What's the difference between an active and a passive pickup?

Answer by  dotfret (282)

Active pickups require power to work, usually supplied from a battery. Some work like "condenser microphones", others use a preamplifier to give the appropriate signal from low signal passive pickups. Passive pickups are the regular magnetic pickups fitted to most electric guitars. They're "a lot less fuss" than active pickups.

Answer by  edwin33 (88)

The active pickup depends on the energy from a cell while the passive pickup doesn't needs that.Usually active pickup produces much higher sounds than passive ones.