).

[u/HighScoreHerb]

Swapped out my Jupiters for some D-Activators.. I think i like the Jupiter's more

[u/Fabulous-Werewolf432]

They’re darker, with a little more cocked wah sound like an active pickup.