What is the Battery in the Luke Doing?

[yesandno]

Alright..dumb question.
I have a Luke. It has EMG's and it uses a battery. (obviously) <grin>
This is the only guitar I own that uses a battery for its mag pickups. What I could never understand, is just what the heck that battery is supposed to be doing?
What I mean is is that the pups on the Luke don't really sound any more different than any other passive pups on any other guitar. It doesn't sound any sort of specially "sparkly" or "boosted" or "hotter" than any other passive pup. So what exactly is the point of these emg's needing a battery?
Can someone please clue me in?
Thanks

 

[Jimi D]

Active pickups have an internal preamp, and the 9-volt in the Luke powers those preamps... As far as the tonal differences are concerned, actives always sounded more defined and even than passives to my ears, with a broader bandwidth that can especially accentuate highs - in fact, they tend to sound a little too clinical to me, but many artists whose tone I admire use them so I figure it's just me

 

[Lucidology]

EMG's are an aquired taste in a lot of ways... (in my case the single coils..)

I first learned to love 'em on a used '71 Tele I bought... I swore I was going to replace them.. but the more I played gigs with them (too lazy at first to change them right away), the more I realized that once my ears accepted the wider bandwidth... the more I missed this when using passive pickups...

 

[robelinda2]

luke is in my hands as i type, and jamming to old Blackmore solos....

 

[slukather]

The Luke Emg's are mmmmmmmmmmmm tasty.

Scott.

 

[yesandno]

Yeah, the only thing that I really hear with the EMG's is that they're a bit hi-fi sounding. I'm not really hearing the extra bandwith as you describe.
Usually when a bass player has an instrument that's active you can hear that extra punch but the EMG's pretty much sound just like any other passive pup to me besides the usual diffences among any pup. I mean, I do like them...I get good tone from them. Its just I don't hear what purpose them being active gives to the sound.

Robelinda, there's some nice photographs you have. I especially like the sunburst axis w/p-90's.

 

[Lucidology]

Have you compared an EMG equipped guitar, say with single coils like the Luke, to a guitar with passive single coils...?

The difference in both volume and note width is extremely obvious to my ears and with the touch of my finger tips...

Now, I'm not saying one's better then the other, since as it's a matter of personal preferrence or taste ... but other then that, there's seems to be 'world' of difference in sound...

 

[robelinda2]

today me and my mate Dave (glav86 on the forum) played my luke and his silo special in the same amp, to test out the single coils sound and compare them. luke had more power, but the silo was more sweeter, was interesting to hear them side by side, very similar tone.

 

[Jimi D]

Robelinda, there's some nice photographs you have. I especially like the sunburst axis w/p-90's.

I like his dog.

One thing you gotta give actives, they're real quiet!

 

[robelinda2]

Robelinda, there's some nice photographs you have. I especially like the sunburst axis w/p-90's.

gone off the sunburst axis SS totally, maybe i'll come around again, probably needs a great setup.

 

[yesandno]

Have you compared an EMG equipped guitar, say with single coils like the Luke, to a guitar with passive single coils...?

The difference in both volume and note width is extremely obvious to my ears and with the touch of my finger tips...

Now, I'm not saying one's better then the other, since as it's a matter of personal preferrence or taste ... but other then that, there's seems to be 'world' of difference in sound...

I believe you in what you are saying.
I have a whole bunch of other instruments....fenders, gibsons, godin, tokai, switch even! (the "plastic" guitar)
I'm always rotating instruments rather than playing some side by side. Even in the band, I've generally stuck with one at a time.
I'll try a comparison with the same amp settings with the Luke and some others and see what happens.

 

[yesandno]

gone off the sunburst axis SS totally, maybe i'll come around again, probably needs a great setup.

Ah well, but it is a beauty!

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I really want to try a Luke. Are there any shops in West London that have one?