Problems with Active Electronics

[DerHoggz]

What causes some pedals, e.g. Wooly Mammoth, to not be "active-friendly"?  Is it possible to do a mod or build something to fix this?

[taang]

I know an active signal has a very low impedance, as opposed to the high impedance of passive pickups... which definitely has some effect on effects.

There's an article here (http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm) on simulating passive pickups with a small transformer, it may help. Lots of people use this idea to make fuzz pedals retain their original sound, even if they aren't in the front of the effects chain.

[bluelang]

too much signal in will clip opamp pedals, which sounds like butt.

[DerHoggz]

The Woolly Mammoth doesn't use op-amps, just two transistors.

My best guess would also be impedance.

Any concrete ideas?

[bluelang]

well, there's only 2 possibilities. if it's impedance, try putting a buffer in front? if it's signal.. try the bass at low volume knob.

[Quackzed]

If your active pickups sound bad into it due to feeding it a  low impedence 'active' signal, a buffer will just keep the signal impedence low and may not change anything...
you could add a resistor(say 50k) to ground at the wolly mamoth's input, then see if its enough to stop the active pickups signal from being so trebly and bright or too loud and distorting the mamoths input(due to a low impedence active signal).
you could try a few values to see what gives you a decent amount of signal thats not 'too ' dull, or weak.you could put it  on a switch, so you could use active or passives with it..
a 10k will dull it a good amount, a 100k will dull it a just a bit..., may need to experiment a bit.
--->input jack tip wire---> dpdt---> -+----input of circuit board
                                                      \__resistor___/*spst*\_____ground
not perfect, but easy enough and it should allow the input of the wooly mamoth to be more friendly to your active pickups.

[rousejeremy]

well, there's only 2 possibilities. if it's impedance, try putting a buffer in front? if it's signal.. try the bass at low volume knob.

I thought buffers in front of fuzz pedals were a no no?

[Quackzed]

yeah, Usually inpedence problems are solved with a buffer, which prevents signal loss from high impedence signal by making it low impedence.
but with fuzzes and some other effects, it's the exact opposite. some pedals need a high imput impedence signal, and a low impedence signal from a buffer is 'too much' to allow the effect to do what it does.in that case a little input attenuation and added impedence can bring the signal back down into their comfort zone...

[DerHoggz]

I don't actually have a Woolly Mammoth, but was interested in it until I read that it doesn't play well with active electronics.

[bluelang]

well, there's only 2 possibilities. if it's impedance, try putting a buffer in front? if it's signal.. try the bass at low volume knob.

I thought buffers in front of fuzz pedals were a no no?

some people think it takes away from the responsiveness, but other people think it makes it more responsive. YMMV.

doesn't seem all that unusual to see a clean gain pedal in front of a fuzz.

[bluelang]

here's a thread on another board on the same topic..

[DerHoggz]

here's a thread on another board on the same topic..

I think I may have found it myself, Zachary said the impedance would have to be raised.