Active pickups and germanium fuzzes

[Bucksears]

Ok. I have checked the archives and it's pretty much agreed that low-impedance active pickup systems don't play well with germanium transistor units (ala Tonebender and Fuzz Face).
I have an EMG preamp in my Tele (passive Dimarzio Tele p'ups), and it now has a low impedance out.

Is there anything that I can stick in front of a would take a low-imp. signal and change it to a high imp. so it would work with a germanium unit?
(Or should I not even bother with it and use my passive Strat?)

[brett]

Don't forget that there's also the option of sticking with your tele and using something like the Axis fuzz.  It has few disadvantages relative to the Ge fuzzes (IMO) and would match your tele.  There's info about the Axis fuzz over at fuzzcentral and in the archives.

PS I've build a number of FF and Axis circuits and like them both.  You might too.  I believe that in a blind test quite a few people would choose an Axis over a FF.

[R.G.]

Is there anything that I can stick in front of a would take a low-imp. signal and change it to a high imp. so it would work with a germanium unit?

How about a resistor? Stick in a 50K pot, twiddle till you like the results, then measure and cram in the nearest fixed value. This is the "Bias" control on the Fulltone fuzz face clone.

[Bucksears]

Great ideas. Thanks guys.
What I may end up doing is going ahead with the '70 Fuzz or the Lava Rim2 (or both).
I don't use fuzz that much, but to have some good ones handy would be nice.
Thanks agian,
- Buck

[Tim Escobedo]

This problem doesn't only affect germanium based circuits. I find this problem can crop up on any circuit with a low input impedance, be it discrete or IC based.

Several years ago, I found something of a solution. I asked Jack about it on his old Delphi forum, which he eventually expounded upon and made a web page about the topic.
http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm

Seems to me that a inductor with the right value can do a much better job of fixing this problem than a plain resistor, basically simulating a pickup response. I've used several small signal transformers with impedance windings of 10k to 20k Ohms.